Futura Time Machine Fellowship: Coimbra
8 October 2026 Thursday 9h00-18h00
Twelve Portuguese women will draw the Coimbra of 2050.
Over two days, leave the present, think like a futurist, and put your mark on a map handed to the city in public. No expertise required — only the courage to imagine.
What is this Fellowship?
The Futura Time Machine Fellowship is an interactive lab and pilot program being prototyped by Futura Foundation. In each city where we host a Time Machine Public Imagination Forum, we also host a Futura Time Machine Fellowship. The Fellowship happens the day before the public event, and is only for 12 Portuguese women. These women join our growing community of early Futura Fellows, a program we’ll fully launch in 2028.
What will I gain if I apply?
Learn the craft
Real foresight tools, taught by working futurists.
Leave a mark
Your voice becomes part of the Coimbra 2050 Map.
Join the cohort
Futura Fellowship and Futura Community.
How do I know if I qualify to apply?
APPLY IF YOU ARE ALL OF THE FOLLOWING:
A woman working in culture, innovation, territory, environment, architecture, urban planning or social science
Live, study, work or simply love Coimbra
Can attend both days of Time Machine: Coimbra, see below
Drawn to co-creation and love thinking about the future
What is the agenda?
Day 1: The Futura Time Machine Fellowship Lab
THU 08 OCT · 09:00–18:00
09:00–13:00 Futura Time Machine Fellowship Lab · Take 1
You and 11 other young Portuguese women will embark on a time travel journey to 2050, led by Henrique Nascimento, founder of Transformative Times and Design Lead at With Company. You will explore how technology and design can shape our near future, drawing on systemic and complexity thinking. We will explore possible urban futures and to examine how cities can evolve toward more desirable forms. Together, we will investigate the pathways, conditions, and structures that can bring preferred futures closer to the present.
13:00–14:30 Lunch on us!
14:30–19:00 Futura Time Machine Fellowship Lab · Take 2
Your collaborative work with Henrique and other fellows continues as you imagine and build a map of the city of Coimbra in 2050. Together, we will co-create the imaginative infrastructures that help us see what must change, what must be built, and what must be transformed so that the cities we aspire to can begin to emerge today. This map will be presented the next day at the Time Machine Public Imagination Forum by a group of fellows, to be iterated on with the collective, larger group attending the Public Forum. This Coimbra 2050 map (that you worked on!) will be handed to the City of Coimbra at the completion of Time Machine.
Day 2: Futura Time Machine Public Imagination Forum
FRI 09 OCT · 12:00–19:00
Futura Foundation hosts the Time Machine Public Imagination Forum in Coimbra. To participate in the Fellowship, you must participate in the Public Imagination Forum!
