Report Identifies 50 Critical Scientific Breakthroughs for Sustainable Development

There are 50 areas of need for paradigm-shaping breakthrough technologies that would help stimulate sustainable global development, according to a new report from the Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab – The 50 Breakthroughs Study. The authors contend that decisionmakers, funding organizations, impact investors, and inventors should focus on developing transformative, breakthrough technologies in these areas instead of supporting incremental technologies. The authors argue that incremental changes while having compelling narratives, significant funding, and considerable media hype fail to reach any reasonable scale or impact. In comparison, they highlight several gamechanging technologies that have significantly impacted both the developed and developing world.

The study was launched to bring together thought leaders and science and technology (S&T) topic-specific experts to identify where such paradigm-shaping breakthroughs are most required and also to provide a loose ranking in importance. The report identifies 10 technologies (in no particular order) of most importance that include:

• A new method for desalination: scalable, low cost, and using renewable energy;
• Vaccines that can effectively control and eventually help eradicate the major infectious diseases of our time—HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB;
• “Smart” electronic textbooks that dynamically adapt content for different skill levels, languages and other user-specific needs;
• Biometric ID systems that link birth registry, land title registry, financial services, education history, medical history, and other information critical for ICT enabled services;
• Affordable (under $50) smartphones that support full-fledged Internet services and need limited electricity to charge;
• A new generation of homes with advanced construction material, especially for the urban poor: durable, lightweight, and affordable, with integrated solar-powered lighting, ventilation, and toilets;
• New methods to produce fertilizers to replace current processes, which are extremely capital intensive and have significant environmental footprints; and,
• A utility-in-a-box for making it simpler, cheaper and faster to set up and operate renewable energy mini-grids.

These 10 were selected because the development of a breakthrough technology would have the largest impact and most far-reaching impact.

The 50 breakthroughs are broken out by nine overarching S&T areas which the authors contend can make a substantial difference to the lives of the poor, especially those living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The nine categories areas are:

• Global health;
• Food security and agricultural development;
• Human rights;
• Education;
• Water: quality, scarcity and sustainability;
• Gender equity;
• Digital inclusion;
• Resilience against climate change and environmental damage; and,
• Access to electricity.

Each of the 50 technologies are classified in one or more of these nine S&T areas.

In addition to identifying these technology areas, the authors provide contextual background for technologists so they can determine how their work can address these critical challenges, and a guide for decisionmakers to help them evaluate and ask the proper questions about technologies presented to them. The authors hope that the study will generate conversation about where and how technologies can make a real and sustainable difference to the lives of the billions living in poverty. Read the report…