20 January

Glimt - our new weapon in the fight for Ukraine's freedom

The Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) is looking for understimulated seniors, procrastinating students and night-feeding mothers to help Ukraine’s war effort. They can all participate on Glimt – a digital platform that uses crowd forecasting in order to help Ukraine in its fight for freedom.

A banner that says "Glimt".

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 marked the end of decades of stability in Europe. The new security situation has made FOI's work to develop innovative methods to strengthen security more urgent and relevant than ever.

To meet these challenges, FOI, in collaboration with the Ukrainian government, has developed Glimt, a new web-based platform that uses crowd forecasting. Crowd forecasting is a proven method that rests on the power of collective intelligence. Research shows that when many people make individual assessments of how likely it is that a particular event will occur, this forecast tends to be very accurate.

The purpose of the platform is to make forecasts on issues that are important to Ukraine. These forecasts can help Ukraine adapt and prepare its defences in relation to future events. This makes Glimt our new weapon in the fight for Ukraine's freedom.

– We humans have always wanted to understand and predict the future. Today, the need is greater than ever as we search for predictability in a world full of uncertainty. Our new tool Glimt is based on serious, peer-reviewed research and gives us a clearer picture of what to expect. It can also turn traditional intelligence work into a collaborative effort, with broad swaths of the general public involved, says Ivar Ekman, Programme Director for Glimt at FOI.

Everyone can contribute

Glimt is an open platform that gives people from all over the world the opportunity to participate in the fight for Ukraine's freedom in a concrete way. FOI is now looking for people who are willing to contribute their time and intellectual abilities by making forecasts on the platform. Participating is easy and requires no previous experience or specific knowledge. In fact, the more people who contribute with forecasts, the greater the likelihood that Glimt will provide correct assessments about the future.

– As an individual, you may only see a glimpse of the whole, but when we see things from many different directions at the same time, we also see more. That is what Glimt is all about, putting together many different perspectives from many different people, in order to create a clearer picture of the future, says Ivar Ekman at FOI.

For more information, please contact

Ivar Ekman, Programme Director for Glimt, +46 (0)72-188 6392, ivar.ekman@foi.se