Foresight: Volume 3 Issue 4

Challenges and priorities for European research: a foresight review

James Gavigan, Mario Zappacosta, Ken Ducatel, Fabiana Scapolo, Paola di Pietrogiacomo

A review of recent foresight exercises reveals some important drivers of research in Europe. In this editorial, we introduce five main areas where science and technology will be…

Sympathy for the cyborg: research visions in the information socieity

Marc Bogdanowicz, Joe Leyten

Information and communications technologies are encroaching on every sphere of modern life. New modes of networking and cross‐referencing are revolutionizing our management of…

Humanizing the future: managing change with soft technology

Thomas Durand, Marie Dubreuil

Technology has always inspired social change, but its scale and complexity have begun to bewilder even the politicians and policymakers. Several recent national foresight studies…

Breaking the mould: European manufacturing in the knowledge economy

Eamon Cahill

Manufactured artefacts will always be needed to satisfy human needs, but the business of manufacturing faces a range of challenges in the emerging knowledge economy. Six main…

Dovetailing peace: technological convergence in the defence and aerospace industries

Jordi Molas‐Gallart

Military technology is traditionally shrouded in secrecy. Even joint research between allies can be a marriage of convenience. But with the end of the Cold War and greater…

Selling sustainability: green research for a global market

Peter eder

Now that energy efficiency is becoming a global imperative, Europe is finding new export markets for its energy technologies, which are as advanced as they are diverse. It’s a…

Angels on a pinhead: new research networks for nanotechnology

Gerd Bachmann, Dirk Holtmannspötter, Sabine Korte, Axel Zweck

Nanotechnology promises to be the defining science of the 21st century. With its integration of the organic and inorganic worlds, it represents more than simply a continuation of…

Innovation challenges for European agriculture

J.G. de Wilt, P.J.M. Diederen, M. Butter, A. Tukker

With rising public concern over animal welfare, food safety and GM crops, Europe’s farmers, breeders and food processors are caught in the eye of a storm. While some are…

Roots regeneration: decentralized energy in a global marketplace

Stéphane Isoard, Antonio Soria

Even if they meet their energy needs in a multiplicity of ways, EU member states are united in their commitment to environmental technology. Europe is a leader in the research and…

Taking transport out of the loop

Peder Jensen

Without transport there is no activity in society. Thus transport has been allowed to grow more or less unchecked for decades and even centuries. Environmental concerns seem…

Systemic surgery: a new social contract for health care

Reinhard Busse, Mario Zappacosta

Modern health care presents challenges for science and technology that go well beyond surgical procedures and physiological monitoring. But although technology is making a rod for…

Data is destiny: health care and human genomics

Anne‐Katrin Bock, Dolores Ibarreta, Karine Lheureux, Monique Libeau, Hans Nilsagård

In February this year the sequence of the human genome was published, opening a new chapter in medicine. Soon genetic testing will be at the heart of diagnosis, epidemiology, drug…