News about the Uk Foresight Programme
Issue 3 - October 2003
Cognitive Systems - Linking Brain Science and Computing
Cognitive systems are natural or artificial information processing systems, including those responsible for perception, learning, reasoning, and decision-making, and both communication and action. The project is nearing completion, at which point action will be handed on to "foster parents" who have been involved in the project so far. In September we held a major Inter Action Conference at Hewlett Packard Labs, Bristol. This conference, attended by over a hundred scientists from a wide range of disciplines identified several key areas for the emerging community of interests to take forward. These ranged from the future of speech recognition and synthesis, to brain plasticity and theories of forgetting. Presentations and papers are available at www.iac03.com. Of particular interest is the paper based on the presentation " Applications and Impacts" by Bill Sharpe.
Flood and Coastal Defence - Impacts and Responses to Climate Change
The project's interim report provides the most up-to-date estimates of the impacts of future flood risk in the UK in 2050 and 2080. Even in the mildest scenario coastal flood damage could double by the end of the century. The worst case showed coastal flooding increasing by 30 times in the same period. However, some under some scenarios some areas may get less flooding, especially in the summer. The project is now looking at flood management responses.
Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention - Next Generation ICT Risks and Rewards
RAND Europe have worked with us to research and synthesise existing work roadmapping future Cyber Trust & Crime Prevention challenges, to establish a baseline for the project. Their report is now available. It describes the challenges to be faced in integrating technological R&D planning with wider policy needs, and highlights risks as such privacy, trust and interdependence. It also identifies the key areas for exploration.
Exploiting the Electromagnetic Spectrum - Exploiting Emerging Science
Our fourth project has strong links to the Government's innovation agenda. It is looking at areas of adventurous science across the spectrum to identify specific potential areas of opportunity. It will assess these against UK capabilities, and develop plans of action to help UK exploit them. Following a scoping phase, we are taking forward four topics with detailed analysis, roadmapping and action planning. We are currently commissioning 'state of the science' reviews and economic studies for each topic, along with an economic 'options analysis' model to be applied in this and other innovation support work.
Project News
Foresight's Fifth Project - Brain Science and Drugs
We were delighted to announce that the next Foresight project, provisionally titled Brain Science and Drugs, will be starting later in the year. We are now scoping the project and developing its objectives, but we expect it to cover the treatment and prevention of addiction, and relevant areas of brain science.