What are the most promising areas of technological opportunity for innovation funders?

Technology families

An analysis of the technology landscape by Innovate UK supporting the government’s Innovation Strategy in 2021 found seven key technology families of future growth and opportunity, ranging from AI and engineering biology to robotics and quantum technology.

What’s interesting about this framing is that it’s about identifying families of technologies, rather than defining problems or needs. These are not priority sectors, but general-purpose enablers for groundbreaking inventions that can benefit us all.

It’s an approach based on identifying opportunities, rather than pinpointing needs.

Possible applications straddle sectors and geographies. AI can impact dementia care as much as it can advertising. Robotics can transform wheelchairs as much as it does manufacturing.

How funders should think about this

As part of the innovation funding landscape (alongside solving specific problems, or stimulating stagnant sectors) it makes sense to seize some of the opportunities of these dynamic and sometimes disruptive technologies.

• From the government’s perspective, a key element of supporting and nurturing innovation in these technologies is to future-proof the economy: building industry clusters around them and turning them into drivers of prosperity.
• For the private sector, seizing innovation opportunities not already on everyone’s radar can give their brands a material advantage in these new industries as they develop, and investing via innovative mechanisms such as a challenge prize enables them to encourage entrepreneurs without the downside of VC-style risk.
• Charitable funders on the other hand are interested in technology, not for technology’s sake, but for the betterment of their beneficiaries. The challenge for charitable funders is to be able to think longer-term to the future impact technological advancement will have for their mission and beneficiaries.

Where do we think there are opportunities for impact?

For our own work in our Technology Frontiers priority area, we are looking at areas where cutting-edge technology intersects with real-world problems and a degree of (exciting) uncertainty: rapid social, economic or environmental change, or markets which are undergoing disruption.

Our thinking will evolve as we research and develop ideas in the field. But here are some areas we’re going to be looking into in the coming months:

Space
The UK has extensive technology leadership in satellite technology and big ambitions in the field. It combines several of the technology families, including advanced materials, electronics and robotics. And it’s a fast-evolving enabler of many other worthwhile things, from climate action to communications. Challenge prizes have been used in the USA and Canada to develop new space technologies – why not here in the UK?

Circular economy for critical minerals
Many of the frontier technology products and industrial processes we need for the green transition rely on rare or expensive minerals. And in turn, frontier technology solutions like advanced materials and environmental technologies could help use these more wisely – whether by recycling, reinventing, or improving processes. Challenge prizes would channel innovative thinking to find some of these solutions.

Energy networks
As massive investments in renewable energy add cheap but unpredictable energy into the grid, and massive electrification of transport and heat add new demands, how will electricity networks evolve? Challenge prizes have already been used to develop new technologies to reinvent the grid, in the UK and Canada. We think there’s a lot more still to do.

Human-centred artificial intelligence
As a general-purpose technology, AI could transform whole sectors. We’re barely scratching the surface of the possible applications just now. At Challenge Works we think there could be many more challenge prizes like our Longitude Prize on Dementia, which seeks AI solutions that help people live independently as they begin to experience the symptoms of dementia. We want to think about how targeted challenges could accelerate AI towards achieving positive social impact.

Applications of engineering biology
The interface of life sciences and engineering, often enabled by modern computation, has promising applications from agriculture to ecosystem restoration, food and even manufacturing. We’re excited at the potential for challenge prizes to foster unusual partnerships and creative thinking about how this technology could be deployed for the benefit of all.

If you have expertise, networks or ideas related to these – or to other areas in frontier technology – then please get in touch.

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Image courtesy of Surrey County Council