The RIBRI project matched 100 Radical Innovation Breakthroughs (RIBs) relevant to Europe and the world with future Global Value Networks (GVNs, the areas where new value is created). Based on this analysis, the project drew conclusions for European research and innovation policy.
RIBRI was structured into four steps and objectives:
1. collect and systematise current information on the main future Radical (technological and societal) Innovation Breakthroughs from sources around the world,
2. assess the potential of these major breakthroughs as emerging new developments or game changers and their strategic importance for Europe, taking into account their scientific basis and technical feasibility, their relevance to existing economic structures in Europe, and the strategic potential and risks related to potential future global challenges, both within and outside Europe,
3. identify Europe's strengths and weaknesses in leveraging the 100 most significant breakthroughs and align them with future GVNs,
4. produce a report suitable for policy makers describing the 100 most technically and socially significant RIBs, underpinned by a structured analysis and a dataset describing all the promising candidates identified as potentially feasible in the next five to twenty years.
In addition, the project was designed to serve two further, more far-reaching objectives that related in a more general way to Europe’s future orientation: First, the goal was to create a community of actors committed to engaging in a Pan-European dialogue on RIBs. This dialogue may form the nucleus of wider future-oriented debate in Europe. Second, RIBRI was aimed at paving the way for an ongoing exploration of Radical Innovation Breakthroughs combining human judgement and automated analysis in a fruitful way.
