SANDERA will focus on the future relationship between two critical European policy domains: namely, the EU strategy since Lisbon to move towards the European Research Area and those EU policies focused on the security of the European citizen in the world. SANDERA will use exploratory scenarios to 2020 to examine how future developments in European security and defence policies combined with technological change and the evolution of European science and technology policy could interact in intended and unintended ways to affect the pace and character of the move towards the ERA as well as priorities for FP8. Bringing together a multidisciplinary team that crosses the boundaries between security policy and science and technology policy, SANDERA addresses an issue of potentially great importance that has, until now, been at the margins of academic and policy agendas. Amongst the expected impacts of SANDERA will be: (1) an improved understanding amongst policy makers and other stakeholders of the potential implications for the ERA and FP8 of future developments at the interface between security policy and science and technology policy; (2) the stimulation of dialogue between stakeholders and the facilitation of new policy networks; (3) the strengthening of the strategic policy intelligence capacity in Europe through the development of an Indicator Monitoring Framework and a Policy Analysis Toolkit; (4) useful inputs for the preparation of the 8th Framework Programme through the identification of new research areas and research capacity requirements; (5) the attraction of more researchers into the foresight field not least researchers from the security policy field.