| Jeremy Jurgens, Managing Director

The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution helps leaders anticipate, understand and shape the trajectory of technological change for human-centred outcomes. The Centre develops strategies, frameworks and toolkits for technology governance and digital transformation across 30 initiatives led by 250 stakeholders, in policy areas ranging from ethical artificial intelligence (AI) to autonomous drones. It pilots and iterates its solutions in a fast-growing network of 15 national and subnational Centres.

With a combined staff of 200 technology and policy experts in economies representing 40% of global GDP and 30% of the world population, the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network is well positioned to form the trust and accumulate the expertise required to create solutions that are flexible enough to answer local needs and standardized enough to foster connectivity and interoperability.

Emerging technologies, from AI to bioengineering and quantum computing, promise smart solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, but their exponential nature often overwhelms existing institutions and organizations, leaving societies exposed to poorly understood risks and deprived of unprecedented opportunities.

In the wake of escalating geopolitical conflicts, a climate crisis that seems out of control and a global economy rattled by the aftershocks of a historic pandemic, adopting shared principles and safeguards for the use of exponential technologies and their implementation is more important, yet also more complex, than ever before.

An example is quantum computing, one of the most important and rapidly advancing emerging technologies today. Promising dramatically better and faster solutions to complex challenges such as climate change, the technology is likely to disrupt industries, markets and geostrategic capabilities. Quantum computing could be used, for example, to create more efficient battery structures or to reorganize food systems to make them less resource intensive.

As outlined in Quantum Computing Governance Principles, a report of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, the coherent, cohesive, productive and beneficial use of quantum computing is thus of growing industry and public concern. The report sets the agenda for an ongoing stakeholder discourse between technologists and industrial, political and societal leaders, facilitated by the Centre.

The rapid spread of decarbonization commitments is defining another technology trend, accelerating progress in areas from energy and transportation to food production. Technologies like self-fertilizing synthetic crops, identified by the World Economic Forum as one of the top 10 emerging technologies of 2021 in a report by that same name, hold the promise of greater efficiency and sustainability but their broader ecosystem implications are poorly understood.

Quantum computing and synthetic biology are two new domains in which the Centre started expanding its expertise in the past year. The Centre expects more growth in these area in the near future through impact initiatives and new centres as well as through the support of newly signed Global Innovators and Technology Pioneers, the Centre’s communities of startups and scale-ups at the forefront of technological and business model innovation.

The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution engages over 250 industry leaders, public figures and representatives from academia, civil society and international organizations in its three Platforms: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Blockchain and Digital Assets, and Data Policy.

In addition, the Centre works directly with governments at the national and subnational level through its network of 15 Centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Staff is composed of 200 technology and policy experts, including over 50 Fellows from government, business and academia who are an integral part of the network and play a key role in designing concepts and frameworks as well as advancing real-world applications.

The Centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Azerbaijan, Brazil, Colombia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Norway, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are co-hosted and co-financed by national public and/or private entities. The Centres in India and Japan are co-hosted by the World Economic Forum and their respective governments. The San Francisco Centre is a Forum entity and serves as a catalyst, curator and coordinator for the overall network.

All Centres serve as:

– Trusted spaces for public-private cooperation, dedicated to exercising foresight, breaking silos and co-designing solutions for sectoral and industry transformation

– Mission-driven “do-tanks”, equipped with the mandate, stakeholder communities and technical capabilities to rapidly prototype, iterate and scale-up solutions

– Champions for inclusivity and sustainability, pursuing a human-centric approach to technology adoption to promote shared prosperity within planetary boundaries

The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution systematically identifies and engages game-changing start-up and scale-up companies. Its Global Innovators community comprises 150 privately owned growth-stage (Series B+) start-ups, and its Technology Pioneers community accepts 100 select early-stage start-ups every year.

The 2022 cohort of Technology Pioneers included a significant increase in the number of companies focused on climate change, with activities in such areas as energy storage, hydrogen, alternative proteins and smart buildings. It also included healthcare companies active in women’s health, value-based healthcare, mental health and tele-health as well as start-ups at the forefront of tools and platforms in the metaverse ecosystem.

The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution drives impact by building trust, creating insight and encouraging policy innovation and experimentation. It champions multistakeholder collaboration locally, nationally and globally.

Highlighted achievements of the past year include:

– Three new Centres, in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Serbia, were added to the network, for a total number of 15 in advanced and emerging economies, representing 40% of global GDP and 30% of the global population.

– The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution expanded its local presence and impact to reach more than 50 cities through the launch and growth of the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance’s regional networks in Latin America and Asia and the establishment of new urban test beds for local entrepreneurship in eight of the world’s fastest growing cities.

– The Global Innovators community grew to over 150 privately owned growth-stage (Series B+) start-ups with a valuation of more than $30 million.

– To develop Turkey’s AI sector, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Turkey helped advance the country’s first strategic AI plan, with guidance and insights from the existing National AI Strategy peer network.

– The Digital Currency Governance Consortium launched a first-of-its-kind global resource for central bank digital currencies and stablecoins, co-created by over 85 organizations and nearly 200 individual members.

– As part of the Data for Common Purpose Initiative, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Japan led the development of new governance models for data marketplace service providers, and the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Colombia prototyped a framework to strengthen trust, consent, valuation and the sharing of data in a data marketplace in the energy sector.

– The Global Coalition for Digital Safety continued its work to tackle harmful content and conduct online. The coalition brought together senior members of governments from Australia, Belgium, Singapore and the United Kingdom with Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, among other companies.

– The Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Futures Network lowered barriers to the adoption of the industrial internet of things among these enterprises. Piloted in Brazil, the initiative was scaled across Colombia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey.

– Working with the Telangana State Government in India and the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution India, the Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Data Policy established a consent-based and data-sharing framework that helps Indian farmers build more efficient supply chains, increase crop yields and improve the effectiveness of markets.

– Following the publication of a paper entitled “Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture Innovation” in March 2021, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution India launched the Enabling Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies for the Transformation of Agriculture initiative to help solve agriculture’s three biggest challenges: inclusivity, sustainability and efficiency.

– HUB Ocean helped reduce CO2 emissions from shipping through the development of the Ocean Data Platform. The Shipping Emissions Tracking system helped Partners find the most suitable vessel for the transportation of freight.

– With support from the Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Data Policy, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Rwanda led the development of a new law on the protection of personal data and privacy with the Rwandan Government. The Centre continued to support the National Cyber Security Authority of Rwanda to implement the law.

– Based on recommendations and guidance from the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Japan, the Japanese Government adopted agile governance as one of the five principles of government digital transformation.

– The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Israel participated as a key coordinator and developer of the regulatory sandbox in Israel’s National Drone Initiative. Three of eight demonstrations were completed, including the transport of COVID-19 lab samples. The Centre will continue to help formulate aerospace regulatory policies pertaining to the responsible use of drones.

– The Responsible Limits on Facial Recognition Technology framework, led by the Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Platform, was adopted by Interpol and mandated in its 190 member countries. The framework continued to be piloted by countries on five continents.

– To support the government procurement of responsible AI systems, the AI Procurement in a Box toolkit was piloted worldwide, including in Bahrain, Japan, the UAE and the US. The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Brazil published the second iteration of the toolkit after successful pilots in the São Paulo subway system and in the city’s Clinical Hospital.

Explore Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution initiatives here →