WALLPAPER that changes colour at the flick of a switch and microscopic robots that guide drugs to their targets in the human body are among the futuristic ideas in reports published this week as part of Britain鈥檚 Technology Foresight Programme. The government wants industry to use the reports 鈥� prepared by panels of academics and industrialists 鈥� as 鈥渃rystal balls鈥� to identify which markets and technologies are likely to be most lucrative over the next two decades.
Science minister David Hunt launched five reports this week covering the construction, chemicals, transport, health and financial services industries. Another 10 reports on other industrial sectors are to be published over the next fortnight. Officials at Hunt鈥檚 Office of Science and Technology are trying hard to reassure academics who are worried that money for basic science will be diverted to pay for industrial R&D. Although the reports are aimed at industry, the OST has power only over the Science Budget, which is distributed to the research councils. Academics have argued that the OST can only respond to foresight by tinkering with the Science Budget to give priority to industrial R&D.
These fears have been compounded by the Department of Trade and Industry鈥檚 swingeing cuts in funding for research into advanced technologies. Last month, Michael Heseltine, the President of the Board of Trade, said that the DTI had set aside very little money to act on the foresight results.
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In response to the fears of academic researchers, an OST official said last week: 鈥淢any of the panels say that excellence, breadth and depth in basic science must be preserved.鈥� Funding priorities would 鈥渞eflect鈥� academic concerns, he said.
Industry also has worries about foresight: how to make the weighty reports more palatable to busy executives. The OST wants business organisations and 鈥渆vangelists鈥� from the foresight panels to go out into the regions and spread the word to 鈥渕overs and shakers鈥� in industry.
Bob Whelan of the Centre for Exploitation of Science and Technology, an independent think-tank funded by industry and the government, is busy removing jargon from the reports and searching for 鈥渘uggets鈥� of information that can be presented to individual firms or industries. 鈥淎 panel will say that surface engineering is important,鈥� says Whelan. 鈥淏ut a metal-plater in Sheffield will say: 鈥楬ow do I use it to make my knives sharper?鈥�, and 鈥榃ill I sell more of them?鈥�.鈥