Convene
We bring together people who would not otherwise share a room: researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and communities. Roundtables, working groups, and public sessions built for candor, not performance.
The Tannen Centre for Future Systems exists to think beyond the immediate.
We study the systems shaping what comes next.
Independent by design, we bring together people across disciplines, sectors, and perspectives to understand what is changing, anticipate what may come next, and examine the choices that will shape our collective future.
Through research, convening, and advocacy, we bring emerging ideas and difficult conversations into the public realm—not to advance a party or platform, but to help build a future worthy of the generations who will inherit it. We are committed to human dignity and the fundamental freedoms that allow societies to determine their own futures.
Mission
The future is not a prediction. It is a set of systems, already in motion.
We ask the questions that politics, markets, and institutions are often too busy to ask in order to understand the structural forces shaping the future — and to help societies make better decisions that advance justice, dignity, and human rights.
Working definition
Future Systems are the interlocking structures — technological, ecological, economic, civic — that determine how societies function over time.
We are realistic about what a think tank can do. We study how those systems are influenced and what changes them.
We take positions on evidence. Our research is published openly, our convenings include diverse voices that disagree with one another by design, and our advocacy is on the record — never behind closed doors.
What the Centre does
Publish & Host Research
The Centre commissions, publishes, and hosts research on the systems shaping the future — working papers, field studies, and selected work from researchers whose questions deserve a longer runway than most institutions allow.
Advocate
Where the evidence is clear, the Centre says so — independent, on the record, and without allegiance to any ideology, platform, or funder. We advocate for what the research supports and provide resources for policy makers and individuals to make better decisions.
Featured Project · 01
The Bellewether Project
A bellwether is a leading indicator — the signal that arrives before the trend. The Bellewether Project is the Centre's first major initiative: an effort to identify, track, and explain how the early signals of gender violence serve as a leading indicator and warning of societal collapse.
By tracking reported shifts in the baseline sentiment and safety of women across a region — anti-democratic voting patterns, extremist behaviour, and government collapse can be identified before communities are compromised. This project aims to provide research and tools for policy makers to identify and address societal risks before the damage to institutions and communities becomes irreversible.
About the name: The project intentionally acknowledges the unique risk to and the obligation of society to protect women who bear the greatest cost if we fail to act. The intentional use of “belle” in the project name serves to highlight that women are the forebears and witness at the leading edge of societal shifts.
If you would like to follow the work, contribute research, or be notified when it launches, register your interest.
Register interestConvening
Where difficult questions meet candid conversation.
Research changes little if the people who need it never meet. The Centre convenes roundtables, working groups, and public sessions that put researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and affected communities at the same table — with clear ground rules and published outcomes.
Roundtables are small and off the cuff. Working groups are longer commitments with defined questions. Public sessions are open, documented, and free to attend.
Register to be notified of our 2027 program calendar.
Contact the Centre
Stay oriented to what comes next.
Whether you have research to propose, a room that needs convening, or a question about the Centre's work, the right next step is a short note. We read everything and reply to what we can usefully answer.
Write to the Centre