Technology (General)
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- Which technologies are most likely to disrupt the pattern of global trade and investment in the coming decades and what impact will they have on productivity growth?
- How do we design public-serving autonomous systems to be fair and inclusive?
- Data mapping and linking: improving the quality and use of administrative data through developments in cutting-edge data linking methodologies, to provide cross-system insights of justice user journeys and outcomes.
- What are the key considerations for sustainable (all three pillars) and lawful deployment of pavement robots?
- How are emerging digital services and technologies likely to affect the future of exports and supply chains across sectors?
- What are the definition and groups of new and emerging aviation technology? How will or could new and emerging aviation technology change travel patterns and demand, and fit in with the wider future of transport scenarios of seamless connectivity and living local?
- How should autonomous aviation systems communicate with ground control and each other?
- What is substantial change to trigger re-evaluation of AI?
- How can quantum sensors contribute to improved road traffic management and maintenance?
- What is required to ensure quantum technologies (i.e., gravity sensors) can provide a reliable alternative to GNSS for maritime and other modes of transport?
- What, if any, are the emerging risks to personal privacy and victim intrusion from new digital forensic technologies?
- How can policing improve the process and workflow surrounding digital forensics, including democratising the ability to run safe, rapid and effective forensics at a crime scene?
- Can we have AI learn “on the job” safely? For example, in machine vision applications.
- What is the best-in-class digital tooling available for the forensic analysis of text, media and metadata?
- What cybersecurity threats exist for the use of drones in policing and how can they be mitigated?
- How can policing capitalise on geospatial technologies to deliver new information forms that can enhance situational awareness and decision making?
- How can the use of low orbit satellites augment existing sensing capabilities in policing?
- What novel millimetric wave sensing technologies can be used by policing to identify hidden objects??
- What technologies can be applied to drones to extend battery life and help to reduce replacement and maintenance costs?
- How can candidate technologies for lawful knife detection and vehicle interdiction achieve usable size, weight, and power configurations?
- What counter technologies may be used to trick large scale audio-visual data processing and analysis systems used by the police and how can they be mitigated?
- What computational and analytical techniques can deliver accurate, large scale, automated image capture, processing, and amalgamation, while maintaining privacy and proportionality?
- How can policing maintain the integrity of the evidential chain when processing and analysing audio-visual data?
- How can policing use advances in robotics to reduce or remove the need for police officers to enter hazardous environments e.g., water, fire, electrical, natural disaster, CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear)? Further, how can a seamless and secure operation be enabled in such environments?
- How can we best communicate and understand the public’s perception of autonomous vehicles and drone usage in policing?
- How can we access and/or train individuals in the police to ensure there is the required expertise to use autonomous vehicles, such as drones?
- What are the safety and line-of-sight flying concerns regarding the use of drones in policing and how can these be mitigated?
- What technologies can assist police officers in vehicle interdiction relating to e-scooter and e-bike crime?
- What technologies can mitigate work-related trauma experienced by police staff? For example, using computer vision technologies to reduce manual assessments of child exploitation images.
- Which technologies are going to be important for economic and national security over the next 10 years?
- How can international governance, emerging technologies (including climate tech) and digital agreements be used to achieve Net Zero and support environmental sustainability?
- What are the risks to UK interests if the industry led, multi stakeholder nature of the global internet is weakened in favour of greater state- or multilateral control?
- Evidence and data on the climate impact of life sciences activity.
- Evaluate current growth barriers or opportunities, understand where action is needed (by the Government or others) to address these barriers, and understand the impact of any interventions.
- What are the major security and resilience issues that may arise from future telecoms networks?
- What is the potential for commercial human space travel in the long-term?
- What is the prevalence and associated costs of Age Assurance technology/ solutions across industry?
- How can different actors (e.g. Governments, tech companies, social media platforms, individuals etc.) mitigate these harms?
- What risk is there that generative AI evolves such that the content it generates can avoid detection faster than tools can be developed to detect it? How can international and industry collaboration limit this risk?
- How would a shift towards interoperable / decentralised social media (aka ‘the fediverse’) alter how disinformation spreads, and the ability to be able to address it?
- Where are the opportunities for international collaboration to increase the UK’s role and influence over the development of next generation telecommunications technologies - including advanced 5G and beyond?
- Which harmful online uses of AI are likely to increase? What could be the impact of AI-generated content on attitudes, beliefs, behaviours or psychological wellbeing?
- How can the UK effectively assess and mitigate semiconductor supply chain vulnerabilities?
- What incentives need to be put in place to ensure that the UK semiconductor industry remains competitive?
- How can the UK retain and expand its strategic advantage in relation to semiconductor IP, design, R&D and compound and advanced materials?
- A taxonomy of economic and national security risks with likelihood impact assessments to determine relative severity.
- How can the UK use its S&T strengths to protect national security?
- How can we better join up digital standards with UK research and innovation sectors to ensure that digital standards are a valued element of the innovation lifecycle in the UK?
- What are the opportunities to influence global digital standards?
- Which areas of research on the uses of next generation networks may need policy interventions (e.g. Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence)? This may include driving strong take-up of fibre and 5G/6G, encouraging the adoption of the products and services, and increasing Willingness to Pay and supporting industry to make the necessary investments?
- How might wide-spread take-up of gigabit connectivity affect an individual’s daily life? What impact might it have on; (i) spending/saving habits, (ii)occupation, (iii) location of residence, (iv) education, (v) health (including wellbeing)? How does this differ for different demographic groups?
- Given the focus towards higher frequency bands and increasing competing demand from new and incumbent users, is a different model accommodating shared use of spectrum needed? What is the best mechanism for promoting shared use of spectrum?
- What sustainable vehicle alternatives can policing turn to that are capable of meeting requirements for performance and weight?
- What are more carbon-efficient practices that the police should look to adopt when responding to incidents?
- How can robotics expedite policing activities or complement the existing provision, for example, to effectively support forensic specialists identify, record, or assess marks across a crime scene?
- What advanced materials could be exploited by policing for lightweight, multi-functional, well-fitting personal protective equipment?
- What are the key factors that influence a supplier’s decision to include or exclude premises in area build plans? Are there ways to predict or model this behaviour within an area?
- How can government better assess the impact of regulatory reform proposals on innovation when producing Impact Assessments? Is it realistic to quantify impacts on innovation?
- What are innovators perceptions of regulations and standards in relation to innovation? Do perceptions vary depending on the type of innovator (e.g. start-up vs large firm) or depending on the stage of innovation (e.g. low vs high TRL)?
- What is the expected growth of the UK's maritime autonomy and remote operations sector and what impact will this technical change have on the workforce?
- How do we account for AI-first assumptions/errors (that humans would not make)?
- What are the risks of avoiding early adoption of quantum technologies in UK transport?
- What are functional and operations performance and training requirements for remote-control/operation centre/station - with a focus on Human Element?
- What are the potential opportunities and issues associated with the development and deployment of open telecoms solutions such as Open RAN, and how should government intervention be targeted to utilise or mitigate these? How is Open RAN adoption progressing and what is the likely trajectory? What are the barriers to adoption and acceptance of open architectures for 5G deployment and how are they changing? What are the economic benefits associated with this?
- Self-sustaining forces - When the UK deploys forces overseas it has to ensure that they are supported by an appropriately robust and effective logistics infrastructure that ensures the timely delivery of consumables and other materiel. MOD is interested in all aspects of technology, or alternative ways of working, that minimise the logistic infrastructure particularly that exposed to risk. Interests span technology for reducing the logistic footprint itself for example through the use of renewable or alternative energy sources, through to the use of additive manufacturing that might reduce the need for a large holding of spares in-theatre.
- Fast/high throughput trace detection and body scanners.
- What are the direct benefits from increases in connectivity?
- How can the UK academic sector and policy makers improve connections between those who understand and use analysis and land use decision makers who would benefit from these insights?
- What is needed to understand whether the original design life of assets remains valid in the face of changing use and creeping change?
- How are new and emerging geospatial technologies supporting market growth and wider economic, social and environmental value?
- What emerging and external factors present a risk to the sector’s ability to develop effective solutions? What are the risks around Age Assurance technology and how might they be mitigated?
- What are the most appropriate models for improving access to location data held at both the national and local level that maintains sustainable access to the data?
