Building scenarios for the university

Scenario building is a tool for anticipating discontinuous change. Management staff at Delft University of Technology developed scenarios for the strategic environment of their future scientific staffing. A short intensive workshop with stakeholders was organized for developing the scenario-logic. The same methodological approach was used by an interfaculty research group for determining its future research priorities. Although quite different in scope and methods used for idea generation and structuring, both groups succeeded in designing plausible, creative and consistent scenarios. The paper describes the methodology and the respective processes of scenario construction and shows that short, intensive, highly interactive workshops are a tool for creating a social basis for policy-in-the-making.