We welcome Jesper Strömbäck och Danica Kragic Jensfelt to our board

The Swedish government has appointed two new members to the board of the Institute for Futures Studies. The new members come with knowledge of robotics and experience from the government's Future Commission; Danica Kragic Jensfelt and Jesper Strömbäck. Together with the other seven members of the board, they will among other things help the institute to contribute to the public debate on important issues for the future.

- Few things are as important as improving decision-making purposes and increasing long-term planning in society. Therefore this task feels extremely important, says Jesper Strömbäck. With my background as chief secretary of the government's Future Commission, I hope to contribute both with my knowledge of various future challenges faced by Sweden, and my experience of how to make future analyzes.

- My research in robotics and autonomous systems help the discusssion of issues such as how people and machines will integrate and be integrated in the future, says Danica Kragic. It is an important question that the Institute for Futures Studies can address and that may affect future society.

Jesper Strömbäck is Professor of Journalism and Media and Communication Studies with a specialization in political communication at Mittuniversitetet in Sundsvall. He is research director at the research center DEMICOM at the same university where democracy and communication in the digital society is being studies. 2011–2013 he was the Executive Secretary and Secretary of the Government's Future Commission.

Danica Kragic Jensfelt is Professor of Computer Science at KTH in Stockholm. Her research is in computer vision and robotics, and she coordinates several EU-projects in the area. She is director of the Center for Autonomous Systems and head of the Computer Vision and Active Perception Lab at KTH. She is also recipient of the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant.

Jesper and Danica are replacing Annika Winsth, Nordea and Lars Ilshammar, Royal Library.

The Institute's board also consists of Bengt Westerberg (chair.), former minister, Sverker Jäger, Professor at the University of Gothenburg and Luleå University of Technology, Arne Kaijser, Professor at KTH, Anna Nilsdotter, Head of Communications at Naturskyddsföreningen, Göran Rosenberg, journalist and author, Rebecca Stern, Associate Professor  at Uppsala University and Annika Sunden, Associate Professor and chief economist of SIDA.