- What are the factors that constitute making data "authoritative", especially in an increasingly dynamic and digital data economy?
- Further understand investment, export and domestic market access for safety tech products and services in the UK and beyond.
- How can AI be used to identify harmful content?
- How can policing advance its interconnectivity both within policing (e.g., AI supported call and response routing), on multi-modal devices, and across organisations?
- In terms of horizon scanning, how do we best develop approaches to identifying new types of harm online, or new and emergent platforms of technologies (e.g. virtual reality) where online harm can manifest?
- How can artificial intelligence, machine learning, simulation, agent based modelling and other leading data science techniques contribute to better understanding of trade and investment patterns?
- How can policing measure and demonstrate the level of accuracy in predictive algorithms?
- How can the police service further develop capabilities in automatic redaction and selective extraction from phones?
- What tools are available to support the police service with compliance to analytic or data governance standards?
- What analytical tools can relieve the police workforce of administrative tasks?
- How can the police service maximise opportunities in Robotic Process Automation to streamline analytical processes in the near-term?
- What emerging technologies, such as wearables, can help identify and enable earlier interventions for struggling workforce members before they reach crisis point, for example, through the analysis of psychophysiological data?
- What science and technology led interventions are available to encourage and support safer driving?
- In what areas of policing can we democratise the science and technology so that it can be used by many non-specialists?
- How can policing best communicate our ambitions, decisions and use of science and technology to improve public awareness and understanding?
- What are the public’s perceptions, beliefs, and concerns about policing’s existing and emerging science and technology capabilities?
- How can we better understand trends in geospatial investment internationally, including into the capture of data (such as satellite, aerial imaging and surveying programmes) and the development of geospatial applications?
- How can policing establish sustainable science and technology development and procurement practices that contribute to policing’s Net Zero commitments?
- How should the UK mitigate the risks associated with emerging technologies, while taking advantage of the opportunities?
- What does research say about digital sectors or countries that pose the greatest risk of disruption to international cooperation over the use and governance of digital technology?
- What factors drive fragmentation and consolidation, respectively, in internet architecture and the international digital space?
- What are the digital technology trends that the UK Government should be considering in the long term?
- What broader science/tech sectors have the most spill-overs with the telecoms sector?
- What is the economic opportunity from growing UK commercial ecosystems of telecoms security/resilience solutions? What should the UK prioritise supporting as part of the next generation of telecoms solutions?
- To what extent are telecommunications companies investing in research and development to devise and implement alternative ways, to traditional telecoms mast structures, of expanding wide area mobile coverage across the UK? Low altitude balloons; repeaters etc.
- How can the UK foster international influence in digital policy, and what should the priorities be for cooperation over such policy?
- What does evidence suggest about how the UK could prepare for future trends?
- What does research tell us about the impact of interventions that the Government has put in place to strengthen the UK's capabilities in digital and emerging technologies, and about possible future trajectories?
- Horizon scanning on the scenarios for digital and tech dominance over the near- and medium-term future.
- Comparative studies on international strategic advantages now and in the future.
- What is the nature of international investment in science and tech related R&D?
- What are the most relevant potential changes in the external security and resilience risk environment?
- How does the UK’s approach to telecoms resilience compare to other countries approaches? This includes power resilience of the telecoms network.
- How can the expected benefits of policies to increase the security and resilience of telecoms networks be quantified?
- What are the suitable metrics for quantifying the costs and benefits of telecoms security and resilience policies?
- How will future public services rely on digital infrastructure and what adjustments will be required?
- Illustrate what a strong telecoms security and resilience sector will look like in the next 5-10 years: Include what challenges future networks face and identify how best these can be mitigated. Additionally, how will new technology, market changes and shifts in the geopolitical environment impact security and resilience in the telecoms sector. How are changes in the value chain for ‘telecoms’ driving market dynamics and how is that likely to change.
- What are the barriers to improving security and resilience of telecoms infrastructure? Identify and compare incentives for greater levels of investment in security and resilience measures.
- Evaluate the security & resilience opportunities and risks of the technologies (as listed above) that will drive terabit networks, clean networks and smart networks.
- What security and competition challenges are expected to arise from the development and adoption of cloud services in telecoms networks?
- How can government funding be used most effectively to support future adoption of important technologies?
- What are the empirical trends in previous technology adoption cycles, and to what extent can they be used as proxies to predict future trends and rates of adoption?
- Do firms that adopt one frontier technology, such as 5G, also adopt other cutting-edge technologies?
- How should business support practices such as accelerators be designed to maximise their impact on tech startups and scaleups?
- How can the UK build its potential to transform research into intellectual property (IP) and products/services and to commercialise to increase its global market share?
- Identify factors which inhibit UK telecoms research and development in terms of: (i) skills and talents (education, jobs), (ii) R&D (lack of IP knowledge, facilities), (iii) investment (private sector / venture capital), (iv) coordination, (v) market dynamics (barriers to entry, commercialisation, international policies and subsidies).
- Identify factors which inhibit UK telecoms research and development in terms of: (i) skills and talents (education, jobs), (ii) R&D (lack of IP knowledge, facilities), (iii) investment (private sector / venture capital), (iv) coordination, (v) market dynamics (barriers to entry, commercialisation, international policies and subsidies).
- What is the potential for future technologies in delivering mobile connectivity more efficiently and effectively than contemporary technologies e.g. low earth orbit satellite technology? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies?
- In what way(s) will the development of cloud services impact telecoms networks? What are the opportunities and the challenges?
- What are the potential unintended consequences of digital technology (5G, ORAN, Fibre, etc) policies and to what extent could the market mitigate them?
- To what extent does innovation and competition between companies promote network technology evolution and interoperability (e.g. between systems, equipment, etc)? For further relevant questions on market competition and cooperation see BDUK section 2.
- Identify the policy intervention options for mitigating barriers to UK capability, including analysis of how policy could stimulate or support (e.g. research and publications, start ups, investments, commercialisation). What can we learn from other countries’ approaches, or what are the ecosystem benefits we can emulate from the practice of leading international companies?
- Which of the future technologies will the UK have a comparative advantage in or face particular challenges in regard to global competition? How can the UK build strategic advantage in key technologies and how can the benefits be measured?
- Which of the future technologies will the UK have a comparative advantage in or face particular challenges in regard to global competition? How can the UK build strategic advantage in key technologies and how can the benefits be measured?
- Which of the future technologies will the UK have a comparative advantage in or face particular challenges in regard to global competition? How can the UK build strategic advantage in key technologies and how can the benefits be measured?
- Given current gigabit deployment and capabilities, what is the economic case for private sector investments into future network technologies?
- Evaluate the technologies that will drive clean networks/power efficiency: harnessing semiconductors and AI to drive more efficient telecom radios and network optimisation.
- Evaluate the technologies that will drive terabit networks: supporting the development of next-gen fibre technology, leveraging opto-electronics, encoding and graphene expertise to deploy a terabit network.
- What is the correlation between adopting improved connectivity and wider digitalisation and what new use cases will improve connectivity allow?
- Given that Wi-Fi is the go-to access method between fibre to the premises (and Gigabit capability) and user devices: (i) identify options for future evolution of Wi-Fi technologies and network architecture in premises (domestic and business) that will match the data capacity of fibre? (ii) what are the spectrum implications and options for transitioning to the desirable spectrum requirements (e.g. using spectrum above 50 GHz or LiFi).
- What priority areas should the UK be targeting in key convergence areas to support growth of UK supply-side market share? Where is there a clear UK competitive advantage?
- What are the impacts of 5G on users’ day-to-day lives? How will people and businesses use this connectivity?
- How can small cell technology support the delivery of mobile coverage and capacity across the UK? What are the advantages and limitations of incorporating this technology into delivery strategies?
- What international evidence is there of the productivity benefits from high capacity fixed and wireless networks? At what point are these changes noticeable to consumers and businesses?
- Digital Infrastructure - High capacity fixed and wireless networks adoption
- What are the future scoping research questions and work needed to better understand and drive digital regional growth?
- Analyse and evaluate regional growth using “internet economy” principles. What are the interventions that can be made and the impact of place-based vs people-based interventions?
- How might AI contribute to future spectrum regulation/management?
