Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences

Co-editor of the peer-reviewed open access journal European Journal of Futures Research, EJFR (Impact 3.7), published by the renowned scientific publisher SpringerOpen (part of SpringerNature):  springer.com/40309
The Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences is represented on the editorial team by Anna Jank-Humann, who serves as editor-in-chief alongside Eric F. Øverland, president of the World Futures Studies Federation, and Reinhold Popp.

Coordination of topical collections; most recently (2024/2025) ‘Futures of Global Risks’ with ten (10) already published contributions and an editorial written by the four coordinators of this collection: Anna Jank-Humann, Maria Gren and Reinhold Popp (all IFR of the SFU) as well as Eric F. Øverland (President of the World Futures Studies Federation, WFSF).

‘Zukunftswissenschaft/Zukunftsforschung’ (Future Studies/Futurology) series published by LIT-Verlag.

Scientific cooperation with the ‘Institut Futur’ at the FU Berlin University of Excellence and the Master’s programme in futurology run there (in cooperation with the Ernst Reuter Society).

Scientific cooperation and networking with the most important experts and institutes for prospective research.

Scientific cooperation and networking with prominent institutions involved in future-oriented science communication (e.g. Futurium Berlin).
Futurium is a model project of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Berlin (in cooperation with major research organisations such as the Fraunhofer Society, the Helmholtz Association, the Max Planck Society and the Leibniz Association). The cooperation between Futurium Berlin and the Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences at Sigmund Freud Private University has been agreed until 20 November 2028. The Futurium building, located in the immediate vicinity of the above-mentioned ministry, houses Europe’s only ‘museum of the future’ with living scenarios, a future lab for experimentation, a future forum for collaborative dialogue and a future stage for artistic projects. To date, several joint (high-profile) publication projects – including with Suhrkamp Verlag and German television stations – and discussion events have been carried out.

Several future-oriented research and publication projects in which great importance was and continues to be attached to interdisciplinary cooperation. Cooperation projects in this area have been carried out to date with the following institutions, among others: Institut Futur at Freie Universität Berlin, World Futures Studies Federation, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research in Karlsruhe, German Studies Institute at Ruhr University Bochum, Foundation for Future Studies in Hamburg, National Defence Academy, Institute for Psychoanalytical-Ethnological Disaster Research at SFU, as well as in the project focus areas outlined below:

Methodological and methodical foundations of prospective research.

In 2023 and 2024, the interfaculty cooperation with the Chair of Public Law and International Law at the Faculty of Law at SFU was very productive. This led to two publications on the topics of ‘Prospective Research’ (eds: Reinhold Popp & Diana zu Hohenlohe) and ‘Quality of Life’ (eds: Anna Jank-Humann, Diana zu Hohenlohe & Reinhold Popp).

Prospective research projects of the IFR – in cooperation with the ‘Gefäßforum Österreich’ (Austrian Vascular Forum) and with PTW students:

• Pilot project ‘Humanism & Technology. Innovative Approaches for a Sustainable Healthcare System (in Austria)’: The results of the project, which ran from October 2023 to August 2025 and was partly financed by third-party funds, were summarised in two anthologies (edited by Maria Gren, Reinhold Popp and Marcus Wilding). These publications were presented at a symposium on 18 July 2025 at the World Congress for Psychotherapy, among other venues.
• Research cooperation project ‘Future – Quality of Life – Technology, with reference to the Austrian healthcare system’: In this research project, which runs from September 2025 to January 2029 and is co-financed by third-party funds, Reinhold Popp, Maria Gren and Anna Jank-Human will work together with experienced technology experts and legal scholars, as well as Marcus Wilding (Gefäßforum Österreich), to develop plausible futures for the Austrian healthcare system.

Supervision and assessment of master’s and doctoral projects with an explicit focus on the future or innovation.

Active publishing activity: monographs, edited volumes, articles in scientific journals and anthologies (including with publishers LIT, Waxmann, Suhrkamp, Springer, Springer VS, SpringerOpen, Kohlhammer, J. B. Metzler, Beltz-Juventa, Fischer, etc.). SEE: reinhold-popp.at and SFU publication database: Reinhold Popp | Maria Gren | Anna Jank-Humann: Publications with SFU affiliation

Active lecturer.

Interviews, commentaries, etc. on future issues in magazines, daily newspapers, radio and television.

Professor Reinhold Popp, Head of the Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences, has successfully secured continued funding for a collaborative research project with Gefäßforum Österreich. Building on the three-year pilot study “Technological Humanism as a Catalyst for Work Quality and Efficiency in the Austrian Healthcare System“ (2023–2025), the cooperation will now be extended from September 2025 to January 2029 with financial support of € 30,000.

