This report provides a literature review of publications authored by numerous external organisations. It summarises 34 signals and trends of emerging technologies and breakthrough innovations across the 11 primary categories of a taxonomy defined by the European Innovation Council (EIC). The authors investigate not only what is deemed most novel in multiple application domains but what is worth the attention of European Union (EU) policy audiences involved with prioritysetting and decision-making. This work that has led to this literature review (1) reviews and evaluates 186 reports and articles on emerging technologies, (2) captures 489 signals, of which 86 have been short-listed and 34 selected for this report, (3) creates an internal database of signals which is used to digest and analyse the evolution of signals and novel technologies (4) connects signals with EIC portfolios and other European Commission (EC) initiatives such as policies surrounding critical technologies and Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) investments that, together with the primary and secondary levels of the EIC taxonomy, provide multiple types of analysis and insights (5) draws conclusions that aim to support the EIC funding prioritisation and additionally, provide reflections on EIC portfolio setting. By using the best publicly-available data to produce a harmonised internal database, along with an appropriate filtering and selection methodology, the authors aim to provide a support platform for future-oriented technology analysis of relevance for other EU policy-making initiatives.
Authors
Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Bailey, Gwendolyn, Farinha, João, Mochan, Antonia, Pólvora, Alexandre
- Catalogue number
- KJ-NA-31-948-EN-N KJ-NA-31-948-EN-C
- Citation
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Bailey, G., Farinha, J., Mochan, A. et al., Eyes on the future – Signals from recent reports on emerging technologies and breakthrough innovations to support European Innovation Council strategic intelligence. Volume 1 , Publications Office of the European Union, 2024, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/144136
- DOI
- https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/355 https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/144136
- ISBN
- 978-92-68-16501-0
- ISSN
- 1831-9424
- Pages
- 91
- Published in
- Belgium
- Themes
- Scientific and technical research
Table of Contents
- Contents 4
- Abstract 6
- Acknowledgements 7
- Executive summary 8
- 1 Introduction 11
- 1.1 Anticipation and signals 11
- 1.2 Report context and goals 12
- 2 Methodology 14
- 2.1 Signal collection 14
- 2.2 Signal assessment 16
- 2.3 Selection of final key signals 16
- 3 Selected signals for EIC 18
- 3.1 Health 20
- 3.2 Mobility 27
- 3.3 Space 31
- 3.4 Agriculture & Food 34
- 3.5 Hardware & Semiconductors 38
- 3.6 Advanced Manufacturing 43
- 3.7 Environmental Tech 46
- 3.8 Energy 51
- 3.9 Built Environment 56
- 3.10 Advanced Materials 59
- 3.11 Information & Communication Technologies 62
- 4 Analysis and final notes 65
- 4.1 Signal distribution 65
- 4.2 Connections with key EU policy initiatives 73
- References 75
- List of abbreviations and definitions 79
- List of figures 81
- List of tables 83
- Annexes 84
- Annex 1. List of EIC primary level categorisation of taxonomy and their corresponding secondary level categories as of December 2023. 84
