[1][2][3] Foresight runs four cross-disciplinary program tracks to research, advance, and govern maturing technologies for the long-term benefit of life and the biosphere: Molecular machines nanotechnology for building better materials, biotechnology for health extension, and computer science and crypto commerce for intelligent global cooperation.

[9] Foresight runs a one-year Fellowship program aimed at giving researchers and innovators the support and mentorship to accelerate their projects while they continue to work in their existing career.

[12] In addition, Foresight hosts Vision Weekend, an annual conferences focused on envisioning positive, long-term futures enabled by science and technology.

[19][20][21][22] The prize is named in honor of physicist Richard Feynman, whose 1959 talk "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" is considered to have inspired and informed the start of the field of nanotechnology.

[19] Author Colin Milburn refers to the prize as an example of "fetishizing" its namesake Feynman, due to his "prestige as a scientist and his fame among the broader public.