Trends Identified
An increasingly multipolar world
Globally, economic power is shifting. In the last century or two, a relatively small number of countries, together accounting for about a fifth of the world population, have dominated global economic production and consumption. Today, a significant rebalancing of power is under way, with Asian countries coming to the fore. Economic and demographic projections suggest that the influence of today's wealthiest economies will continue to lessen as other countries and regional power blocs become increasingly important — economically, politically and diplomatically. As global interdependence and trade expands, Europe has opportunities to benefit from improving its resource efficiency and knowledge-based economy.
2015
Assessment of global megatrends - an update
European Environment Agency (EEA)
Increasingly severe consequences of climate change
In the past 150 years, the atmosphere and the oceans have warmed, snow and ice cover has decreased, sea levels have risen and many extreme weather and climate events have become more frequent. This warming of the global climate is unprecedented over millennia.
2015
Assessment of global megatrends - an update
European Environment Agency (EEA)
Increasing environmental pollution
Across the world, ecosystems are today exposed to critical levels of pollution in increasingly complex mixtures. Human activities (such as energy generation and agriculture), global population growth and changing consumption patterns are the key drivers behind this growing environmental burden.
2015
Assessment of global megatrends - an update
European Environment Agency (EEA)
Diversifying approaches to governance
In the context of rapid globalisation, governments are facing a mismatch between the increasingly long-term, global, systemic challenges facing society and their more national and short-term focus and powers.
2015
Assessment of global megatrends - an update
European Environment Agency (EEA)
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is a major technology leap that can give to public organisations, companies and SMEs virtually unlimited access to computing power without substantial capital investments in local IT infrastructure or advanced in-house ICT skills. Cloud computing can bring substantial advantages in particular as regards productivity growth as well as bring the tools needed for the digital revolution.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
High performance computing
Solving complex problems– societal, scientific, industrial- needs trillions of calculations which cannot be done without High Performance Computing (HPC). Some of the examples are: integrated policy assessment, understanding and solving a wide range of problems in life sciences and health, materials research, fusion energy, aircraft fuel efficiency, reduction of aircraft noise, weight reduction of cars, safer transportation, climate and weather prediction, earth observation etc. HPC is of paramount importance for European competitiveness, and nearly every industrial sector depends on supercomputing to be competitive.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Text and Data mining
ICT technologies are getting better at processing large volumes of unstructured or non-uniform data and text. New techniques, learned on data sets in life sciences and drug discovery, are being applied in particular in social sciences, humanities, security, business, marketing and legal areas. Text and data mining (TDM) refers to the different tools, techniques and technologies for the automated processing of the large volumes of information available in order to obtain new knowledge and insights and discover patterns and trends. While its importance is growing with the increasing large amounts of data stored in corporate data warehouses and databases, realising the full economic and societal potential afforded by this vast sea of information will require new technologies, processes and business models.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Advanced autonomous systems
Advanced autonomous systems are on the rise: Algorithmic trading with no human in the loop already accounts for around 50% of all stock-market trading, and some parts of the car manufacturing process have automation levels of above 90%. These systems will gain more capabilities in the future enabling their widespread use in many market domains. While these systems make a strong contribution to productivity and can perform jobs which are dull, dirty and dangerous for humans, there is a danger of them eliminating a large number of jobs in a relatively short time frame. In addition, they pose a challenge for established legal concepts such as liability.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Models and data in decision-making
We will have ever more accurate description and models of many technical and natural phenomena; we might even have better models of human activity (behavioural models and data). We will have an ever increasing range of data on all aspects of policy and societal decisions. Citizens will be ever more involved in decisions processes in society, redefining the role of experts and even policy makers. We need to analyse opportunities and pitfalls from these developments in time. The ultimate use of models will most likely be as tools for orientation rather than as tools for prediction.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Brain-inspired technologies
Understanding the human brain is one of the greatest challenges facing 21st century science. Advances in this understanding can help us gain profound insights into what makes us human, develop new treatments for brain disease and build revolutionary new computing and robotic technologies. Modern ICT has now brought these goals within sight.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)