Technology and Economic Impact Case Studies

Horizon’s research considered what happens when technology starts to achieve wide scale adoption and hence impact on society, and, in turn, how society then influences technical advances and drives change back into the innovation cycle. 

Many technologies we use have existed in labs for years, and research on advancing the technology carried out for considerable time. Take for example mixed reality gaming and the resurgence of Pokemon Go, which gained rapid growth and popularity because of advances, availability and ubiquity of smartphones. The idea that smartphones would be so widely available was once science fiction for most people, so understanding in the past how society at large would react, was futurology, not science. 

There are many technologies already in the labs, that in the future will be available at scale to society, with the same scenario playing out – an apparently disruptive event underpinned by new uses of technology enabled through gradual introduction and acceptance, like smartphones for example, into our everyday lives. 

Horizon’s research addressed the leading edge of Digital Economy, working closely with a range of companies to investigate how the disruptions provide both opportunities and challenges to businesses – such work aimed to assist in driving productivity and competitiveness through the appropriate use of digital technology, and in turn support economic growth and impact. 

Adaptive Podcasts  

C-Tech (Creating the Energy for Change) project

The Databox project

N-Lab – a Horizon success story

The Wayward project