The Big Challenges: How Can We Stop Preparing for the Last War?

The Big Challenges: How Can We Stop Preparing for the Last War?

2 June, 12:00–13:15

Revolutionary shifts in technology, such as the fourth industrial revolution and the digital economy, have become reality. Futurologists and experts foresee major economic and social change. But is it not the case that – as has happened before – these predictions are simply extrapolations based on obvious trends which substitute an image of the future with today’s (or even yesterday’s) reality? Or are we perhaps looking at an attempt by a limited group of technology owners to present us with ready-made solutions, condemning the majority of countries to an endless game of catch-up? If this is indeed the case, is it possible to break free from the framework imposed by the current leading players which guarantees their primacy? Finally, would it be feasible to create an institution which could design and realize a desirable future and lay out a path to development in such a way as to avoid the tendency to fight the last war?

















Broadcast

Key moments

Science and technology aren’t just a tool – they are the basis for competitive power. They are the basis for global competition of both leading states and non-state actors. They are the basis a state needs in order to develop its potential and its approach to forming a development strategy for the future.
Fedor Voytolovskiy
Acting Director, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO); Corresponding Member, Russian Academy of Sciences
A lot of scientific disciplines are amalgamating today to the point where you cannot tell one from another. We call this convergence. And the issue with it is how very dynamic the whole situation is. You can never foresee which disciplines we are going to require tomorrow.
Alexander Kabanov
Member of the Academia Europaea; fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
In modern fields of scienc, such as biomedicine, nanotechnology, computer technology, material science, it’s the individual scientists’ breakthroughs that gain the most prominence, rather than those of big groups. It is becoming clear that we need to support the individuals but also foster teaming up.
Alexander Kabanov
Member of the Academia Europaea; fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
We must make sure that creative people can come up all of a sudden with totally new disruptive sort of ideas. At the same time we must make sure that we support evolutionary developments in all the major research areas and if we find a proper combination of that, we will be successful in the end.
Otmar Wiestler
President, Helmholtz Association
We must make sure that we have highly motivated people who will systematically train the next generation of young people – and if we do that well, I am very confident about our future.
Otmar Wiestler
President, Helmholtz Association
We will not be able to face any challenges unless we ensure the existence of a certain intellectual environment able to address both revolutionary and evolutionary changes.
Olga Dontsova
Head, Division of Chemistry of Natural Compounds, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Every major country wants to propose a mega project, but the supply of such proposals is higher than the supply of scientists to engage in them, so the competition for minds and talents takes the spotlight. Under such conditions, it becomes especially important to find harmony between theoretical and applied science.
Grigoriy Trubnikov
Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
The most important thing we can do for scientific development today is to transplant and integrate the knowledge we have amassed in natural sciences into the humanities.
Vladislav Panchenko
Chairman, Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR); Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The scientific process per se and development of the technological market are orthogonal to each other. So a scientist doesn’t think in the way needed to ensure this technological development. We need to teach scientists to think differently and provide them with incentives to do so.
Alexander Kabanov
Member of the Academia Europaea; fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
The scientific achievements of today are so complex that business is unable to begin implementing them straight away. It needs an infrastructure to take a scientific achievement and relay it to business.
Eugenia Serova
Director of Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Russia and many other countries and international organisations are trying to establish the direction science must be headed. But this is neither the task of states nor supernational authorities. The control over science should be adaptive.
Eugenia Serova
Director of Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations