Trends Identified
Dynamic technology & innovation
Over the coming decades, disruptive, as well as enduring innovations will change our lives and drive wealth. There is a positive power to innovation, as it helps to solve the major challenges facing humanity, for example providing water, food and healthcare for a growing and aging population, using resources more efficiently, or fighting climate change. The fields of biology, chemistry and pharmaceuticals hold particular promise in combating these challenges. In terms of patent applications, life sciences markets are increasingly shifting from the US to Asian countries, while national research clusters in Asia are beginning to flourish.
2017
Megatrends: a bigger picture for a better strategy
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
Dynamic Diaspora
Societies, including the UK, will become increasingly transnational.153 Growing proportions of their populations are likely to consist of ethnic groups that are a mixture of newly arrived immigrants and established second and third diaspora generations. Developed economies are likely to sustain an economic gradient for immigration which may have a transformational effect on their society and culture. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) developments and advanced mass- transit systems will facilitate and increase connectivity between ethnic and national diaspora and their communities of origin. These advances may reduce incentives for integration and assimilation and allow self-contained ‘virtual’ communities to exist across continents. Less benignly, diaspora will remain a medium for the international transmission of social risk, including: inter-communal violence, extremism and transnational organised crime, especially trafficking, smuggling and illicit trade. Such communities are likely to show local responses to transnational issues.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence
Dynamic data
This year, a number of companies made use of impossibly detailed personal information. Not age, name or location, but details gathered from saliva samples and body tracking sensors. Biometric information, like your genomic profile, has become more easily accessible, thanks to the increased efficiency and falling costs of the technology involved in obtaining it. This has given brands in various categories, from luxury fashion to FMCG, the opportunity to use biometric information to both add value to their product and strengthen their marketing messages.
2018
Most contagious
Contagious
Dye-sensitized Solar Cell
A dye-sensitized solar cell is based on a semiconductor formed between a photo-sensitized anode and an electrolyte. Once photons of the sunlight excite electrons of the semiconductor, titanium oxide nanoparticles transport the electrons to electrodes. The mechanism enables simple and low-cost production of solar cells.
2009
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2009
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Dwindling resources
The new tech and devices that characterise the 21st Century all require rare earth metals to make – an average smartphone has over 60 “ingredients”. That’s putting a strain on the planet’s natural resources: in China, where 90% of the world’s rare earth metals are found, it’s estimated that its mines will run out in the next two decades – and good substitutes for those materials are hard to come by.
2017
10 grand challenges we’ll face by 2050
The BBC
Dueling Neural Networks
Two AI systems can spar with each other to create ultra-realistic original images or sounds, something machines have never been able to do before.
2018
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2018
MIT Technology Review
Drugs based on living cells
The introduction of medicines based on living cells (autologous, donor, primary, cultivated, differentiated and modified) will form a basis for cell therapy and tissue engineering for transplanting stem cells into certain parts of the body, as well as equivalents engineered on the basis of stem cells, which could be able to restore the structure and functions of damaged tissues and organs. Technologies to obtain stem cells from patient tissues will make it possible to make treatment materials within a matter of hours. The techniques used to selectively cultivate and differentiate this type of cell will allow for rapid and effective treatments for various pathologies. A new and fundamental property of these technologies is the complete compatibility of the stem cells taken from the patient’s own differentiated tissues with the patient’s body. In this regard, it is possible to rule out infections: the cells have reduced (compared with embryonic) capabilities to differentiate into unwanted directions.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Drugmakers will double down on China.
In 2018, that investment translated into pharmaceutical partnerships with leading Chinese companies like health insurer Ping An (Sanofi), e-commerce giant Alibaba (Merck Group) and tech conglomerate Tencent (Novartis). Not only is the country the second largest pharmaceuticals market for many companies now, China itself is rethinking its approach to medicines. It published its first list of rare diseases six months ago, and a new drug approval process may result in new therapies from Chinese drugmakers, too. “Our experiences there are going to drive how we reimagine health care,” predicts Novartis’ Vas Narasimhan, who took over as CEO in early 2018.
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Drug delivery targeted to specific tumors or pathogens
2006
Global Technology Revolution 2020
RAND Corporation
Drug delivery systems
The use of drug delivery systems will radically increase the effectiveness of drug treatments. Highly-porous nanoparticles or nanocapsules could be used as drug carriers. Targeted delivery systems are contributing to cost-effective spending on medicinal substances and reductions in their toxicity, as opposed to significantly levelling out their side effects.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation