Energy and energy related issues have been recently dominating the international political debate. Vision's analysis starts from the idea that “energy” and “climate change” are not only huge problems per se, but also as the most colossal failures of democracy, of global governance, of the very idea of justice and fair redistribution of the costs of individual behaviours that is essential for a social contract to develop and for a community to exist.

What position, in terms of degree of innovation, the Italian universities occupy within the global educational market? What strategies are currently in place to redefine the role of the university as a pole which attracts excellence? These are the main questions raised during Vision’s seminar (22nd of January, 2007) held in collaboration with the Italian Association of University Graduates (ADI), the Italian Alumni of American Business Schools (NOVA) and the Association of Italian PhDs in American Universities. The seminar concludes a complex cycle of reflection culminating in proposals to improve Italian universities, through efficient and tangible solutions which attain and achieve strategic changes.

After the launch seminar at the LSE on the 22nd november, the project that Vision has dedicated to the redesign of global governance instruments has been further developed in a second event dedicated to the reform of UN organized in Brussel. The round table took place on 6th December at The Centre, a think-do tank partner of Vision in the initiative. The agenda focused on core issues of the questions of UN reform from a European perspective and explained the comparison between the EU and the UN model of governance.

Vision is organizing at Infomobility 2004 an international seminar on the future of the “smart systems for mobility” starting from the conclusions of its research on the impact of ICT on the transport sector and automobile industry. The workshop will be attended by Renato Dogliotti from Mario Boella Institute, Prof. Vito Mauro from the Turin Politecnico, Jon Lewis, AD Jaguar Italia. You can enroll in the seminar directly on the Infomobility 2004,  web site or writing a mail to: info@vision-forum.org.

As a first step towards defining a new social contract, the Lisbon Council convened an extraordinary summit on 28 September of pro-reform leaders in Brussels. In a series of meetings, the participants analyzed the unfolding social situation in Europe, and jointly signed a decree setting out the principles for A Social Contract for the 21 st Century. Panelists were Francesco Grillo of Vision, Martin Jahn, Deputy Prime Minister of Czech Republic and Tjark de Lange, President of Young Entrepreneurs of Europe, Netherlands.

How can we bridge the abysses between people and power? What are the shapes of our democracies to come? Is democracy a language of self-government apt for many tongues? Join us to celebrate the launch of The Democratic Papers at an informal gathering of bright and interested people who, like you, care about the future of democracy. Sylvie Goulard from the Cabinet of Romano Prodi and Claire O'Brien of Vision will initiate the debate with short speeches, then we want you to take this opportunity to challenge the authors and one another with your own creative ideas. The debate around The Democratic Papers is strictly linked to Vision project and online forum on “The Future of Democracy.

In occation of the conference “Politiche per l’ambiente e lo sviluppo ecocompatibile: progetti europei, nazionali e locali per la qualità della vita urbana e il trasporto sostenibile” Vision will present “La macchina che cambiò il mondo“ (Fazi Editore 2004). The book, sponsored by Jaguar Italia, is the output of the second research of the series “The Rise of Information Society“. La Macchina” shows results of Vision studies on the future of automobile and its industry sector which envolved since 2002 the OCSE, the European Commission, the municipalities of London, Milano and Roma, FIAT, and Ferrovie dello Stato.

The seminar, organized in collaboration with ForumPA, launches the third project of Vision on Security within the series dedicated to the Information Society. Vision’s aim is to reflect upon the changes in the medium-long term that technologies introduce in major productive sectors. Participants will include the Italian State Police, European Police Forces, some of the major ICT producers. Program.

In occation fo the launch of Vision collection “The Sleep of Reason” Giancarlo Bosetti of Reset, Marco Cappato, Piero Melograni, Giulietto Chiesa, Menachem Rabinowitz, PhD at the Mandelschool of Gerusalemme, Francesco Grillo and Francesca Paci of Vision will discuss on the crisis of rationality as the deepest sign of the crisis of modern societies after 9/11. In the meeting Vision will present its starting project on the reform of UN. It will be the basis for the recent development of an international network of think tanks founded in Italy by Vision and extended to London, Budapest and Jerusalem.

The week before the European Council Spring Summit, Vision has participated to a unique gathering of pro-reform forces, bringing together top economists, civil-society groups and other Young Leaders for Lisbon to Brussels for a one-day policy brainstorming session. The event was organized by the Lisbon Council. Together, concerned citizens, thought leaders and issue experts have discussed ways to contribute to Europe’s reform agenda and signed the “Citizen’s Manifesto” which was presented to EC President Prodi the day after.

Vision seminar within the ForumPA was focused on the impact of ICT in the management of urban mobility. The event was the occasion for policy makers, technologies’ producers and experts to present and to report their strategies and their most innovative programmes. Among others, mobility policies and actions of the cities of London, Milan and Rome were shown.

This position paper is on the value of expectations. Expectations as a driver of a massive change like the one PAs are experiencing. And in this sense it is a rather new perspective that Vision is taking to the question of the impact of the Internet on advanced societies.

Politics is becoming internationalised; can democracy follow? Awareness of and concern about globalisation is running at a high. New forms of integration and interdependence are creating political challenges ranging from security to migration, sustainability to civil order.

Vision, a new Italian think tank, is taking a systematic look at the impact of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) on a number of crucial sectors in our society: Healthcare, Transportation, Education, Security. Having decided to begin with perhaps the most sensitive sector of all, healthcare, the first phase of Vision’s project objective is to evaluate the likely impact of (ICT) on Healthcare and to identify the institutional and organisational changes needed to realise its potential.

Internet Era will make even clearer a factor which seems to escape to the debate Devolution: there is no given distribution of power among different institutional levels that we can consider invariable in time and space. In Time because technologies change continuously the optimal level at which it is convenient to allocate a given political activity. In Space because what appears to be reasonable in a given context will not be so in a different one and, for instance, it is absolutely obvious that, for instance, two Regions within the same State or two municipalities within same Region can have a totally different performance.

Vision (Rome) and The Centre for European Reform (London) in collaboration with The British Council (Bruxelles), are organising a series of round-tables to discuss the future of Europe. The aim is to bring together eastern and western debates on key issues in European integration, with a focus on constructive ideas for resolving central dilemmas of legitimacy, accountability and efficiency. In the longer term, the goal is to establish a forum for regular, non-governmental debate and to create an active network of European think-tanks, political advisors, journalists, academics and business-people representing all strands of opinion.

Demos and Vision, two of the leading European think tanks, presented together - during the OECD Global Forum on e-government held in Naples Italy, March 12-17  – the initial findings of a research study on “The (Inter) Net Impact on the Health Divide”. The project outcomes were delivered during a number of sessions attended by senior officials of the Healthcare and Technology ministries of a number of OECD and LDC countries.