5-6 November 2018  Oslo, Norway   

 

 

This workshop was a joint initiative between the OECD and Oslo Metropolitan (OsloMet) University which gathered leading technologists, academics and policy representatives. To help guide OECD governments, the event aimed to:

• Examine how emerging developments in digital technology could create new opportunities to design and implement policies for science, technology and innovation.
• Identify so far untapped opportunities to use digital technology in science and innovation processes.
• Identify emerging topics, which are likely to become important in the future, but which have received limited study to date.

The workshop explored topics that included:

• The future of computing
• The use and impacts of AI in science
• Blockchain applications in science and innovation
• Using digital technology in a variety of ways to draw on the collective intelligence of science and innovation communities
• Using digital technologies, such as augmented reality, virtual reality and AI, to facilitate STEM education and training
• Novel means of accelerating technology diffusion
• Digital technology for open science
• The main features of public strategies, in leading economies, towards AI.

The eclectic mix of participants and disciplines aimed to generate out-of-the-box ideas on policy opportunities. Presentations were short, with an emphasis on debate, exchange and the exploration of frontier issues.

Watch the sessions below. Individual presentations are available upon request. Please contact alistair.nolan@oecd.org. 

• Workshop agenda (pdf)

Insights from this event will feature in the publication The Digitalisation of Science, Technology and Innovation: Key Developments and Policies, forthcoming in late 2019. A follow-up event in Oslo is foreseen in the first half of 2020, at which other frontier topics will be addressed, from AI research priorities for governments to the possible implications of AI for intellectual property rights.

 

Session 1: Introduction ● The origin of life and the engine of emergence ● Blockchain for science and innovation ● Blockchain and artificial intelligence

1 - Welcome and Introduction (00:00)
2 - Initial reflections (20:46)
3 - Blockchain – facilitating integrity... (41:19)
4 - Using blockchain to improve... (42:26)
5 - Using blockchain to facilitate... (01:00:47)
6 - Blockchain and science.. (01:16:12)
7 - Combining blockchain and AI for... (01:32:34)
8 - Discussions (01:45:59)

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Session 2: AI for science and innovation - current and emerging possibilities ● AI in molecular and materials science ● Democratising AI

1 - Artificial intelligence for science and innovation... (00:00)
2 - An overview of recent and potential developments (03:50)
3 - AI in molecular and materials science (13:53)
4 - Democratisation of AI by... (38:18)
5 - Discussions (55:50)

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Session 3: Augmented realtiy, virtual reality and AI in delivering skills for STEM and innovation ● Haptic technologies for hand-on learning from a distance ● Using ideas markets in science and innovation policy ● Collective intelligence for allocating research funds, prediction and lawmaking

1 - Augmented Reality... (00:00)
2 - An overview of recent experience... (03:14)
3 - Development in haptic technologies... (19:51)
4 - Cultivating human expertise... (35:00)
5 - Discussion (49:01)
6 - Round table discussion (01:02:42)
7 - Obstacles to expanding ideas markets (01:03:59)
8 - Can the wisdom of crowds do a better job... (01:21:46)
9 - Using AI and swarm intelligence to build... (01:39:51)
10 - Collective intelligence and lawmaking... (02:02:44)
11 - Discussions (02:12:21)

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Session 4: Digital technology for open, citizen, collaborative and crowdfunded science ● Day 1 stocktaking

1 - Start (00:00)
2 - Legal and digital frameworks enabling open access to research tools (02:40)
3 - Digital technology enabling team science: challenges and opportunities (15:45)
4 - Accelerating scientific research and discovery through citizen science (26:33)
5 - Crowdfunding and scientific research (37:40)
6 - Taking stock day 1: Reactions, new and outstanding questions (01:06:14)

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Session 5: National R&D and promotional strategies for AI

1 - Start (00:00)
2 - Canada: Elissa Strome, Executive Director, Pan-Canadian AI Strategy at CIFAR 
3 - China: Xue Lan, Tsinghua University
4 - Europe: Morten Irgens, Vice Rector, Oslo Metropolitan University 
5 - Singapore: Tze Yun Leong, Director, AI Technology, AI Singapore 
6 - United Kingdom: Philip Young, Head of Strategic Policy Delivery, Digital Catapult

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Session 6: Leaders and executives from national innovation agencies ● Group discussion

1 - Start (00:00)
2 - Eva Camerer (Norway), Manager of Innovation policies and Analysis, Innovation Norway
3 - Robert Rudnitsky (USA), Associate Director for Policy, Office of Advanced Manufacturing, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
4 - Ana Correia (Europe), Directorate-General for Research, European Commission
5 - Steffen Wischmann (Germany), Department for Innovation and Society, VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH, Germany

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Session 7: Remaining questions and further thoughts ● Concluding remarks

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