Horizon scanning for radical innovation breakthroughs

The goal of this project is to identify 100 technological innovation opportunities for Europe and the world by confronting 100+ emerging Radical Innovation Breakthroughs (RIBs) with 20-25 Global Value Networks (GVNs).

The main phases of the project are:

• To collect and systematise up-to-date information, from sources world-wide, on key future radical (technological and societal) innovation breakthroughs;
• To evaluate the potential of these key breakthroughs as emerging trends or game-changers and their strategic importance for Europe, taking into account their scientific basis and technical feasibility, their relevance for existing economic structures in Europe and strategic potential and risks in relation to potential future global challenges and future global value networks, within Europe as well as outside it;
• To identify Europe’s strengths and weaknesses in reaping the benefits of the 100 most significant breakthroughs.
• To produce a report suitable for use by policy-makers describing the 100 most significant radical innovation breakthroughs, underpinned by a structured analysis and data set with descriptions of all breakthroughs identified that are potentially feasible in the next 5 to 20 years, and comparing the 100 most significant breakthroughs to European strengths and weaknesses in research, science and technology.

In addition, however, the project aims at two more far-reaching aims directed at underpinning a European future orientation in a more general way:

• To initiate a community of actors committed to engage into a Pan-European dialogue on radical innovation breakthroughs that may form the nucleus of wider future oriented debate in Europe and thereby strengthen European futures orientation and resilience.
• To pave the way for an ongoing exploration of radical innovation breakthroughs combining human judgement and automated analysis in a fruitful way.

Project partners:

• Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI 
• Institutul de Prospectiva
• Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku, Finland