In addition, the Institute promotes and stimulates public discussion on future possibilities and risks in the development of society, and informs decision makers on the same topic.

The IFFS is partly financially supported by a direct grant from the Swedish Department of Education, but mostly by external research funding.

The current research program is called "Humanity's Path Forward - Democracy, Technology, Society and Future Generations" and is the creation of Gustaf Arrhenius.

In the 1960s, an increased awareness of environmental degradation and overpopulation led to a surging interest in the field of futures studies in Sweden.

[4] As a result of this work the government chose to set up the Secretariat for Futures Studies, which was initially directly subordinate to the ministerial cabinet.