Around 700 experts from academia, business, government and civil society came together in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils 2018 dedicated to promoting innovative thinking about the future.

Council members shared ideas and insights as well as adapted and enhanced their thinking by engaging other councils in the network. They developed a framework to capture actionable recommendations for global decision-makers facing the disruptions of a world entering a new phase of international collaboration: Globalization 4.0.

The world needs a new global architecture capable of supporting a “new deal for nature”, tackling social polarization and providing people with the means to access the education and skills needed to ensure mobility and prosperity in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This was the message delivered at the close of the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Champions 2018 in Dubai.

Meeting Highlights

During the meeting, the World Economic Forum published the inaugural Future Frontier Survey, a look at those areas of scientific research that have the most potential, as well as pose the greatest concern for humankind in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Forum also published a paper Data Policy in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Insights on Personal Data with the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future of the United Arab Emirates, aimed at helping governments develop data policy capable of regulating the use of personal data while adapting to the rapid technological changes in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

More than 100 senior government leaders from the United Arab Emirates participated in special strategic sessions that explored emerging technologies and enablers of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, engaging directly with experts from the Network of Global Future Councils on policy recommendations.

Lastly, the Forum published Regional Risks for Doing Business, a survey of more than 12,000 business leaders highlighting the major threats facing the private sector around the world in 2018.

Examples of Council Outcomes

The Global Future Council for biodiversity and the bioeconomy will create a practical “nature action agenda” designed to mobilize wider business, innovation and public-private efforts to complement the Convention on Biological Diversity COP 15 in Beijing 2020, and beyond.
A plan to create a digital platform for entrepreneurs, investors and other stakeholders to collaborate and develop, pooling the resources of the Inter-American Development Bank’s IDB Lab and the Forum’s UpLink global entrepreneurship platform.
Developing guidelines governing global opt-in regarding receiving diverse digital content based on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Building a platform to promote media literacy and combat visual mis- or disinformation with the view of a pilot being ready ahead of the European Union elections in 2019.
To build a personal data privacy dashboard in the style of a credit report where consumers can view their internet data trails and potentially immediately revoke any permissions.

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Issue Briefing: Future Frontiers of Science and Technology

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