Nicklas Larsen
Futures and Foresight Practitioner | Changemaker | Educator | Facilitator | Speaker
About Nicklas
Nicklas Larsen is a Senior Advisor and Head of Arts and Culture at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. A leading futures practitioner with over a decade of experience, he is an educator, author, and public speaker committed to advancing the political representation of future generations.
Nicklas equips learners and leaders with the critical skills and tools needed to imagine, plan for, and navigate emerging futures. His work drives systemic change, promotes intergenerational fairness, and contributes to shaping transformative policies across sectors.
Key Roles and Contributions
UNESCO Chair in Anticipatory Leadership & Futures Capabilities
Nicklas serves as UNESCO Co-Chair in Anticipatory Leadership and Futures Capabilities, in collaboration with Aarhus University. The UNESCO Chair is a research and advocacy programme aligned with UNESCO’s mission to advance societal futures literacy. In this role, Nicklas integrates and disseminates futures and foresight capabilities across education, policy, and public discourse – particularly through the lens of cultural institutions.
The Danish Coalition for Future Generations
Nicklas played a key role in establishing the Danish Coalition for Future Generations – a cross-sectoral initiative uniting organisations working to promote legal representation for future generations and embed the principle of intergenerational fairness in political decision-making. The initiative aligns with commitments made by 143 UN Member States, including Denmark, through the UN Declaration on Future Generations (2024).
Parsons School of Design
Nicklas is a faculty member at Parsons School of Design in Paris, where he co-designed the curriculum and teaches in the Parsons Futures Lab – an experimental learning environment exploring futures literacy, speculative design, prototyping, and long-term thinking.
Teach the Future – Denmark
Nicklas established and leads Teach the Future in Denmark, part of a global initiative dedicated to embedding futures thinking into education. He advocates for the integration of foresight in schools, empowering educators and students to develop the mindsets and skills needed to navigate and shape the future.
Recent Initiatives
Soon Lab for Possible Futures & Futures Fellows Programme (2025)
Nicklas initiated and co-curated the Soon Lab for Possible Futures at Thoravej 29, on behalf of the Bikuben Foundation together with Majken Overgaard. This experimental space explores embodied and spatial engagements with futures thinking and changemaking. As part of the initiative, he also co-developed the Futures Fellows Program, fostering a new collective of practitioners from across the Danish system that seeks to answer and practically respond to a common question: how do we act for future generations in the present?
UN Summit of the Future & EU Intergenerational Fairness (2024/2025)
Nicklas has actively contributed to global policy efforts at the UN Summit of the Future and the European Union’s initiative on intergenerational fairness as a member of the Network for Institutions and Leaders for Future Generations (NIFG). His work supports the integration of long-term thinking and foresight into governance structures, particularly concerning youth and future generations.
Aeon & Mewtronix – A futures tale (2024) Nicklas is the co-author of Aeon and Mewtronix – A Futures Tale, a comic created for children and youth that brings futures thinking, systems awareness, and agency into learning environments – translated in 10 different languages. Developed in collaboration with renowned futurist Sohail Inayatullah and supported by the global Teach the Future network, the comic introduces anticipatory processes to the classroom through an engaging narrative and open-source educational materials. Across five chapters, readers follow Aeon and their robot companion Mewtronix as they explore different time horizons, alternative scenarios, care ethics, and the power of imagination.
Futures Philanthropy – Anticipation as a Common Good (2024)
In collaboration with Philea (Philanthropy Europe Association), Nicklas led a landmark study mapping emerging futures and foresight practices within the philanthropic and civil society sectors. The publication frames anticipation as a collective resource and calls for a systemic shift in how foundations engage with long-term change.
Cultivating Futures Thinking in Museums (2024)
Nicklas co-authored a chapter with Loes Damhof in the groundbreaking Routledge publication Cultivating Futures Thinking in Museums, edited by Kristin Alford. The chapter positions museums as vital conduits for fostering futures literacy and argues for their role as spaces for public imagination and critical engagement with long-term societal challenges.
Asian Development Bank – Strategic Foresight Training (2022/2023)
Nicklas designed and delivered futures literacy and leadership training to more than 200 employees at the Asian Development Bank. This included open and tailored course formats, executive training, and contributions to the Office of the General Counsel’s annual meeting—supporting the bank’s move toward anticipatory governance.
Background
Earlier in his foresight career, Nicklas collaborated with corporations, governments, and cultural institutions to shape long-term strategies and policies. His portfolio includes work with IKEA (Retail Futures), NRK and DR (Public Service & Media), Nordic and Canadian health coalitions (Health Futures & Policy), the OECD Global Foresight Community (Risk & Resilience), ARKEN Museum of Modern Art (Arts & Technology Futures), UNESCO’s Futures Literacy Summit, and the Future-Oriented Museum Synergies network.
Book Nicklas for keynotes, training, facilitation, or strategic processes advancing futures literacy.