FAQ
Registration and Account
Yes, you can add more information to your profile by using the "Bio" field.
Please follow these steps:
- Go to your account via "My Account" at the top of the website.
- Click the "Edit" tab.
- Scroll down to the "Bio" section.
- Add the desired information about yourself.
We strongly recommend to please refrain from posting personal information including, but not limited to, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, private addresses or any information that might increase the risk of unlawful usage of your personal data.
To log in to Futurium, click on the blue "Log in" button located at the top right corner of the website.
If you experience any issues logging in, please contact the Futurium team.
This message indicates that your registration is currently under review by the Futurium team. During periods of increased spam activity, we manually review all new registrations.
While we strive to verify all accounts as quickly as possible, it may take up to 72 hours for your registration to be approved, especially if you registered on a Friday evening, over the weekend or during a holiday period.
If you are still unable to log in after 72 hours, please contact the Futurium team for assistance.
To request the deletion of your account and associated data (including personal data and any content you have posted on Futurium) please use our contact form.
Note that this deletion is irreversible.
If you also wish to delete your entire EU Login account, please contact the EU Login helpdesk at EU-LOGIN-EXTERNAL-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu.
You can view your group invitations by navigating to "My Account" and selecting "My Invitations." Additionally, when you log in, a status message at the top of the platform will remind you of any pending invitations.
You can find an overview of all your posts and comments via your account.
Your most recent posts and comments are shown on your account overview page.
An overview of your posts listed per group is available on your account, under the tab "My contributions".
To register for a Futurium account, please click on the "Sign Up with EU Login" button located on the homepage. Follow the instructions to complete the account creation process.
Should you have any issues with your registration, please contact the Futurium team.
To upload a user picture (also referred to as an avatar) please follow these steps:
- Go to your account settings via "My Account" at the top of the platform.
- Click the "Edit" tab at the top of your profile.
- Scroll down to the "Picture" section.
- Upload your user picture.
Your picture must be 200MB or less, and should be in one of the following formats: PNG, GIF, JPG, or JPEG.
Please note that the Futurium team reserves the right to remove any user picture deemed inappropriate.
Please note that EU Login is managed by a different team. For any questions, please contact the EU Login Helpdesk.
What is two-factor authentication?
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an additional security layer when accessing an application. You must provide multiple authentication factors to confirm your identity. EU Login offers two-factor authentication (2FA), which requires both a password and an additional verification method.
Why should I add multi-factor authentication?
Multi-factor authentication helps maintain and regain access, especially if you lose an authentication factor, such as your mobile phone. If possible, register a mobile phone number, the EU Login Mobile app, and a third option, such as a security key (e.g., YubiKey, Google’s Titan Key) or a trusted platform (e.g., Windows Hello).
Even though we highly recommend using two-factor (or multi-factor) authentication, for Futurium you have the option to either keep on using single-factor (email and password) authentication, or use multi-factor (username, password, and a challenge) authentication.
What second factors can I select for my EU Login account?
EU Login allows you to choose from five different second factors:
- One or more mobile phone numbers, using the "Mobile Phone + SMS" feature
- The EU Login Mobile App, using a PIN code (requires an internet connection) or QR code scanning (usable offline)
- An eID, using the "eID Authentication" feature
- A security key, such as Yubico, Kensington, or Google security keys, using the "Security Key or Trusted Platform" feature
- A trusted platform, such as Windows Hello, using the "Security Key or Trusted Platform" feature
It is strongly advised to configure multiple options in case you lose access to one or if the application does not support your preferred option.
Have you registered for Futurium / Do you have an EU Login account?
If not, please complete the registration process.
Are you receiving an error message?
Please contact the Futurium team and provide the specific error message you received.
Have you registered with a different account?
Verify your EU Login account details to ensure you are using the correct account.
Is your registration still pending?
You should have received a notification email stating that your registration is pending. Please note that it can take up to 72 hours for your account to be reviewed.
If you have forgotten your password, please click on the "Forgot password?" link on the EU login page. Follow the provided instructions to reset your password. You will receive an email with further steps to complete the password reset process.
The ability to change your email address or other personal information directly within Futurium is not available, as these details are managed by EU Login, the European Commission's global user authentication service.
To update your email address or other personal details, please follow these steps:
- Navigate to "My Account" using your browser
- Log in with your email address (this is currently linked to your EU Login account) and password
- Click on "Configure my account"*
- Change your email address
- Click "Submit"
*Please note that if you have added second factors to your account, stronger authentication may be required.
You can request to have your Futurium account deleted by contacting the Futurium team.
General
Users cannot create groups directly on Futurium. Instead, the creation of new groups must be requested and facilitated by the Futurium team. The process for requesting a new group is outlined below:
Process:
- Initiation Meeting: To begin, we will schedule an initiation meeting to discuss your requirements. After this meeting, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire detailing how you would like your group to be set up.
- Questionnaire Submission and creation of group: Upon receiving the completed questionnaire, the Futurium team will proceed with the creation of your group. If there are any questions or clarifications needed, follow-up meetings can be arranged.
- Manager Training: Before launching your group, it is mandatory for all community managers to follow our manager training. This training ensures that you fully understand how to manage and moderate your group effectively.
