Long-term Strategies in Action

Welcome to MegaStrat

Making Megatrends Applicable For Individual Opportunity Forecasts And Strategic Development

Megatrends are trends that have a lifespan of at least 50 years and have a global impact on all areas of life (economy, politics, social developments, etc.). The aim of MegaStrat is to enable high-tech SMEs to capitalise on individual opportunities offered by megatrends by translating forward-looking high-level trends into actionable long-term strategies and measures to achieve competitive advantages. Strategic foresight and innovation experts can go beyond short and medium-term perspectives and plan for the 10 to 20 year future.

MegaStrat offers an online course for methods to identify and uncover timely information on realisable future business opportunities.

What is the MegaStrat online course?

The MegaStrat online course aims to provide strategic foresight and innovation professionals, especially those in high-tech SMEs, with the essential knowledge, skills and competences to effectively facilitate the development of innovation and long-term opportunity foresight (LTOF). The course is based on several key components: Theory, inspiration through real-life examples, tools, resources and references, and the Train-the-Trainer manual.

The course material is presented in four modules corresponding to the following phases:

  • Module 1: How to look to the future – Future Literacy
  • Module 2: How to analyse future research results
  • Module 3: How to create good scenarios
  • Module 4: How to derive strategic options

The course materials are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.

Who is the MegaStrat online course for?

Our online course is specifically aimed at innovation and future strategy professionals working in high-tech SMEs in the mobility or manufacturing sector or supporting companies through business centres and innovation intermediaries. Trainers specialising in strategic innovation for SMEs and formal educational institutions training future strategists and innovation managers will also benefit from this course. The course is also a valuable addition to existing study programmes.

The learning concept

The course is offered as web-based training and provides a fully online and asynchronous self-learning experience. This allows learners to progress at their own pace without the need for synchronous interactions. The learning approach includes both a linear, sequential presentation for foundational knowledge and a spiral progression for repetition of material, improving retention and deepening understanding. This indicates that the course material allows for interaction through two different approaches. One can choose to follow a prescribed learning path characterised by linearity, or alternatively opt for an exploratory approach to acquire tools, cases, examples and knowledge of personal interest or utility, following a spiral pattern.

The MegaStrat Project

The MegaStrat project is co-funded by the EU ERASMUS+ program (Grant Agreement No. 2022-1-DE02-KA220-VET-000089366). The project consortium is a strong mix of innovation hubs and research bodies in the field of long-term foresight &  strategic planning, educational and training institutions and experts on educational innovation.