Trends Identified
Asteroid mining
Exploatation of non-terrestrial resources has been predicated for quite some time. However tools and hardware have been developed notably in the USA (both by NASA and private companies) to characterise and identify appropriate Near Earth Objects (NEOs) to eventually dock with them and exploit their resources. Asteroid mining is also linked to the protection of Earth from geocruisers and thus to the detection and tracking of such dangerous space objects.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Deep space travel
U.S. President Obama has indicated that the USA, and mandated NASA, to send a human mission to Mars by mid-2030 with intermediary steps to Lagragian points in 2020s. NASA is consequently developing appropriate capabilities with the SLS launcher and the Orion crew capsule that should be ready by early 2020s. This would allow human to ventures farther into deep space compared to previous endeavours in the last century.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Drones
Drone technology is now expanding quickly into the civil market, generating an increasing number of innovative services, new businesses and jobs. These emerging services have the potential to substantially increase productivity in a wide range of sectors (agriculture, energy, construction, etc.) and so support the competitiveness of European economy. As the drone industry is a crossroads of technologies, drone services will improve many aspects of the daily life of citizens.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Game Changers for Inclusive Innovation
The digital revolution has democratised innovation. On the one hand, users are much closer to producers and influence the way a product develops; they try out, evaluate and give feed-back. Also, the digital economy allows new – and smaller – players to enter the market and scale-up. In addition, the digital economy has created new markets, or new economic prospects. Think about bridging the gap between idle resources and potential users or customers. Uber or Airbnb are classic examples.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
21st Century Dialectics: Or How We Can Achieve Prosperity in New Times
For two generations it was plausible that more openness, and more ow (of capital, people, goods or information) contributed to the public good. It became an article of faith that globalisation and more open trade led to general benefits, stridently asserted by leaders and gurus of all kinds. Now, large minorities have seen their income stagnate, and fear that their children will be worse o than them, and probably jobless, thanks to the combination of migration and automation. Technological change continues to be ‘capital-biased’, meaning a declining share of income for labour, and new job and wealth creation continues to concentrate in areas with high levels of graduates. The promise of shared prosperity which underpinned so much economic policy over the last 70 years is now called into question.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Between Governance of the Past and Technology of the Future
In the online world, people are used to instant, accessible and personalised services. But the infrastructure for politics is still based on technology developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. In many parts of everyday life, voters are used to a consumer experience where they get instant feedback and personal participation; but party membership, ballot boxes and stump speeches do not offer the same speed, control or personal engagement. The institutions of representative democracy at national and EU level – political parties, elected members, law- making – do not offer the same quality of experience for their ultimate consumers. This matters because it is causing voters to switch o . Broad participation by most of the population in the practice of democracy is vital for societies to remain open because it ensures pluralism and prevents takeover of power by narrow interests. But in some countries and some elections, turnout is regularly below a third of registered voters, especially in European Parliament elections.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
The Future of Work
The world of work is changing rapidly. Several ongoing mega-trends – including globalisation, digitalisation and demographic changes – coupled with rapid change in values and preferences regarding work, have the potential of significantly affecting the quantity and types of jobs in our economies, as well as how and by whom they will be carried out.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Populism: From Backlash to Framing the Future
The rise of populism on both sides of the Atlantic is one of the defining social, political and economic phenomena of the current era.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
The Rise and Implications of 'New Power'
People are waking up to their own power, coming together at a scale and speed unimaginable just a few years ago. New crowd-based and participatory models and values are transforming politics, business and other sectors of society.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
The Future of Transportation
Transportation is humanity’s greatest lever for economic growth. More than any other technology, transport is the catalyst for big leaps in culture and ideas. And transport has itself been the engine for growth on a global scale. The Great Acceleration of the Rail Age enabled the transport of produce and people in volume, which in turn enabled urbanisation and the development of the mass market. Powered by coal, constructed of iron and steel, and financed on new capital markets, the railways themselves became a primary driver of the Industrial Revolution. That was then, this is now. The great question facing global leaders is whether our current transportation options can meet the inexorable and conflicting demands of growth and environmental stewardship. At current 2.7% annual rates of growth, mobility demand in the developed world will double in 25 years and rise sixteen- fold in a century. Existing modes have served us well, but offer only incremental improvements when a step- change in performance and energy efficiency is required.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)