Summary of First Meeting – 22 November 2010
Following the announcement of the establishment of the National Enabling Technologies Strategy’s Expert Forum, chaired by Professor Ron Johnston, the Expert Forum held its first meeting on Monday 22 November 2010 at Industry House in Canberra.
The meeting discussed the nature and application of foresighting to provide anticipatory intelligence in the new enabling technologies to help government meet the challenges faced in Australia’s transition to a sustainable, resource-efficient, globally competitive and socially inclusive society. These technologies include bio and nano technologies, converging with ICT and cognitive science. As platform technologies they promise to transform many industries, providing a range of applications, such as new materials with thermal properties, energy-efficient solar and battery storage systems, sensor technologies and a range of bio-medical applications. They may require changes to our regulatory frameworks and present potential ‘shocks’ to our traditional markets in the form of discontinuities in demands for raw materials, such as cotton, or customer demands for technology-enhanced biomedicines, building materials, coatings, and cleantech energy products in the manufacturing and services sectors.
A strategic framework was developed that linked innovation with the interconnectedness between science, technology, markets and society.
The Expert Forum is developing a workplan, which is expected to include industry uptake foresight workshops, such as working with the Built Environment Industry Innovation Council on innovations in the building products industry, and working with various stakeholders involved in the uptake of assistive technologies for healthy ageing. The Expert Forum will also hold a major annual foresighting event in 2011, with a range of public engagement strategies.
The Expert Forum also identified a range of other potential activities, which will be prioritised at its next meeting in March 2011.