“European Journal of Futures Research”: Prof. Dr Reinhold Popp (Sigmund Freud University Vienna: Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences) is editor of the “European Journal of Futures Research” (EJFR) together with Prof. Dr Christine Ahrend (Technische Universität Berlin), Prof. Dr Gerhard de Haan (Freie Universität Berlin), Dr Erik Overland (World Futures Studies Federation) and Prof. Dr Ulrich Reinhardt (Stiftung für Zukunftsfragen Hamburg). The editorial office is located at the Institut Futur of the Freie Universität Berlin and is realised in cooperation with the World Futures Studies Federation. The EJFR is an international journal in which peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of futures studies are published. The journal, with a special focus on Europe, has an interdisciplinary orientation. It concentrates on topics and issues that are of particular relevance to Europe and thus offers a platform on which possible, desirable, plausible and probable futures can be scientifically anticipated and planned. See “Aims and Scope” of the EJFR at www.springer.com/40309 The EJFR is published by the internationally renowned scientific publisher Springer (as part of SpringerNature) in electronic form (open access) in English.

“Futures Research & Psychodynamics”: In this research and publication project, the need for prospective research in the field of psychology and psychotherapy science was systematically analysed for the first time in German-speaking countries. A summary of the results of this project can be found in the book: Reinhold Popp, Bernd Rieken and Brigitte Sindelar (2017) Zukunftsforschung und Psychodynamik. Future thinking between fear and confidence. (Münster: Waxmann). This publication also contains contributions by the doctoral students Julia S. Grundnig, Nils Guse and Tassilo Niemetz.

“Brave new world of work? What’s coming, what’s staying, what’s going?“: This was the title of the summary of the results of the research project of the same name on the medium-term development of the world of work in Germany, which has been running since 2017, published at the beginning of 2018. In this project, Prof. Dr Reinhold Popp cooperated with the Hamburg Foundation for Future Studies (Prof. Dr Ulrich Reinhardt).

“Zukunft:Beruf:Lebensqualität. 77 keywords from A to Z”: This was the title of a book published by LIT-Verlag in autumn 2018, in which Prof. Dr Reinhold Popp published the results of the project of the same name, which has been running since October 2017.

“Futurology & Disaster Research”: Professor Dr Reinhold Popp took part in the conference “Fear in Disaster Research” (6 to 9 June 2018, Alpenhotel Gösing) and – with the contribution “Fear and Method in Futurology. Implications for Disaster Research” – in the anthology edited by Univ.-Prof. Dr.Dr. Bernd Rieken (SFU) and published in spring 2019.

“The future of the world of work. Perspectives and forecasts for Germany and Austria”: This publication project was coordinated by Prof. Dr Reinhold Popp in 2018/19. Cooperation partners: Julia Bock-Schappelwein (WIFO: Economic Research Institute, Vienna), Ursula della Schiava-Winkler (SFU Vienna), Dr Helmut Mahringer (WIFO: Economic Research Institute, Vienna), Prof. Dr Ulrich Reinhardt (Foundation for Future Studies, Hamburg), Dr Monika Spiegel (Institute for Psyche and Economy, SFU Vienna). The results were published in an anthology in the first quarter of 2019.

“Future Vision Germany. Innovation for progress and prosperity”: In this publication project, Prof. Dr Reinhold Popp (Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences, SFU Vienna) and Prof. Dr Ulrich Reinhardt (Stiftung für Zukunftsfragen, Hamburg) cooperated with Prof. Dr Marion A. Weissenberger-Eibl (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT). The contribution by R. Popp and U. Reinhardt (“Zwischen Zukunftsangst und Zuversicht. 40 German opinions on the changing world of work”) was published in 2019 in an anthology edited by M. A. Weissenberger-Eibl.

“Futurium: Science communication about future issues”: Univ.-Prof. Dr Reinhold Popp supports the diverse activities of the “Futurium” in the form of consulting services from the perspective of prospective research, participation in several public panel discussions, the publication of a contribution in the exhibition catalogue, through interviews and articles in Berlin newspapers (Tagesspiegel and Berliner Morgenpost) as well as through participation in the project “Future Thinking in Literature and Science”, briefly outlined below, as part of a cooperation agreement that runs until 2023.
In addition, R. Popp published a text in the exhibition catalogue and S. Brandt contributed forewords to two publications by R. Popp (“Zukunft & Forschung …”, 2020, and “Zukunftsdenken …”, 2021).
The Futurium was founded on the initiative of the German Federal Government and together with leading German science organisations and foundations as an independent platform for dialogue and networking between the state, science, business and society and was officially opened in autumn 2019. The Futurium building has a very attractive architectural design and is located in the direct neighbourhood of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Berlin. It houses Europe’s only “museum of the future” with living scenarios, a future laboratory to try out, a future forum for collaborative dialogue and a future stage for artistic projects.

