Research Futures: Drivers and Scenarios for the Next Decade

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Rarely in the history of science, technology and medicine have we witnessed such rapid and profound change. Advances in technology, funding pressures, political uncertainty, population shifts, societal challenges on a global scale; these elements are all combining – in uncertain ways – to transform how research information is created and exchanged.

The ability of the research community to thrive in this new world will depend on understanding the opportunities and the challenges these changes offer and what steps need to be taken now.

To assess how today’s trends might shape the research landscape in the decade ahead, Elsevier joined forces with Ipsos MORI, the global market and opinion research specialist. Together, we conducted a large-scale, future-scoping and scenario-planning study. The focus of this study was not which topics will be researched 10 years from now, but rather how that research might be conducted and its findings communicated.