Trends Identified

Digital fabrication including 3-D printing
Digital fabrication including 3-D printing
2019
Tech for good
McKinsey
Digital devices with replication and self-healing properties
Digital devices with replication and self-healing properties will become an integral part of the human environment in the long-term. A self-replenishing structure can produce copies of itself with equivalent functional properties. At present, one of the promising ways to solve this problem of self-replication and self-healing on a macro-level is layer-by-layer (additive) 3D-printing technology. To restore protective coatings and electronic circuits polymer capsules with carbon nanotubes are being developed which make it possible to reconstruct membranous constructions or conducting bridges if their integrity is violated. On a micro-level, the development of technologies and devices capable of self-replication, replication of external objects and self-healing will be inextricably linked to breakthrough achievements in nanotechnology, with the greatest impact in this regard coming from the development of molecular self-assembly technologies.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Focused IT Services
Differentiation drives new value in a sleepy sector
2018
Corum Top Ten Disruptive Technology Trends 2018
Corum
Energy storage
Devices or systems that store energy for later use, including batteries
2013
Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy
McKinsey
Diffusion of power
Developing countries in Asia will become more prominent world powers compared to North American and European nations. "China alone will probably have the largest economy, surpassing that of the United States a few years before 2030," the report explained. "In a tectonic shift, the health of the global economy increasingly will be linked to how well the developing world does — more so than the traditional West." In other words, having the most money or people won't necessarily keep a country powerful if others are more adept at staying connected to data and resources.
2017
4 mega-trends that could change the world by 2030
World Economic Forum (WEF)
The productivity imperative
Developed-world economies will need to generate pronounced gains in productivity to power continued economic growth. The most dramatic innovations in the Western world are likely to be those that accelerate economic productivity.
2010
Mckinsey quarterly, Global forces: An introduction
McKinsey
Fragmentation of regulatory approach to ICT and big data
Despite the potential of big data and cloud computing, fragmented regulatory environments in the EU and a lack of adopted interoperability approaches and standards pose significant barriers. The lack of clear guidance in this field causes regulatory uncertainty on how to apply the relevant provisions from the existing EU regulatory framework. Member States have started to adopt different approaches, creating a risk of fragmentation of the digital single market and deterring EU wide investment and innovation.
2014
Challenges at the horizon 2025
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Inequity rises, while the global economy flattens
Despite the heady pace of technological development, income inequality has been on the rise over the last few decades in Australia as well as in other OECD countries22. A recent OECD113 report on the economic impact of aging, skill- biased technological change, globalisation, and rising environmental pressures suggests that global economic growth could slow from 3.6% in 2010-2020 to 2.4% in 2050-2060. The same report asserted that technological progress will heighten demand for high skilled labour, which over the next few decades, could push average income inequality across the OECD to levels experienced by the US today113.
2017
Surfing the digital tsunami
Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
A U.S.-China cold war will first be fought on the technology front.
Despite current tensions, the U.S. and Chinese economy are too interlinked for a trade war to truly escalate in the short term, says Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer. A cold war is more likely in five or 10 years, he adds, when an economic downturn and sustained animosity have undone those ties. But for 2019, the fight is on the technology front: “There you do have a cold war. There you have the Chinese with their AI model, the Americans with our AI model. The Chinese with their internet, the Americans with our internet,” he says. He echoes former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who warned in September that our online world risked a “bifurcation” into Chinese-led and U.S.-led internets. “They're not playing nice at all,” Bremmer adds. “I do think that longer term we're heading for big trouble between the Americans and the Chinese.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Active Defense
Despite an increasing focus on securing the digital business, IT departments struggle to keep pace with recent advances in security technology. Enterprises know that endpoint security is not enough, but the move to active defense—risk-based approaches to security management, analytics-driven event detection, and reflex-like incident response—isn’t yet happening on a broad scale. Although these technologies are maturing rapidly and communities are forming to expose risks, the biggest barrier is slow adoption of solutions that already exist. IT’s core challenge: get current with best practices in security while getting smarter about the new active-defense possibilities and getting real about the journey ahead.
2013
Accenture Technology Vision 2013
Accenture