“Future thinking in literature and science”: Professor Dr Reinhold Popp has been involved in the major publication project “2029 – Stories from the future” by Suhrkamp Verlag, Futurium Berlin and the German broadcasters NDR and WDR since 2018. This project served as an encounter between highbrow science fiction literature and future-related research. In this context, Reinhold Popp analysed the science fiction stories collected in the above-mentioned volume from the perspective of prospective research. The book was presented at a ceremony on 24 October 2019 at the Futurium in Berlin.

“Future & Research. The diversity of foresight”: This research and publication project, which ran from 2018 to the first quarter of 2020, focussed on the fundamental question of how future-oriented science obtains its knowledge. In this context, Prof. Dr Reinhold Popp traced the historical forms of future thinking and briefly described the most important specialist terms, theories and methods of prospective research. In doing so, the great diversity of foresight was taken into account both in the traditional scientific disciplines as well as in the newer and interdisciplinary approaches of innovation, risk, technology impact and future research. The results of this project were published in April 2020 in the book “Zukunft & Forschung. The diversity of foresight …” in the form of 66 alphabetically ordered keywords.

Interdisciplinary anthology “Eco-anxiety. Future anxiety and climate change” (Waxmann-Verlag, publication year 2021): In this publication project, the Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences at SFU Vienna (Prof. Dr Reinhold Popp) is cooperating with the Institute for Psychoanalytical-Ethnological Disaster Research at SFU (Prof. Bernd Rieken and Paolo Raile):
Extraordinary weather phenomena such as the drought and heatwave summer of 2018 in northern and central Europe or the 2019/20 bushfires in Australia are widely echoed in the media and in everyday narratives. Climate change issues are therefore no longer confined to the academic sphere. Rather, they are now also being discussed by broad sections of the population. This is made clear by the Fridays for Future movement, among others, but also by the sometimes violent reactions to it.
Climate change evokes emotions, including fear and anxiety about the future. In the USA, there is already a separate term for this, namely “eco-anxiety”, which the American Psychological Association describes as “a chronic fear of environmental doom”.
This new publication will therefore focus on the connection between climate change and anxiety or fear of the future. This publication project is interdisciplinary in nature. In this sense, the contributions come from different disciplines and research fields (e.g. psychotherapy science, psychology, disaster and security research, ethnology, geography, geology, climatology, historiography, futures research, theology).

“Thinking the future. The art of foresight”: This research and publication project was realised by the Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences at the Sigmund Freud Private University (SFU) Vienna (Reinhold Popp, Julia S. Grundnig) from January 2020 to March 2021. As part of this project, the following book was published in April 2021: Popp, Reinhold; Grundnig, Julia (2021): Future thinking. The art of foresight. Vienna, Münster: LIT-Verlag.

“Prospective Science & Participatory Future Design”: This publication project will be realised from September 2020 to March 2022 by the Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences at the Sigmund Freud Private University (SFU) Vienna (Reinhold Popp) in cooperation with excellent young scientists.

New book releases

• Reinhold Popp (ed.): Images of the future and futurology
  Wishes, visions and visualisations. With contributions by Elena Artiles Leyes, Lilith Boettcher, Katrina Günther, Reinhold Popp and Gina Strecker; LIT-Verlag
• Reinhold Popp, Julia S. Grundnig: Future Thinking. The art of foresight. Vienna: LIT-Verlag
• Reinhold Popp, Konrad Ott: Society after Corona: ecological & social perspectives for Germany & Austria
• Reinhold Popp : Future & Research. The diversity of foresight

Overview of publications

www.reinhold-popp.at and SFU publication database: Reinhold Popp | Publications with SFU affiliation since 2010

Press

New educational awareness needed: school reform is essential | Salzburger Nachrichten, 07.04.2022
“Like a car driver speeding ahead at 130 kilometres per hour, but looking in the rear-view mirror.” This is how futurologist Reinhold Popp sometimes sees local educational institutions. → To the interview in the Salzburger Nachrichten

Time after corona: “A basic fear will remain” | Kurier, 14.06.2020
Psychologist and futurologist Reinhold Popp talks to KURIER about the causes of fear and the parallels between the financial, refugee and coronavirus crises.

“Anti-Flynn effect: Why our IQ is falling.” | futurezone.at, 15.07.2019
Our intelligence levels rose steadily until around 35 years ago. Now it is declining. Trend researcher Reinhold Popp from the Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences at SFU Vienna explains the reasons for this on futurezone.at

“Don’t panic, the future is coming” | Der Standard, 15.02.2019
Futurologist Prof. Reinhold Popp, Head of the Institute for Futures in Human Sciences, in the podcast “Edition Zukunft“.

Institute for Futures Research in Human Sciences

Faculty of Psychotherapy Science
Sigmund Freud Private University
Lassallestraße 3, 1020 Vienna