Shaping tomorrow, today

Our planet is under increasing distress.
We must use our knowledge to act now.

We’re rooted in the conviction that we can and must make a meaningful contribution

The emergence of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory™ at Arizona State University is rooted in the conviction that we can and must make a meaningful contribution to ensuring a habitable planet and a future in which well-being is attainable for all humankind.

This laboratory draws on ASU’s deep commitment to use-inspired research, our ongoing work in sustainability and service to the global community in which we live, explored across five core spaces: Discovery, Learning, Solutions, Networks and Engagement.

5 core spaces
14 focal areas

Deploying a unique and comprehensive approach of thought and applied solutions development across our five core spaces, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory addresses our planetary systems through the lenses of 14 focal areas.

Discovery

Through research, we understand earth systems and project into the future. The Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory leverages the tools and expertise of transdisciplinary research institutes, centers and facilities across Arizona State University to generate new ideas and solve problems.

Featured units, centers and programs

Learning

Arizona State University is at the forefront of exploring new ways of transmitting knowledge to diverse audiences according to their needs and priorities.The Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory’s College of Global Futures works synergistically with leading schools across the university and around the world to provide education and training opportunities at all stages of learning within and outside of academia.

Featured units, centers and programs

Solutions

We are running out of time on many fronts. We need to address problems with urgency, sometimes within only a few years or decades. At Arizona State University, we work in networks and in close exchange with the people affected by problems to combine knowledge and develop solutions on multiple scales.

Featured units, centers and programs

Networks

The challenges we face are too big for any individual organization to solve alone. The Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory partners with leading institutions around the world to achieve a critical mass of intellectual resources to address these challenges.

Featured units, centers and programs

Engagement

In order to drive real change, we must engage with people who are affected by a problem to understand their needs, learn from their knowledge and share ideas. At Arizona State University, we convene communities and organizations to integrate knowledge and create realistic, sustainable solutions.

Featured units, centers and programs

We are living in a decisive decade.

“We must rediscover our planet and our relationship with it.”

What does this mean, exactly? For the faculty, students, researchers and global partners of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, it means a commitment to urgently exploring pathways to impactful solutions and decisions that address the challenges we have caused through resource extraction and thoughtless consumption as part of a relentless pursuit of “progress.” We believe better is possible.

Lean more about our efforts in this viewbook.

View Futurecast Edition 1 on ISSUU

Futurecast

Take a look into our prospective futures through the perspectives of Global Futures Scientists and Scholars as they explore and discuss what’s to come in the seconds, days, years and decades ahead.

Do not miss out on what opportunities may lie ahead. Subscribe to receive Futurecast as well as any of our various newsletters.

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Archive:

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Our world is evolving — and so are we. Stay up to date on new developments, solutions and events happening at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory by signing up for our newsletters.

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Julie Ann Wrigley,
on partnering with ASU

Arizona State is what a university has to look like to solve 21st century problems. Under the old model, one part of the university has no reason to work with another part. At ASU, sustainability is a value system campus-wide, not just a single field of study. The fact is that in order to succeed, you have to make partnerships.

Indigenous cultures
acknowledgment

The ASU Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory recognizes that opportunities to shape the future rely on the knowledge, wisdom and practices of those who came before us.

In that spirit, we join partners across the university in acknowledging the 22 Native Nations that have inhabited this land for centuries, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Piipaash (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands and traditions allow us to be here today.