- How effective have market mechanisms been in enabling efficient and effective use of spectrum, compared to the objectives when they were introduced? How do the UK’s spectrum allocation mechanisms compare to the rest of the world? What best practices for allocation can be adopted in the UK?
- What changes should we expect to see in the next decade both domestically and internationally in regard to the technological, commercial, and regulatory landscapes of the mobile market?
- What are the advantages, disadvantages, and limitations in using non-terrestrial technology to support the expansion of mobile coverage across the UK?
- What are the current telecoms supply chain/RAN market concentration risks and how are they evolving? What has been/will be the impact of the economic and geopolitical risks on achieving greater market diversity. How could future technological trends affect market concentration risks in telecoms supply chains?
- What solutions, and scale of solutions, should be implemented to reduce these barriers, in order to drive growth in the digital sector across all regions of the UK?
- How do we best measure the growth of the tech sector within the digital economy?
- What future strategy for shared spectrum can drive coverage and scale up private/enterprise networks?
- Evaluate current spectrum annual licence fees: (i) do they effectively promote efficient allocation and use of spectrum? (ii) do they materially inhibit operator ability to invest in network upgrades? (iii) What lessons can be drawn from international practice, particularly on how charging for spectrum and network investment and coverage interact?
- What is the industry view on the potential of and the requirements for 6G? How far will 6G take us?
- Estimating the willingness to pay for access to high-capacity telecoms networks: (i) what behavioural factors may hinder business and residential consumers from taking up new services and what factors drive them? (ii) what policy interventions might address these?
- What research and social experimentation can quantify harms and impacts of harmful online practices with a view to develop best practice principles and regulation?
- What solutions, and scale of solutions, can improve recruitment, retention and progression in the digital and technology workforce? What are the main forces at play?
- What are the barriers preventing equity of access to digital services, including accessing online Government services; and how does this change for different groups?
- What definition for digital exclusion be used across Government and industry?
- How much capacity do UK centres have, and is it sufficient for domestic uses? How much reliance is there on data centres abroad? How might technological advances such as in the field of AI affect future demand for data centre processing power and can the sector cope with such changes?
- What are the costs of cloud and data centre outages to businesses? Is there scope for government intervention to provide transparency or prevention for any issues in this space?
- What are the data protection and competition/innovation implications of changes to cookie architecture? What might be the impact for businesses that rely on cookies as part of their business model?
- What is the relationship between research led innovation and commercialisation in the UK? What are the determinants of this relationship? What are the tools required for research to lead to innovation? What are the barriers, if any?
- What productivity benefits can businesses expect from investing in tech upskilling?
- What digital facilities do UK citizens need to have access to in order to take part in education, work, and social life?
- What are the benefits of securing data adequacy with the rest of the world? What is the added value of data adequacy, especially to small and medium firms, in comparison to using alternative transfer mechanisms such as standard contractual clauses? Do businesses use such contractual clauses even where data bridge (adequacy) agreements are in place, and if so why.
- Can global data flows be mapped? What is the relationship between the volume and value of data flows?
- What is the state of trust in digital environments and applications (including data-processing applications such as AI)? How does this influence use of and investment in data infrastructure?
- What impact do UK research professionals and academics have overseas?
- How do we define digital skills and occupations, ensuring this keeps pace with the fast-changing sector?
- What are the areas of supply shortage (personnel and skills) and how do we improve and fill these gaps? What works internationally?
- Are there any benefits to data localisation - economic, security, scientific and tech leadership? What are the costs?
- What is the nature of the relationship between data and productivity? How does this influence business motivation to share/use data?
- How competitive are data markets? What are the drivers behind concentration in some areas? What are the barriers to enabling more competition?
- What role does cloud and computing play in enabling efficient research? Are there any current market failures that the government should be seeking to remedy and how could it intervene?
- How should government approach public sector valuation to encourage further utilisation of datasets. What are some effective models to provide access to sensitive public datasets for research purposes.
- How secure and resilient is data infrastructure (DI) in the UK? Which systems in the sector should be designated Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and how? What are the risks (social and economic) to the UK of less-than-ideal levels of security and resilience?
- What are barriers to data sharing in general and for businesses and scientific/research institutions in particular?
- How inclusive is the evolving digital identity ecosystem? What are the barriers to inclusion within the system? What are the benefits of digital identity to individuals and businesses? How can we ensure the UK’s digital identity ecosystem is secure? Within the current market which groups are disproportionately affected or are more likely to become left behind as digital identity solutions become more widespread? What are some of the consequences of having excluded groups? Are there differences across different sectors or use cases? How can we build trust in digital identity solutions?
- What measures and prioritisation tools can be used to better evaluate and target cyber risks with government interventions?
- What do we foresee as future risks in this space and how might we best futureproof the UK?
- How can we build agility into software policy to ensure policy remains dynamic?
- What could the government and/or industry do to help improve the cybermedicine of software supply chains?
- Where are the biggest risks from - developers, vendors, customers? Where could government intervention help to improve the cyber resilience of software supply chains? Explore case studies of different contexts, for example: (i) most recent significant attacks, incidents and exploited vulnerabilities and their causes and (ii) statistics on attacks, breaches and prevalence of software vulnerabilities. What are the biggest/most urgent software supply chain risks to the UK economy (that companies face)?
- How effective is UK government messaging and guidance on adopting cybersecurity? Do some messages land better than others? Why? With whom?
- How might automation, machine learning/AI change the way in which cybersecurity services are currently delivered? Do these changes lead to a reduction or even an increase in demand for cyber security skills, products and services
- In what ways can cyber security effectively share the UK technology talent pool with other priority industries?
- What are the most appropriate measures for adoption? What do different measures look like for cost effectiveness, availability of information or resource, ease of implementation, prospect of mitigated data/financial losses due to cyber breaches?
- What are the most cost-effective interventions for improving an organisation’s cyber security risk or network of interventions? How well do current government interventions support these?
- Are regulatory measures more effective at reducing cyber security incidents /breaches than non-regulatory measures? What other measures could be introduced to improve the adoption of cyber security measures - how and at what cost? How is this best measured?
- What will be the environmental impact of the copper switch-off and recovery of copper wiring? This includes the emissions used to recover the copper wiring, and the emissions savings from reduced need to mine and refine copper?
- How can government intervention best foster and encourage innovation that becomes globally foundational to securely operating digital systems? What is the cyber equivalent of the three-point belt? How do we maximise the chances that the UK cyber ecosystem begets such an invention?
- How could incentives for cyber security adoption and change, to reducible risk, be posed to organisations? Is there a need for different types of incentivisation for different sectors or differing sizes of organisations?
- What are the barriers and opportunities for external investment in UK cyber sector companies? To what extent are these specific to cyber versus reflecting the UK investment landscape overall? What can be done to encourage investors to look at cyber companies based outside London and the South East?
- What behavioural and attitudinal considerations can be mapped in this area and how do we encourage good behaviours across organisations?
- What are the critical emerging technologies on the 5, 10, and 15-year horizon which have the potential to change cyberspace or impact on the UK’s cyber-power and strategic advantage? What novel critical applications of existing technologies could have the potential to transform cyberspace? How should emerging technologies be prioritised for cyber security research?
- What are the costs associated with higher levels of cyber security services or regulated businesses (e.g. those under NIS regulation), in regards to products and services? Who pays for these costs? If they are passed onto the consumer then how is this incorporated into the product or service? How can price differentials be clearly identified?
- What are the systemic linkages between the cyber security skills shortage and other government cyber interventions?
- What evidence is there for not embedding adequate cyber security in highly commercialised or direct-to-consumer tech? What evidence is there on cybersecurity not being embedded adequately in sectors with lower regulation?
- What is the overall impact of telecoms on biodiversity within the UK? This includes; (i) domestic manufacturing, (ii) shipping, (iii) installation, (iv)maintenance (v) passive existence of infrastructure?
- How do low or no emission power methods for 4G mobile masts, such as wind, solar, hydrogen, and other methods, compare to diesel generation power in terms of ;(i) viability, (ii) reliability, (iii) durability, (iv) cost to operate?
- How does increased data usage affect power consumption at server and data centres?
- What are some of the emergent technologies which will increase the need for gigabit connectivity for (i) residential premises; (ii) business premises?