- Final Review: After completing the manager training, a final meeting will be held to ensure all details are aligned with your needs. Once everything is confirmed, your group will be launched.
The entire process, from initiation to launch, typically takes approximately two weeks.
Prerequisites:
- A group request must be endorsed by a Unit or another official European Commission entity.
- The responsible Unit or entity must adhere to our Internal Arrangements document, which outlines the responsibilities of the Futurium team (as Data Processor) and the responsible instance (Data Controller).
- All groups on Futurium have standardized options and features; bespoke solutions for individual group requests are not available.
- It is possible to withdraw the group creation request after the initiation meeting. This meeting serves to ensure that Futurium's features align with your needs, and we understand that our platform may not always meet every requirement.
If you experience a technical issue, please contact the Futurium team via the contact form. Our team will get back to you as soon as possible.
For questions or remarks related to a specific group or its content, please reach out to the community managers. You can do this by visiting the homepage of the corresponding group, scrolling down, and clicking the "Contact the community managers" link.
Futurium is open to all individuals interested in topics related to the future of Europe, including policymakers, experts, researchers, and citizens. You do not need to be European Commission staff nor a European citizen to join the platform.
You can change the language of the Futurium platform by selecting a different language option at the top of the website, to the left of the search bar.
Please note that changing the platform language will adjust the interface language, but it will not automatically translate the content within the groups.
To translate posts within a group, navigate to the post you wish to translate and click on the "Translate this page" link. This will provide an on-the-fly translation. Please allow a few moments for the translation to appear, depending on the length of the post.
Currently, it is not possible to translate all content automatically. However, we are continuously working on enhancing our translation services.
If you encounter any issues with our translations, please do not hesitate to contact the Futurium team.
Please also note that our search is currently only available for English content. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
You can participate in discussions by joining relevant groups, posting comments, and contributing to ongoing debates and consultations.
Groups and communities
- Every member can decide for themselves if they want to opt in or out of receiving notifications whenever there is new content. This can be done via their account. By default, the notifications are disabled.
- While it is not possible to enforce enabling notifications due to EC regulations, you can make a post in your group to recommend to your members to receive notifications. Please note that it will still be up to the members to decide if they want to enable this feature or not.
Where to edit the menu
You can do so by going to your manager menu, select Settings >> Navigation.
Via this page, you can either add a new menu item, re-order or delete already existing menu items.
Add a new menu item
You can add a new menu item by clicking the blue button "Add navigation item". Once you have clicked on this button, you will be redirected to a new page to create your menu item link.
In the "Label" field, please fill in the name of your menu item, e.g. "Forum".
In the "Link" dropdown, you will have to specify what kind of menu item you would like to add:
- Link:
- either an external link to another website: please provide the full URL, including "https://"
- or you can link to an already existing page that you created on Futurium. To link, please start typing the title of your page, and Futurium will try to find any matching content within your group.
- Posts:
- please select this option if you want to add an overview page of a Collection you created. Once you have selected this option, you will get a selection menu where you can see all the Collections that are available for your group.
- Events:
- the same goes for Events
- Page:
- If you have created a Page within your group, you can quickly add it to your menu by choosing the option.
Re-order menu items
To re-order the already existing menu items, please click on the drag and drop icon of the menu item you want to move, and drag it to the correct place in the list.
Please do not forget to save your changes.
Edit menu items
You can Edit menu items by clicking the blue <Edit> button next to the menu item you want to make changes to.
Delete menu items
Similar to editing menu items, you can also choose to delete them by clicking on the downwards arrow of the blue Edit button, and choose <Delete>.
A statistics overview will be added to your Manager Overview soon; in the meantime, you can go to Europa Analytics if you are EC Staff. Please contact the Futurium team for more information.
Please note that external managers, without EC email address, currently do not have access to EU Analytics.
A statistics overview will be added to your Manager Overview soon; in the meantime, you can go to Europa Analytics if you are EC Staff. Please contact the Futurium team for more information.
Please note that external managers, without EC email address, currently do not have access to EU Analytics.
- Anonymous users: site visitors, not logged in
- Outsiders: Futurium members that are logged in but that are not a member of your group
- Members: Futurium members that are logged in and that are a member of your group
General
Subgroups
- Your subgroup is an entity on its own, and can have different membership settings than its parent group.
- By default, members of subgroups will automatically become members of the parent group.
This setting can be changed by the Futurium team.
Inviting members
There are two ways in which you can add members to your group as community manager:
- Invite members: if you invite a user, they will receive an email notifying them of your invitation. If they want to accept or decline your invitation, they can do so via their account.
- Add members: if you add users, they will automatically become a member of your group and will receive a confirmation email that they have become a member of the group.
Difference between the two options:
If you invite users, they still have the choice to accept or decline the invitation; users will also need to navigate to their account first and accept before becoming a member.
If you add users, they will automatically become a member.
Via the yellow "Edit Layout" button, which redirects you to the contextual blocks edit page.
You can add a new block via the <+ Add block> button, which gives you the option to include text, embed media or use a maximum of 2 buttons per block.
Once you have created the block, you drag and drop which roles you want this block to be visible for.
Each block can further be manually translated; this can be done by hovering over the block and selecting Translate.