Advisory services

FIR helps organizations make decisions where technological change is moving faster than the evidence, policy categories, and organizational routines used to govern it. Work begins with the decision at hand: what has changed, who is affected, what constrains action, and what evidence would make the next decision more defensible. Outputs might include:

• commissioned research;
• institutional analysis;
• horizon scanning;
• economic modeling;
• dashboard development;
• workshop design and facilitation; and
• sponsored ad hoc research working groups.

Research, modeling, and decision support

FIR prepares models and reports - ranging from policy briefing notes to ready-for-peer-review working papers - for organizations making decisions about emerging technology, energy, Bitcoin, economic adaptation, and governance questions.

Horizon scanning and priority setting

Horizon-scanning exercises identify emerging signals, information gaps, and questions that deserve sustained attention before they become urgent. They can combine expert interviews, structured evidence review, research-question development, and methods for comparing priorities under uncertainty.

Workshops and deliberative design

Some problems involve genuine disagreement among participants with different responsibilities, evidence, and practical constraints. FIR designs and facilitates workshops that identify where agreement is possible, where uncertainty remains, and what should happen next.

Outputs may include a research agenda, decision criteria, a workshop report, or a documented account of competing views.

AI and emerging technologies

AI is changing research, work, infrastructure, and public decision-making. FIR develops research on AI, institutional capacity, economic adaptation, and the governance of fast technological change.

Engagements can include indicator development, interview and survey research, institutional mapping, sector analysis, models, and dashboards that help organizations track changing conditions over time.

Start with the decision

A short introductory call can establish whether the issue is suited to commissioned research, a workshop, ongoing advisory support, or independent research funding.

Photo by Myles Bloomfield / Unsplash