- How might wide-spread take-up of 4G mobile connectivity affect an individual’s daily life? What impact might it have on; (i) spending/saving habits, (ii) occupation, (iii) location of residence, (iv) education, (v) health(including wellbeing)? How does this differ for different demographic groups?
- "How does the upgrade in mobile connectivity from 4G to 5G impact end users, both positively and negatively? Additionally, what changes in usage does this upgrade cause for both residential and business users? How can the impact of this uplift be monetised?"
- Identifying the distribution of productivity benefits from telecoms infrastructure investment (fixed and wireless): (i) to what extent can, or has, telecoms investment reduce(d) the difference in productivity between areas of the UK? (ii) what is the impact of telecoms infrastructure on the differences in productivity between firms within sectors (e.g. can it help address the issue of ‘long-tail’ of low productivity firms)? And how do the productivity impacts differ between different industries? (iii) what are the barriers to scaling up wireless enterprise applications for growth and how are they changing? (iv) How do productivity impacts vary across public mobile networks, private mobile networks (e.g. private 5G) and fixed networks including the role of Wi-Fi? For further relevant questions on productivity see BDUK section 9.
- How has gigabit connectivity and the digital harmonisation, or moving a variety of services onto one system, of local public services affected; (i) how they’re delivered, (ii) how they’re used, (iii) future coverage within that local area, (iv) technological innovation within that local authority?
- How does the UK compare to other countries in respect to 4G mobile coverage? In particular, how does the UK compare to G7 and EU countries? What factors contribute to this? What can the UK learn from 4G mobile roll-out in other countries?
- "How can benefits of 4G mobile connectivity be monetised for areas where very few people live? Are there international examples, such as national parks from across the world, that are comparable?"
- What risks does digital first public services/digital citizenship pose to the digitally excluded?
- For how long will gigabit capable speeds be sufficient for (i) residential premises; (ii) business premises; (iii) public sector organisations?
- How does technology usage affect competitiveness in the market, for example delivery rates and value for money? How does this differ across technologies and organisations?
- What is the potential for future technologies in delivering mobile connectivity more efficiently and effectively than contemporary technologies e.g. low earth orbit satellite technology? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies, including their feasibility and possible barriers to implementation?
- How can Quality of Service data be quantified and measured as a consistent metric across BDUK delivery?
- How best can local context be incorporated into data received to understand how local events and human and natural geographical features of the area affect the speed of build and risks of delivery?
- To what extent can efficiency in maintenance be gained by utilising existing public sector resources and assets to preserve or maintain our networks?
- To what extent are the decisions being made by network suppliers in where to build equitable both at the beginning of and during delivery (specifically considering the impact of descoping premises from delivery)?
- How will the mobile market be affected by reaching 95% coverage of the UK and increasing competitiveness across regions of the UK by 2030?
- What incentivises and supports sharing of knowledge to promote sector-wide best practice in a competitive market place?
- How do network providers differ in the surveying methods used and what efficiencies do particular methods have?
- To what extent are the networks being built adding to the resilience of national infrastructure?
- To what extent is overbuild an issue within the market and what characteristics make it a more or less favourable delivery decision for suppliers?
- What are the factors which lead to urban premises not having FTTP connectivity?
- How would a retrenchment of the telecoms market affect: (i) market structure and market behaviour, (ii) outcomes for delivery, (iii) the general public?
- To what extent are network providers effectively planning their networks to ensure delays and additional cost are avoided?
- Evidence on the economic impact of clinical trials and cost.
- Evidence on the main barriers to conducting clinical trial activity.
- How can we apply the defence in depth approach to preparing for risks from AI?
- What human systems are resilient to impacts from AI and which are less so?
- Which data sources or key indicators should we be watching that may indicate major changes in the risk assessment, or new risks hitherto unidentified arising?
- Estimates of the potential market size for AI-related services in the life sciences sector.
- Detailed company data on both current expenditure and investment in AI.
- What risk assessment methods are best suited to risks from AI?
- How can we ensure use of AI is ethical?
- How can we ensure AI increases public sector productivity?
- Which risks from AI are the most urgent to mitigate?
- To what extent do AI companies face sufficient incentives to invest in risk measurement, prevention and mitigation?
- How can we attribute the role that AI had in causing a particular harm, rather than something else?
- What is the proper role for public engagement and communication as part of a wider regulatory process? What is regulators’ accountability to the public with respect to innovation? What are the practical ways of doing public engagement in agile way?
- How can we scan the regulatory horizon to identify opportunities to improve the regulatory environment? What role can regulators play in helping government identify areas of regulation in need of reform (and what information could they provide)? As new technologies develop, how can we more effectively anticipate and ‘roadmap’ the need for regulation and/or standardisation? How can we estimate what/when risks will occur (based on TRL) and when regulation is needed?
- What role do technical standards play in supporting or hindering innovation? How can regulation and standards play complimentary roles in creating an agile governance framework? Are there successful case studies we can draw lessons from?
- We need to understand who the UK technology companies are, who owns them and who invests in them.
- How does the space sector underpin our critical national infrastructure and our society?
- What are plausible scenarios and what role could/should the UK play in them?
- How is the space sector changing our society? What will this look like in the future? What is the role of government in this context?
- Investigating the impact of the space sector on wider UK economy and society. What services are provided by the space sector?
- What are the areas of weakness, what are the areas of strength?
- Studying the relative competitiveness of the UK space sector in an international context. How do UK space sector companies compare to international rivals?
- Innovation diffusion and adoption: How can we measure and understand the adoption and diffusion of new ideas and technologies across regions and sectors? How can we support more widespread adoption of existing and new innovations?
- We are interested in estimates of the size of the future market for particular technologies.
- We are always interested in comparing the situation and activity in the UK to what is happening in our global partners and competitors.
- Sometimes there can be a lack of certain specialised facilities or infrastructure that is a barrier to technology companies scaling up within the UK.
- Sometimes there can be a lack of certain specialised facilities or infrastructure that is a barrier to technology companies scaling up within the UK.
- Providing sufficient scale up capital for fast growing tech and deep tech companies is always a very important topic, as part of the global race for leadership.
- How can we leverage our world-class researchers, education, businesses and facilities to build the UK as a science and technology superpower, and in doing so, helping to achieve our goals in space?
- What enables UK space sector companies to thrive – and what stops them from thriving?
- How best to draw on collaborative research and innovation, international opportunities, and global talent to be resilient and competitive?
- How is the space sector likely to grow and change, and what will that mean for the UK space sector?
- Real time performance monitoring: How can DSIT promote and introduce real time data monitoring, to track the delivery and performance of RDI programmes inflight?
- Which institutions and actors are engaged in international R&I within the UK?
- Compute: What are the latent needs of the UK’s AI ecosystem for compute resource?
- Evaluation methods for RDI programmes: What new methods and approaches are emerging to understand the short-term and long-term impact of public sector RDI investments?
- How are R&I professionals from the UK received overseas?
- AI sector: What are the key opportunities for HMG to intervene that will support the growth of the UK AI sector?
- Talent: What is the role of international AI talent in UK prosperity? What are the AI talent flows into and out of the UK?
- "R&D : In which areas of AI R&D is the UK strongest? What are the most significant AI R&D opportunities for the UK? Which government interventions are most effective for boosting UK AI R&D (relative to such goals as economic growth, productivity and security)?"
- How will AI impact societal cohesion, including through trust in institutions and the government and through factionalism?
- To what extent are the potential risks posed by highly capable AI systems a barrier to economy-wide adoption, and how could progress in AI safety overcome these barriers? How can we ensure that the UK population has the right AI skills for life and work?
- How can we better understand the barriers to AI adoption?
- How should the UK position itself in terms of the global AI market? What sort of AI businesses should we particularly be looking to attract?
- Micro productivity: To what extent does AI impact firm level productivity?
- Productivity: What are the possible direct and indirect productivity impacts of AI?
- What are the most effective approaches to upskilling the education workforce to use AI well? What impact could this have on productivity?
- How will AI impact competition and innovation?
- Macro productivity: To what extent does AI impact national productivity?
- How can we best establish which UK research and technology organisations are undertaking work for overseas companies, and which have operations outside of the UK?
- How can the impact of digital technology be robustly measured, and implemented in a way that supports teachers and learners?
- How has the increased accessibility of generative AI influenced HE and FE providers and students?
