H.H. Sheikh Hamdan honours winners of first Dubai Foresight Awards

His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, has awarded the winners of the first Dubai Foresight Awards for reshaping how futures are imagined.

The awards, handed out at the Dubai Future Forum 2025, aims to celebrate innovators, foresight pioneers, futurists and those with forward-looking visions and creative ideas from around the world..

The awards recognise excellence across three categories that advance the foundations, applications, and impact of foresight on societies and the environment.

Speaking at the opening day of the Dubai Future Forum 2025, Sheikh Hamdan, Sheikh Hamdan who also holds the position of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), said such "national initiatives aim to prepare a new generation of futurists ready to anticipate challenges and shape solutions that keep Dubai at the forefront of global progress".

The Forum, Sheikh Hamdan added, saw "2,500 futurists, academics, decision-makers and thought leaders from the UAE and around the world gathered to set priorities, explore opportunities and develop solutions that will enable future generations to thrive".

THE BIG WINNERS

Fiji’s ‘Pasifika Futures Report’, UNICEF Innocenti Youth Foresight Fellowship (UYFF) Programme in Pakistan and France’s ‘Sustainable Futures’ initiative took the top three spots in the Foresight Change Makers category.

In the Foresight for People category, Italy’s ‘City Longevity’ initiative came in first, while ‘Futures that Heal’ initiative from Greece earned second place. Australia’s ‘For Our Future’ initiative was in third. 

In the Foresight for the Planet category, first place was awarded to Cameroon’s ‘Congo Basin Futures’ initiative, while second place went to ‘Cool Climate Collective’s Three Futures Test’, and third place was Egypt’s ‘Seeding the Future’.

Organised by the Dubai Future Foundation, the Forum will be held at the Museum of the Future until November 19.