The Search for Differentiating Technologies

摘要

In recent years, global investment in science and technology (S&T) has increased markedly. Numerous new fields of research have been opened, and most nations now support active programmes. The need to maintain awareness of new developments and to consider their potential impact has never been more important. Accordingly, in January of 2006, the UK MOD commissioned systematic S&T horizon scanning using techniques developed by Dstl. This aims to inform appropriate staff of 'interesting' advances from across the world, irrespective of their original field of development. The capability works to reduce the chance of technological surprise, and to create differential advantage both by identifying new technologies that can be used directly and by stimulating creative new solutions. This paper describes Dstl's approach to horizon scanning and shows an illustrative selection of developments that may find relevance in future aerospace applications.