- How will new and emerging aviation technology such as unmanned aircraft, advanced air mobility, provide environmental benefits or disbenefits and what environmental assessment techniques should be applied?
- How do we harness technological advances to support our sectors reduce exposure and vulnerability to climate risk?
- What solutions, and scale of solutions, can improve the upskilling of digital skills capabilities, and wider digitisation, of UK businesses? How can we incentivise the private sector to play their role in upskilling the UK labour market?
- What is the potential of new technology and innovation to change and improve flood planning and infrastructure?
- How many energy production sites will exist and what is the optimum scale they will operate at?
- What is required to identify implications for worker health and safety from AI, ensuring it is used safely throughout its lifecycle, including consideration of the interaction between digital and physical systems?
- Does deploying AI models in an existing process or system increase the attack surface of the host system? If so, how can this be mitigated? Who would be the owners for securing against those vulnerabilities and, where this is unclear, should organisations be sharing knowledge and security ownership, across the technology stack and system of deployment? Analyse and examine the full extent and range of cyber security risks to the UK economy in software development, distribution and supply chains. Identify what risks to the UK’s cyber resilience are introduced through software supply chains by software vendors and users? Which are the highest profile risks? We are interested in B2B/enterprise software rather than consumer software but including: operational technology, IT and cloud and on-premise.
- How do operational fusion power plants compare in risk profile to industrial installations HSE are familiar with regulating?
- Is there opportunity to transfer knowledge and skills from hydrocarbon technologies to operators of new and emerging technologies in the energy transition?
- What role does HSE have in assuring the trust of communities in new and emerging technologies in the energy transition?
- How can the role of human factors in the safe and effective operation of a new energy system be effectively understood?
- What evidence is needed about the use of new technologies - e.g. new and emerging energy technologies, use of novel materials, new manufacturing processes, etc. - to develop an appropriate, effective strategy for their better regulation, enabling their rapid and safe introduction?
- How can it be ensured that repair and replacement strategies (and the technologies used) are suitable?
- How can we ensure that new industries such CCS, hydrogen and energy storage are designed with safety and health considerations in mind?
- How can designers, consultants and manufacturers contribute to incorporating improvements in occupational health and safety when considering design of new technologies?
- How can it be ensured that our regulatory approach accommodates future trends in new technologies and health and environmental hazards?
- What cyber interventions that DSIT or NCSC runs are most likely to be adopted and what is the positive impact of these? What drivers exist for the adoption of these? What are the barriers to adoption? Do sectors with more stringent regulatory measures see higher adoption of cyber security principles than non-regulatory driven protocols? What other non-UK government frameworks matter most to organisations?
- Digitisation: How can digital innovation (e.g. digitisation of CDM) be harnessed to improve building safety and to better structure, share and use construction health and safety data to best inform health and/or safety decisions during the design, construction and use of an asset or building?
- How will future changes in technology, and the way in which workers interact with these new technologies (e.g. Artificial Intelligence, Net Zero technologies), affect the health of workers and what can be done to mitigate any work-related ill health?
- What are some of the key drivers and enablers for take-up of gigabit-speed connectivity for (i) residential premises; (ii) business premises? [question of relevance to Digital Infrastructure, as seen in their section 1]
- Can quantum hydrogen image and gas sensors provide a safer operating environmental for hydrogen vehicles and H fuel storage and conveyance?
- Can quantum computing approaches to advanced material development provide lighter, stronger, safer, and more efficient batteries and hydrogen storage systems?
- What are the real-world pollutant emissions of road vehicles, including non-exhaust emissions, and what are the technologies that can be used to reduce them?
- How are the local environmental impacts of aviation evolving through time (e.g., noise and air quality) and how can they best be mitigated?
- How can we develop and exploit new methodologies to ensure cost-effective monitoring (for example remote sensing and environmental DNA)?
- Which new technologies and approaches can be applied to improve transport systems resilience to disruption from natural hazards?
- How can new approaches and technologies be applied to deter, detect, and disrupt the misuse of drones?
- How can new technologies and approaches be applied to enhance the cyber security of transport systems, including points of interconnection, autonomous transport, and commercial space flight? How does increased cyber-reliance in transport systems reduce our resilience to or increase the impact of an attack or major catastrophe?
- What benefits do consumers gain from offering a wider selection of mobile providers through the expansion of mobile connectivity in areas with partial coverage?
- What benefits of increased connectivity can still be achieved at sub-gigabit speeds which are still above ultrafast (300-999 mbps)? How do the benefits compare at different levels; for example, what are the benefits at 600 mbps versus 700 mbps? How do these differences in benefits change over time?
- Molecular biology: The ongoing evolution in the costs, speed, and ease of DNA measurements will allow entirely new approaches to complement traditional biodiversity monitoring and increase understanding of ecosystems, biodiversity, diseases, and other aspects of the environment
- How can emerging technologies be deployed in a safe and secure way to enhance the protective security and resilience of transport systems?
- How can the risks that emerging technologies pose to transport systems be identified and quantified?
- How are decisions on investment and location of R&D facilities affected by the broader commercial environment and, in particular, price regulation and other cost control measures.?
- How can innovations in data science, data analytics, sensor technology (including innovative deployment) be used and integrated with wider security systems to enhance security in transport systems?
- How can we best share the research being conducted on traffic technology investments with the wider community?
- How can quantum based cyber security systems protect the transport sector beyond that of current classical cyber security?
- What are the human-machine interface (HMI) requirements for AI applications such as machine vision? How can we limit overreliance?
- How can we combine available and emergent information technologies (such as text analytics, natural language processing, sentiment analysis and semantic markup) to improve knowledge and information sharing in a public sector context?
- Will adoption of AI in key delivery departments contribute to more efficient and effective public services?
- What are the big strategic questions in relation to ‘Pro-Innovation Regulation’ that the government should be focused on? Do regulatory mandates and remits need to change and if so how, as markets and the economy continue to shift? Is sector-focused regulation struggling to cope with changing markets, and how should it interact with horizontal regulation? Should innovation be made an explicit part of regulators’ remit, without diluting their responsibility for consumer safety? How far should regulation be used to create new markets or shape existing ones?
- How can technological change reduce pressures on natural resources?
- What are the infrastructure, airspace, regulatory and skills requirements for the emerging aviation technologies and what are the impacts of existing government interventions?
- How can networks and communities of practice be used to support knowledge sharing and foster collaboration amongst regulators? How can strategic coordination and partnership help unlock the value of standards for innovation? How can regulators work with Freeports to overcome the regulatory challenges of developing, testing and applying new ideas and technologies?
- How can drones and other new technology be used safely and securely to open new opportunities; develop new markets; and deliver aviation services to realise their full potential in the UK and to deliver economic growth?
- In what ways is the UK regulatory environment helping / hindering the plans and activities of innovators? Is it becoming more friendly or less friendly to innovators over time? Methodologically, what is the best way of measuring the health of the UK regulatory environment over time?
- How can we monitor emissions arising as a result of digital consumption?
- How can we ensure Situational Awareness for different human in the loop actors in autonomous aviation?
- Data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence: algorithmic decision-support and decision-making, to inform the real-time personalisation of services and interventions; natural language processing, feature extraction and analysis of complex textual data; artificial intelligence transparency, accountability, fairness, and ‘explainability’.
- What are the barriers creative businesses face in adopting new technologies?
- New methodologies for valuing the impact of RDI programmes: What new methodologies exist for valuing the impact of individual RDI programmes? Are there ways to accurately estimate programme-specific spill overs or indirect impacts?
- Integrating autonomous systems - Defence is interested in addressing the integration challenges of operating these new autonomous systems with legacy military capabilities. From a people perspective - what are the opportunities, costs and risks of introducing autonomous systems? How do we effectively integrate people with autonomous systems and define the boundaries and interfaces?
- Data Science and Decisions - How can MOD harness the benefits of data science? How do we build trust in automated systems? How do we integrate multiple sources of information with differing levels of uncertainty and represent this effectively and efficiently to busy decision makers?
- Reducing Cognitive Load - Greater access to data, information and services will challenge the cognitive loading on personnel. How can new technology help reduce this burden through, for example, autonomous software agents? Which functions could be carried out by machine and, conversely, what decisions will still need to be taken by human operators to ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards? How do we integrate these advances into our command and control systems?
