The Canadian Standards Association (CSA Group) research program explores the potential for new standards solutions and provides evidence to inform and accelerate standards development. To date, this research has mostly focused on exploring areas with the purpose of informing the updates of existing standards and developing new standards.   

In response to rising uncertainty related to rapid emerging changes and complex issues that make it difficult to plan, the CSA Group is launching a new exploratory research program to complement existing research. The new exploratory research program will provide insights on complex, uncertain, and emerging issues and identify early drivers for standards development. This new program intends to support research on a set of future-oriented focus areas and related research questions through a Call for Proposals in 2026. The purpose of these Calls, and the broader exploratory research program is to enable the CSA Group to examine complex issues on a longer time horizon and advance standards readiness in these areas.  

To support the CSA Group in preparing for the first Calls for Proposals, Creative Futures collaborated with CSA Group to do the following:

1. Conduct comprehensive strategic foresight analysis to identify key trends that may impact Canada and future standards development over the next 5 to 10 years;

2. Identify the focus areas for the exploratory research program’s Calls for Proposals; and,

3. Develop related research questions that would inform the Calls for Proposals. 

Approach:

Creative Futures and CSA Group worked as a collaborative team to do the following:

• Horizon Scanning: Creative Futures and CSA Group conducted desk research to identify ~750 signals of change that may impact Canada and standards development over the next 5-10 years. 

• Semi-Structured Interviews: Creative Futures conducted 26 virtual interviews with interest-holders from Canada and globally to gather insights about key changes anticipated over the next 5-10 years. 

• Synthesis & Trend Identification: Creative Futures and CSA Group participated in multiple working sessions to synthesize information gathered through horizon scanning and interviews to identify a list of 37 key trends impacting the futures of Canada in 2035. 

• Scenario Development: Using the key trends identified, Creative Futures and CSA Group hosted a workshop (December 17, 2025) with 14 external experts to imagine how a range of different changes taking place today may create alternative possible futures of Canada in 2035. Following the workshop, Creative Futures and CSA Group synthesized the key dynamics of each possible future scenario, and then Creative Futures developed the full scenario narratives. 

• Implications Workshop: Using the four alternative future scenarios that were developed, 18 internal CSA staff participated in a workshop on January 21, 2026. Participants were immersed in different futures to imagine possible future implications, and how standards and standards development may change and evolve. 

• Thematic Analysis: Creative Futures conducted thematic analysis to identify possible focus areas for the Call(s) for Proposals. 

• Final Report: Creative Futures provided a summary of all research conducted including proposed research focus areas and emerging research questions to support the first call for research proposals. 

Results:

Following completion of the project, the CSA Group research team launched calls for research proposals based on topics that were identified throughout the research project. Additional calls for research are forthcoming based on additional topics that were raised as areas for further exploration.