With our knowledge of the universe, we have sent men to the moon. We know microscopic details of objects around us and within us. And yet we know relatively little about how our society works and how it reacts to changes brought upon it. Humankind is now facing serious crises for which we must develop new ways to tackle the global challenges of humanity in the 21st century. With connectivity between people rapidly increasing, we are now able to exploit information and communication technologies to achieve major breakthroughs that go beyond the step-wise improvements in other areas.
It is thus timely to create an ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Flagship to explore social life on Earth, and everything it relates to, in the same way that we have spent the last century or more understanding our physical world. This proposal sketches out visionary scientific endeavours, forming an ambitious concept that allows us to answer a whole range of challenging questions. Integrating the European engineering, natural, and social science communities, this proposal will release a huge potential.
The need of a socio-economic knowledge collider was first pointed out in the OECD Global Science Forum on Applications of Complexity Science for Public Policy in Erice from October 5 to 7, 2008. Since then, many scientists have called for a large-scale ICT-based research initiative on techno-social-economic-environmental issues, sometimes phrased as a Manhattan-, Apollo-, or CERN-like project to study the way our living planet works in a social dimension. Due to the connotations, we use the term knowledge accelerator, here. An organizational concept for the establishment of a knowledge accelerator is currently being sketched within the EU Support Action VISIONEER, see www.visioneer.ethz.ch. The EU Flagship initiative is exactly the right instrument to materialize this concept and thereby tackle the global challenges for mankind in the 21st century.
Project Summaries
Download: FuturICT Project Summary
Download: FuturICT Project Outline
Download: FuturICT Project Impact
Platforms
Download: Living Earth Simulator Platform
Download: Global Participatory Platform
Download: Planetary Nervous System Platform
Download: Innovation Accelerator Platform
High Level Concepts
Download: Resilience
Observatories
Download: Energy
Download: Networks and Communication
Download: Economics
Download: Crime and Corruption
Download: Migration
Download: Health
Download: Crisis Management
Background Information
Flagships are visionary, science and goal-driven large-scale European ICT research initiatives nucleated from FET (Future and Emerging Technologies) but cascading into various scientific and technological areas of different maturity, from long term to more technology driven research. Built on established strengths of European research, FET Flagships are envisioned as long term initiatives, each on a budget of around 100 M€ Euros per year.
Link: European Flagship Initiative Homepage
Download: FET Flagship Flyer
Download: Moving the ICT Frontiers
Download: European Challenges and Flagships 2020 and Beyond
Link: Flagship June Workshop Webpage
Link: Flagship January Workshop Webpage
The FuturICT Flagship Proposal
Download: FuturICT Platform in Detail - excerpt from 'Building FET Flagships- A World Class Endeavour' publication of the FET Flagship Mid Term Conference in Warsaw Nov 2011
Download: An Excerpt of the FuturICT Coordination Action Proposal (December 2010)
Download: A Five Page Summary of the FuturICT Coordination Action Proposal (September 2010)
Download: An Early Outline of the FuturICT Proposal (April 2010)
Download: Slides presented at the Science & Policy Forum on FET Flagships in Brussels, June 9-10, 2010 (.pdf, .ppt).
Download: Introductory slides for the FuturICT workshop held in London Jun 2010 by Prof. Dirk Helbing (ETH) and Prof. Steven Bishop (UCL)
Download: The FuturICT Flyer (print version)
Download: Slides presented at the FET Info Day, 30 September 2010 (slides, notes)
Download: FuturICT Overview, December 2011 (.pdf with notes, .ppt with notes) by Prof. Steven Bishop (UCL)