- S&T Skills – The complex challenges faced by Defence requires a multidisciplinary approach. However of particular interest is access to those specialist skills relating to nuclear, energetics and explosives, autonomy, aerodynamics, big data and cyber. There will a continuing demand for systems engineering skills to harness and integrate technology for military advantage. Within Defence there are opportunities for engineering and scientific apprenticeships, industrial placements and summer student placements which all provide the opportunity to work on challenging but exciting problems.
- Training – Preparing our people for operations with appropriate training can be costly. How do we harness advances in synthetics and simulation to reduce the need for real training? What technological advances will improve our ability to train and prepare for dangerous situations without exposing our people to unnecessary risks? How do we reduce our burden on the physical environment? What is the optimum blend of real/synthetic training? How do we measure the effectiveness of team and collective training?
- Cost - Traditional complex military capability is designed and built to counter technologically sophisticated military adversaries. What low cost, simple solutions exist to address the future spectrum of potential adversary capabilities? How can we ensure military units and capabilities are sufficiently agile to fulfil a range of potential roles and counter the spectrum of adversaries? How do we introduce asymmetric capability to our advantage? How do we integrate new technologies into complex systems at affordable cost?
- Exploiting the electromagnetic spectrum - How do we develop approaches to maximise the use of the electronic spectrum in congested environments to ensure commanders are able to access the information they need? How can we improve secure transmission of information? How do we integrate new and emerging technological solutions with legacy equipment to achieve this communications edge?
- How can forecasting methods inform long-term total factor productivity growth?
- International comparisons: How do UK capabilities compare to international leaders (such as the US, China, France, South Korea, Singapore, Israel)?How do these governments’ interventions and capabilities policies compare to the UK’s?
- Coping with the large number of devices and sheer volume of data, especially considering human factors.
- What are the environmental effects of emerging technologies?
- Changing world: How have evolutions in our statistical system (such as the greater focus on administrative sources for statistics) influenced how statistics are produced, used, and valued? How may advances in wider society (such as the increasing sophistication of large language models) influence how statistics are produced, used, and valued?
- Recovering fingerprints from various materials; automatically processing fingerprints; getting additional information (not just the image itself) from fingerprints.
- Risk posed across sectors by different types of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and other autonomous and unmanned systems, now and in the future.
- Risks and effectiveness of counter-UAV measures in civilian airspace.
- What are the risks and opportunities to creative business growth posed by new technology, including automation such as the use of AI?
- What is the impact of digital technologies on supply and demand for culture in AHT sectors?
- Opportunities and threats posed by new technologies, such as the dark web, distributed ledger technologies, the internet of things, additive manufacturing and connected cities.
- How will coronavirus impact on international co-operation on emerging technologies
- Low-cost tools for detecting threat items in bags.
- How can front-line public services adapt to the challenges and opportunities presented by automation? What are the benefits and risks of adopting new technologies to deliver services?
- How can new approaches and technologies be applied to perform targeted screening of specific areas of the body?
- What is the best way to inspect traditional and modern joining methods to identify flaws that could compromise the safety of tanks constructed using such methods?
- What impacts are smart speakers and broader connected devices having on radio listening and on radio providers? What are the opportunities for voice activation usage on smart speakers?
- What are the spatial drivers and distribution of R&D activity? Within that, what are the relevant roles of infrastructure, excellence and capacity?
- How can advances in communication technologies be used to inform our understanding of trade in digital services?
- What are implications of advances in communications technologies for trade in services?
- What behavioural and technical interventions will improve the safety of public spaces and the public’s perception of their safety?
- How can we effectively evaluate countries’ relative technology readiness levels (TRL), by technical area, sector and overall strategy? To what extent does the commercial, regulatory and legal environment impact on TRLs? To what extent can market access restrictions to some sectors have wider impacts on trade within other sectors?
- What patterns are we likely to see in AI diffusion and adoption throughout the economy?
- Are traffic standards and guidance still appropriate and relevant considering technological and environmental changes?
- What modern provisions most effectively address emerging technologies, emerging data flows and digital trade?
- In response to a trade shock, what innovative approaches to support data collection, dissemination and application can be taken, without burdening businesses and frontline staff?
- How can we use digital innovation and precision farming techniques to measure animal health and welfare outcomes for livestock, and to provide early warning of livestock disease and health threats?
- How can we predict the potential impacts of a changing climate on actions and strategies to mitigate climate change (for example how will future climate change impact the delivery of carbon sequestration by different habitats)? What tools are available to allow for effective planning of climate change mitigation strategies that are resilient to a changing climate?
- Systems analysis that considers human-environmental systems as a complex set of interactions, and the novel use of systems thinking to consider the feedbacks and consequences of action in this system
- Data science: Application of techniques, including AI and block chain, to unlock opportunities for improved and more efficient environmental monitoring, regulatory compliance, and land management
- Development of systems approaches that can be used to inform policymaking. This includes approaches to provide insights into complex systems, identify points of intervention, account for multiple perspectives, and frame policy decisions
- Advanced electronics: How will sensors, omics, geographical information systems, internet of things, be used to support regulation and enforcement needs across the agri-envrionmental and food sectors?
- Development of models to support decision making on complex and wicked problems (for example on land use, environmental trade-offs, food systems)
- How do we deploy emerging technologies to move from post-disease/outbreak surveillance to pre-emergence surveillance and mitigation of risks?
- How is climate change affecting the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases, and how can we become more resilient to these outbreaks?
- What information, data and tools are required to support effective actions?
- How should government make best use of high-performance computing resources and emerging quantum computing technology?
- How are creative businesses using technology to increase their productivity, is this through reducing costs, increasing their access to consumers/audiences or increasing the value of their products or services?
- What has been effective in supporting businesses to adopt digital technologies? What difference have these made to productivity?
- What is the best way to secure the inclusion and accessibility of radio on smart devices? What is the current value exchange between smart device platforms and UK radio stations, and how is this likely to change in the future? What are the audience demographics for old digital (DAB) radios vs new DAB+ devices.
- To what extent do audiences who watch linear TV engage with digital technologies such as on demand players, broadband at home, and smartphones?
- What are the characteristics of those who watch linear TV but engage very little with digital technologies? Why is their engagement low? What are the barriers and enablers for adopting non-linear TV?
- What interventions have been effective in AHT sectors for narrowing the digital skills gap in their workforce and for improving digital infrastructure?
- What are the barriers to engagement in digital cultural offers for different groups and how can innovative digital content be used to reduce barriers to audience engagement?
- How is digital culture affecting how people interact with both physical and digital forms of culture? Are they substitutes or complements e.g. can digital engagement increase physical engagement? What does this mean for future policy interventions and business models?
- What technologies can assist police officers in stand-off knife detection?
- How can sensors and other advanced technologies in next generation police uniforms be powered efficiently in the field?
- How can maritime information (including navigation) be digitalised to allow machine reading alongside human inter-operability, is different information required by autonomous systems?
- What innovative approaches to data in education could increase staff capacity and reduce workload?
- What is the opinion of Internet users on cookie pop up banners. How would they prefer to be informed and aware of cookie usage, what is the right balance between that and a frictionless online experience?
- How can schools and school trusts use their resources (including staffing, estates and technology) more effectively and efficiently?
- How will new and emerging technology assist in the operation, maintenance, and renewal of the Strategic Road Network?
- How can new technologies, digitalisation and data analytics be utilised to improve transport networks, user experience and create more effective and cost-efficient transport systems?
- What are the options for reducing our reliance on space-based Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) systems? What is the most cost-effective way of ensuring adequate resilience and redundancy of PNT across transport systems?
- How will new and emerging technology change travel patterns and demand on the Strategic Road Network?
- How can we improve the provision of information; set standards; and use new technologies to improve aviation safety and security?
- Can quantum optimisation algorithms improve efficiencies/provide optimal routes for public transport and fleet operators?
- How can quantum processing benefit analytical approaches to modelling and simulation of transport data?
- How can we use digital twins to increase resilience, responsiveness, and integration of our network (cross modally)?
- Better understanding the end-to-end value of investment in policing technology
- Improving our ability to adopt digital innovations in policing
- What is telecom’s role in achieving net zero and the impact of changing climate? To what extend is telecoms a driver of energy efficiency within and across sectors?
