Trends Identified
Alternative motor fuels
Alternative motor fuels are intended to satisfy future demands for liquid fuel and are characterised by acceptable costs, minimal environmental and health impact, and increased reliability of supply to domestic markets. In relation to the expected growth in demand for motor fuel, which in Russia now accounts for at least 80-85% of petroleum product output, this alternative product could replace an increasing share of fuels derived from crude oil. According to experts, the likelihood of such fuels competing with traditional fuels after 2020 is high.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Automation
Although companies have been gradually automating for decades, recent advances in areas such as robotics and artificial intelligence are not only obligating people to work side by side with machines but are also creating replacements for human workers—even in fairly sophisticated jobs. Nearly half of all jobs in the US could be automated by 2050.
2017
Twelve Forces That Will Radically Change How Organizations Work
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
International Organised Crime
Although measurement is difficult, international illicit trade is estimated to account for around $1 trillion of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per annum. In addition, it is estimated that a further $1 trillion is extorted by organised crime and that between $0.6- 2.8 trillion is laundered annually. This can be compared to a global GDP of around $61 trillion and could make the value of global illicit trade around twice that of global military budgets.163,164 These large financial movements, which have been funded by illegal trading, fraud, arms trafficking, people smuggling, extortion, smuggling and the drugs trade will continue to distort the normal political and economic process. The reach of international criminal gangs stretches from the ungoverned spaces in the developing world through to the highly regulated and policed developed world. Corruption is endemic in many parts of the world, including developing and emerging economies and deters inward investment, business confidence and international trust.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence
Other dimensions of inequalities
Although overall gender gaps in education, employment and political representation have narrowed globally, women continue to face disadvantages in access to work, economic assets and participation in private and public decision-making.
2017
Global trends
UNDP
The Amazon Awakening
Amazon will be the most important emerging platform for digital advertising in 2018. This is not about product pages. It’s about thinking of Amazon as a useful platform for advertising in every part of the sales funnel. And they’ve got the product suite to match.
2018
Key digital trends for 2018
Ogilvy
The future of work
Americans believe automation will likely disrupt a number of professions, but fewer foresee their own jobs being at risk.
2017
Key trends shaping technology in 2017
Pew Research Center
Predictions for the future: eight in ten Americans think that custom organ transplants will be a reality in the next 50 years, but just one in five think that humans will control the weather
Americans envision a range of probable
outcomes when asked for their own predictions
about whether or not some “futuristic”
inventions might become reality in the next half-century. Eight in ten believe that people needing
organ transplants will have new organs custom-built for them in a laboratory, but an equal number believe that control of the weather will remain outside the reach of science. And on other issues for example, the ability of computers to create art rivaling that produced by humans—the public is much more evenly split.
2014
US views of technology and the future - science in the next 50 years
Pew Research Center
No Rights Left
Amid a new phase of strong-state politics and deepening domestic polarization, it becomes easier for governments to sacrifice individual protections to collective stability. This already happens widely: lip service is paid to human rights that are breached at home or abroad when it suits states’ interests. What if even lip service goes by the wayside, and human rights are dismissed as anachronisms that weaken the state at a time of growing threats? In authoritarian countries with weak human rights records, the impact of such a tipping point might be one of degree—more rights breached. In some democratic countries, qualitative change would be more likely—a jolt towards an illiberalism in which power-holders determine whose rights get protected, and in which individuals on the losing side of elections risk censorship, detention or violence as “enemies of the people”. Battles are already under way among major powers at the UN over the future of the human rights system. In a multipolar world of divergent fundamental values, building far-reaching consensus in this area may be close to impossible. “Universal” rights are likely to be interpreted locally, and those interpretations then fought over globally. Even superficial changes might be of modest help, such as new language that is less politicized than “human rights”.
2019
The Global Risks Report 2019 14th Edition
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Software-defined everything - Breaking virtualization’s final frontier
Amid the fervor surrounding digital, analytics, and cloud, it is easy to overlook advances currently being made in infrastructure and operations. The entire operating environment—server, storage, and network—can now be virtualized and automated. The data center of the future represents the potential for not only lowering costs, but also dramatically improving speeds and reducing the complexity of provisioning, deploying, and maintaining technology footprints. Software-defined everything can elevate infrastructure investments, from costly plumbing to competitive differentiators.
2015
Tech trends 2015 - The fusion of business and IT
Deloitte
The Future of Universities and Evidence-Based Research
Among the European Union’s best assets are its highly- educated population, its universities, and its research capacity. Europe’s universities have, through the course of their rich history contributed hugely to modern thought and to modern science. They have helped shape the world that we know today. Past glories will not sustain us forever. Universities need to change in order to serve the needs of tomorrow’s economy and society. This is not in debate. There is a need for more skills - and more research- in science and technology, for example. Universities will continue to have a central role in the drive for technological innovation.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)