- How does LawTech affect the productivity, cost effectiveness, and efficiency of different services and outputs in the legal sector?
- Materials and structures – Understanding material selection and performance, ageing, shock and impact resistance, corrosion, design and lifeing aimed towards reducing the long term cost of military equipment across a range of platforms, weapons and application areas. How do we pull through promising materials quickly and at low enough cost to enable early adoption?
- Sensors – The basic human need to know and understand your environment is of particular imperative to the Armed Forces. Defence is interested in the development of small, low-power, light-weight, multi-modal sensing capabilities for example to detect explosive and chemical substances, and radio frequency emissions.
- Technology or techniques to identify prohibited and restricted articles (for example, people, money, drugs, tobacco, counterfeit goods and species that require a permit under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora [CITES]).
- Research and development in all forensic science areas: the rapidly expanding digital forensics; “conventional” areas such as fingerprints and DNA; and many other niche areas. Using general scientific advances and insights in the forensics domain.
- Simulants for safe detection equipment testing and canine training Identification of CBRNE materials.
- How can emerging technology be deployed to improve school and college financial efficiency and reduce teacher workload whilst maintaining standards?
- How can it be ensured that technological advancements serve to maintain or improve existing levels of safety and health and do not present additional risks (either immediate or latent)?
- How can we model existing data from human, animal, plant, and environmental health indicators to better understand the interconnection and potential impacts of climate change?
- Which practises can most effectively reduce emissions of GHG (including CH4 and N2O) from agriculture, waste, and wastewater, land-use, and F-gases in the UK and internationally?
- How can government increase its capacity to adapt to and exploit the next curve of innovation in digital, data and technology?
- What requirements should apply to navigation bridge sensors and controls for use in MASS, in particular human and machine interfaces, update rates, and data representation?
- Approaches to parsing images automatically.
- Developing non-animal technologies.
- How can effective accountability and governance through complex AI supply chains be achieved? How can joined-up approaches with AI/digital experts in industry and academia be encouraged to develop, share knowledge and resources in ways that leverage synergies and efficiencies? e.g., sandboxes and incorporate learning from international contexts?
- A changing world of work: Are there significant implications for worker health and safety and for building safety of widespread adoption across this diverse sector of: Modern Methods of Construction (MMC); AI, Autonomy and the Internet of Things; Robotics; Advanced materials and additive manufacturing?
- How can the use of data and technology support our workforce with case management, risk mitigation, and the delivery of effective supervision?
- Human performance - Are there opportunities to improve or augment human performance to reduce cognitive or physical burden? How do we cope with the impact of changes in climate impact on human performance? How do we design clothing and equipment to mitigate these constraints?
- Test and evaluation – What are the opportunities to reduce the cost and environmental impacts associated with the test and evaluation of large scale, integrated and complex military systems?
- Ubiquitous sensing and processing - in the future, sensors will become smaller and cheaper leading to their wide availability both in civilian applications and in defence. They will also be available to our adversaries. How they are deployed and how the information they generate is managed and used will be key. We need to understand how they will be networked and how automation could be exploited to task and manage them.
- How do other customer-centric organisations mitigate issues surrounding uncertainty of service delivery which policing could look to adopt?
- How might the growth in innovative uses of location data impact public attitudes on the responsible use of location data, for example population movement data?
- What are the opportunities of emerging technologies (quantum and AI) to revolutionise our ability to map underground assets?
- What new and emerging technologies (including cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality) will impact geospatial skills and innovation, and access to geospatial data in the future, and how could the UK leverage these technologies?
- How is the use of Age Assurance technologies for the child online safety sector likely to change over the next 5 and 10 years?
- What are the current approaches to measuring the accuracy of Age Assurance technologies/ solutions?
- Evaluate the growth trajectory of the UK safety technology market, and the extent to which market growth supports DSIT online safety and prosperity objectives.
- In what ways will AI exacerbate the spread of mis/disinformation and is mis/disinformation spread by AI likely to be more effective in influencing UK audiences?
- How do online bystanders respond to viewing perceived online mis/disinformation (e.g. report, share, ignore), and how could their behaviours be influenced?
- What are the policy levers available in S&T to support and protect economic and national security How effective are they?
- What are the opportunities to influence global digital standards?
- How can the UK support firms to optimise the benefits of digital technical standards development? How can expertise of UK industry be better harnessed by government?
- How should global digital technical standards be understood and used, and how can we understand their costs and benefits? How do we work with global companies on this from a UK perspective?
- What does evidence suggest about how the UK could prepare for future trends?
- What new skills/professions are likely to emerge as a result of future telecoms technologies and how can the UK be best placed to exploit them?
- Evaluate the technologies that will drive smart networks: evidencing the utilisation of the UK’s lead in AI and Edge technology to develop self-organising, secure and highly optimised network software.
- What are the key factors and incentives that are driving technological convergence in digital networks and their barriers? How are these changing?
- Given changing TV viewer habits (online vs terrestrial TV), how can the use of the remaining Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) spectrum be optimised? What is the potential of incentivising more spectrally efficient technology (e.g. Digital Video Broadcasting — Second Generation Terrestrial or ‘DVB-T2’) and enabling increased access for mobile services while facilitating a sustainable future for DTT (albeit with a reduced set of channels). Note: this work will need to be coordinated with DCMS and its planned DTT viewing and policy reviews.
- There are legitimate but competing demands for access to the Upper 6GHz band by proponents of Wi-Fi and mobile services both internationally and in the UK. What are the advantages/disadvantages to the UK of an allocation favouring mobile or Wi-Fi compared to a hybrid option, which enables access but with limitations to both services?
- Given the expected changes in future network deployments and upcoming consideration of spectrum bands: (i) what are the most efficient methods of allocating spectrum to maximise social and economic benefits? (ii) is the current framework of market mechanisms (auctions, trading, Administered Incentive Pricing (AIP) based licence fees) likely to continue maximising social benefits or will they need updating?
- To what extent can existing rail and roadside infrastructure be used to support or deliver expanded mobile coverage across the UK? What innovative business models might promote improved coverage in road and rail corridors?
- To what extent are market sectors or verticals, such as transport, logistics, utilities, health and social care (including critical national infrastructure) likely to require access to high specification connectivity (e.g. high capacity, high reliability, low latency)? What are the commercial models for any required new investment likely to be and are there likely to be areas of market failure?
- How does the UK compare to other digital economies and how can we robustly measure this?
- What does the current digital ecosystem look like and what could be the impact of future digital regulation and policy changes directly or indirectly? What are the trade-offs and gaps to consider in maximising growth and minimising harm in these areas?
- Where are the opportunities to break down barriers, tap into unrealised opportunities and ensure that those building our digital and technological solutions are representative and cognisant of UK societal needs as a whole?
- What are the potential cases and market failures Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET) might help to resolve? What are the potential barriers to their adoption? What are some of the most adopted PETs in use in the UK?
- What are the most common connected technology convergence points we will see realised in the UK in the next 5-10 years? What are the applications of these converged connected technologies? Which sectors will be most impacted? Will there be an increased cyber attack surface for converged technologies? How can the cyber security of converged technologies be managed?
- How can connected technologies can be secured when liability and responsibility of product security is unclear, due to convergence of technologies and systems. I.e., taking a system-of-systems approach, how can holistic and robust cyber security be ensured? What is the series of measures required to safeguard the whole system? For example, taxonomy of cyber security risks and threats from the research phase through to product development, deployment and embedding with other technologies and systems. How could the UK produce a world-leading approach to securing emerging technologies through an end-to-end process?
- What is the most effective method for incentivising responsible technology design, in terms of cyber security? What are the barriers or blockers for using secure by design principles for cyber security of emerging connected technologies? Where have we seen successes in adopting secure by design principles for connected technologies? Is there a gold-standard or case study where security of a product has been considered during early inception? Has led to greater security of the product and fewer breaches?
- Are there different hierarchies, professional groups or user types and behaviours that aid or block cyber security implementation? How do we best understand this both quantitatively and qualitatively?
- What are the systemic links between the growth of the UK cyber sector and the efficacy of cyber interventions? Does growth of the cyber sector have an inverse relationship with the impact of interventions? What are the reinforcement and control loops in this system?
- What are some of the emergent environmental and ecological benefits of fixed and 4G mobile connectivity? For example, could 4G mobile connectivity help rewilding and biodiversity projects by aiding in wildlife tracking? Could increased fixed connectivity support greater use of sensors with IOT, for example, to track water quality? How significant of an impact would this be?
- How long does it take for the CO2eq emissions from the production, shipping, installation and use of fibre to result in a net emission saving overuse of copper?
- What is the full carbon life cycle of fibre? How does this differ where different machineries and processes are used? Are there possible emissions savings that could be made across the lifecycle? What are the ways in which these savings could be implemented or influenced by BDUK or other actors in the market?
- What are some of the barriers local authorities experience in using gigabit connectivity and extracting the most value from digitally harmonised services?
- How does the growth in gigabit-capable connectivity in the UK compare to other countries? In particular, how does the UK compare to France, Spain, the United States, South Korea? What factors contribute to this? What can the UK learn from gigabit roll-out in other countries with similar geographies /populations /characteristics such as New Zealand?
- What is the current forecast of non-fibre based technology (including anything capable of delivering speeds above superfast but below gigabit[30Mbps - 1Gbps], or speeds which exceeds gigabit [>1Gbps]) and its role in delivering broadband connectivity to homes and businesses where fibre is not feasible? What is the lifespan and redundancies of these technologies?
- What are the barriers to delivery of fibre-to-the-premises across the UK? What possible solutions exist to these barriers?
- How might future extreme weather, such as flooding and storms, heatwaves, and wildfires, affect the reliability and durability of: (i) underground fibre ducting; (ii) overhead cabling; (iii) mobile masts; (iv) hybrid wireless solutions such as satellite connectivity; (v) system wide vulnerabilities?
- What other factors beyond cost to build affect the commerciality of a premise? And how may this change up to 2030?
- What are some of the supply chain issues and risks associated with fibre deployment in the next 10 years? To what extent is the UK able to self-sufficiently, domestically produce, fibre and ducting for the needs of the market and to what extent is it reliant on imports?
- What are the possible scenarios for various AI risks 1, 3, 5, 10 and more years from now?
- What is needed to enable the public sector to adopt AI?
- Are international regulatory frameworks and technical standards currently helping or hindering UK innovators in achieving scale? How do key stakeholders rate our regulatory system compared to international competitors? How active / influential has the UK been in shaping international efforts to establish regulations and standards? Have UK industry and government built new capabilities / coalitions, effective in shaping global technical standards?
- What approaches do regulators currently use to support innovators? How effective are these approaches? What are the underlying barriers stopping regulators from doing more to enable innovation (Capability, Opportunity and/or Motivation)? What opportunities are there for government to work with regulators to support innovation? How can grant funding be targeted at those regulator initiatives which will have the most impact on innovation?
- We are interested in which companies we might collaborate with in order to give the UK a leading role within global value chains.
- Building a stronger overall picture of the space sector. Mapping and explaining how the sector works, how its constituent parts intermesh, how the UK space sector is connected to the rest of the world, how academia and industry interconnect.
- What are the areas of strength and weakness in UK space science and technology?
- An interest in a certain way of addressing the gap. High quality M&E and data analysis on government programmes can inform many of the questions listed above. Another complimentary form of evidence comes from conducting live controlled experiments on the funding system.
- Agile and responsive skills system: What changes in the skills system are required to meet government ambitions to support and grow critical technologies set out in the Science and Technology Framework? How can we future proof the workforce by giving them the right skills to fully embrace AI and its potential?
- How can we ensure public attitudes to AI are positive, and maximise trust in safe AI?
- What will the future of AI look like within the UK, and how can we monitor our progress towards the many possible scenarios?
- Occupations: What are the characteristics of occupations that put them more at risk of replacement/change or give them a comparative advantage? Over what time frame will they be impacted?
- What are the most robust methodologies for assessing the effectiveness of technology used for education?
- What are the cyber security risks within the school estate? What is best practice for cyber security in schools and how can we scale this across the school estate?
- What are the potential long-term opportunities and challenges of AI use in education at all stages?
- Interactions: How does the way that statistics are produced influence the value that users get from them, and how can this be addressed to maximise value? To what degree to statistics need to be directly used for them to provide value (or do people value outcomes from others using them instead)?
- What are the relative merits of existing, emerging, and future technologies in helping to decarbonise aviation? What adaptations will be required for the aviation sector to successfully adopt new zero-emission technologies?
- How can new approaches and technologies be applied to perform targeted screening of groups of people?
- Can Germanium on Silicon SPADS be introduced to LIDA systems for CAVs, providing greater accuracy when identifying surrounding attributes and over greater distances (using QKD to ensure a secure system)?
- How career pathways for geospatial skills are changing, and which new skills the geospatial workforce needs?
- How will AI affect existing kinds of harmful online content (e.g. online abuse, scams) and what new kinds of online harmful content might it give rise to?
- What are the key determinants of economic security?
- Are telecoms networks a net contributor or mitigator of GHG emissions, and will their net emissions grow or shrink in the future?
- What approaches or innovation are needed to support the efficient handling of data within education settings?
- How can we adapt research methodologies to robustly measure the impact of technology in education, given its fast-moving nature?
- How do AI and other digital technologies support existing ways of working in schools and colleges? What are the main opportunities for the future?
- What are the key drivers / barriers to consumers’ adoption of technology that adds stability for the grid? How do these differ by consumer groups?
- How will ‘vehicle to grid’ reverse charging impact on electric vehicle battery life?
- What are the options and new technologies to detect and improve enforcement against vehicles with high noise emissions?
- What are aviation autonomy maturity levels?
- How can new approaches and technologies be applied to enhance the detection of threat materials and items that could harm transport systems?
- What are the key factors regarding public trust on autonomous systems?
- What frameworks can we use to ensure proportional, safe, and trusted applications of AI in the transport sector?
- What are public/industry perceptions of space technologies/services and how can these help inform government interventions?
- What are the benefits and risks of new and emerging aviation technology (e.g., unmanned aircraft, advanced air mobility, etc.) to transport users?
- What is the role of remote operation (assistance, decision making & control)? What are the skills and requirements for such operation for autonomous systems?
- How will new and emerging technology assist in reducing construction costs for road schemes?
- Maximising opportunities from digital forensics in relation to crime prevention and detection
- What contributes to effective electronic tagging and monitoring, including GPS and radio frequency trackers, and sobriety tags, in protecting the public from harm? Are there specific groups of individuals for whom electronic tagging and monitoring is more effective?
- How can we improve forecasts of case volumes for the courts and tribunals system? How can we better understand future demand and supply, to help plan for the delivery of services?
- What are the ethical considerations of LawTech and the enhanced usage of technology within the legal sector? What, if any, regulatory framework or guidelines are required to ensure the fair use and application of LawTech?
- How might technology shape the future requirements of, and services offered by, the legal profession and sector? How can LawTech and innovation support greater access to justice?
- Autonomous systems – What are the ways Defence could exploit autonomy and autonomous systems in military operations and potentially at lower cost than traditional high-end military platforms? What is the range of potential benefits of utilising autonomous systems in Defence; greater areas covered, persistent effects, or removing personnel from immediate danger? How can we reduce the need for human involvement in difficult, mundane and dangerous tasks such as bomb disposal, force protection or decontamination?
- Disruptive technologies – New technologies such as High Performance Computing, quantum information processing and synthetic biology have the potential to radically change the nature and environment of warfare in the future. The key challenge for Defence is understanding the risks and opportunities presented by the technologies and forecasting when and where the impact on defence will occur. How should Defence proactively shape our doctrine and policy to maximise the benefits whilst minimising the threat to defence?
- How recruitment of cheap (migrant and native) labour balances against investment in new technology.
- Assuring the integrity of documents (possibly electronic), for example involving distributed ledger technology and advances in materials.
- Allocating resources optimally, including using data science effectively (for example to improve targeting).
- Digital forensics especially in light of rapid technological change.
- Improving speed and accuracy of existing forensic approaches (for example, rapid DNA profile extraction and analysing seized digital media).
- Building security into the design of distributed ledger technologies.
- What are the current and innovative technologies which could help retrofit existing dwellings or otherwise achieve net zero and build in resilience to climate change goals through the built environment at least cost?
- Which countries excel at facilitating the commercialisation and export of new technologies and why?