Frontier Tech Hub Newsletter #6
Welcome to the sixth issue of the Frontier Tech Network’s monthly newsletter, and the final one of 2022.
This month, we’re feeling both reflective of the year we’ve had, and excited about what’s to come in the new year, so we’re using this newsletter as an opportunity to think back to all that’s happened in 2022 and dream about 2023 too.
You’re going to hear from some of the many people who have been shaping and driving all that we do, whether that’s those individuals leading our Pilot portfolio or those people focused on generating and sharing evidence and research. So please take this opportunity to sit back and take in some of our highlights from another year of applying frontier technologies to the biggest challenges in development.
Kelley Rowe and Susan Long, pilot leads
2022 has been a rollercoaster year, the world over. We recently joined the Hub - in May and July respectively - and have teamed up to lead the FT Hub's Livestreaming Pilot Innovation Portfolio. It has been such a treat! I remember feeling completely blown away by the incredible team at the Hub working with cross-disciplinary teams and using our rapid research process based on innovative agile methodologies. I am super impressed by the wonderful pilot portfolio led by FCDO's brilliant pioneers!
I am thrilled about many things at the Hub. I feel exceptionally proud of the amazing pilots we are currently working with - from the AI/deforestation initiative in Tanzania to "How virtual and augmented reality could provide an empathy tool to disguise victims of CSRV and increase levels of justice" - we are doing a lot this year!
Looking into 2023 (and beyond) I would love for us to continue working with FCDO, their pioneers and brilliant partners located around the world, helping them to explore frontier futures and digging into some of the hardest challenges faced today. Through collaboration and experimenting with many different ideas and technology applications, I truly believe we will continue to unlock incredible insights and opportunities for a better future.
Phil Outram, SRO of the programme
It’s a huge privilege to be taking up SROship of the Frontier Tech programme. I started with a baptism of fire, being on the panel for all 31 Dragon’s Den sessions as part of our 7th call for Livestreaming Pilots…but it was so inspiring to see all the amazing ideas that FCDO colleagues are coming up with, from using 3D printing to reduce plastic waste and improve access to parts on remote pacific islands to using VR to reduce trauma of testifying in cases of violence against women and girls in humanitarian contexts. And we’re excitedly designing the next Call for ideas, which will be announced early next year and launched in the spring.
Our Futures strand of work is fascinating in a quite different way…it’s exploring some exciting, complex, contentious new technologies and asking how they could benefit development and our international engagement. A highlight was all the amazing work looking at Web3.0, the next iteration of the internet…are cryptocurrencies and distributed autonomous organisations the answer to beating poor governance and authoritarian control?…or just another chance for unregulated scamming?
There is clearly so much more to learn and explore, so please watch out for the exciting activities being launched in early 2023 and, as this programme is to directly support FCDO colleagues, please let me know if there’s anything you’d like us to do more of in the tech and innovation space.
Luke Heinkel, Evidence lead
I am most proud of our 'where are they now' Deep Dive. It was a chance to catch back up with our earliest pilots and take an honest look at what worked well and how we can improve our support to innovators moving forward.
Looking ahead to 2023, I cannot wait to see the publication and use of our thematic Deep Dives. We will be sharing our learning on topics like climate financing and IoT and - if we do our job right - use that learning to inform the selection of our next round of pilots to ensure we keep pushing the tech frontier within the Hub and across FCDO
David Vigoureux, Discovery Fund Lead
2022 was the first year that we launched our Discovery Fund, which is about supporting early stage ideas with research and scoping, where some could become fully fledged Frontier Technology pilots.
Next year, we’re excited to explore how we might iterate this new Fund and find even more innovative ideas by working closer with FCDO teams and programmes.
Constanza Robles & Jim Ralley, Futures Leads
We run our Futures programme, which is where we explore the future of frontier technologies and their implications for FCDO. We’re proudest of the 4-day Web3.0 Symposium. We managed to pull together a really diverse range of voices to share their thoughts, opinions, and work around this emerging tech. We smashed our targets for engagement. And finally, we delivered a pretty slick experience and had a ton of fun doing it!
Next year, we’re really excited for us to build on the Web3.0 Symposium, keep digging into the future, and think about how we can foster policies, strategies, and programmes that are going to shape the world we want and need. We’re going to be working with the Kenya Innovation Agency to use foresighting to understand the role of innovation in Kenya in 10 years, and with internal FCDO teams to explore the future of frontier technologies in development. Want to join us? We’re always looking for futurists!
Sam Stockley-Patel, Network lead
As Network Lead on the Frontier Tech Hub, I'd like to extend warm thanks to all of you for reading our newsletters, clicking through to the content that we share, and attending the events we’ve hosted. As a recap, here are some statistics about the Frontier Tech Network since Nick, Bryony, and I took on delivery of this work in September this year.
We held three events: an ideas showcase to launch our new cohort of pilots, a community session to bring together our new pioneers, and a session with our alumni to learn from their expertise.
We also collaborated on other events across the Frontier Tech programme: First to disseminate research about the use of UAVs in healthcare contexts, and second, to enable networking and connection during the Web3.0 Symposium.
Scoping the frontier technologies and challenge areas you’re most interested in: The technology most noted as an interest area by our network members was blockchain, and the most popular area of application was climate change.
Reaching out to the world: Recently, we’ve been focusing on expanding our network into new countries. Currently our five best represented countries in our network are; India, Nigeria, Nepal, Kenya and Ghana. From a total of 85!
Building a Pioneer Community: We welcomed 30 new pioneers to our community and are looking ahead to find new ways of engaging with them in 2023.
That’s all for this edition…
We’re excited for more of the same in the new year, but in particular, we can’t wait to help celebrate and showcase the incredible and impactful progress of our pilots, and share all that they learn about leveraging frontier technologies for change with you. Watch this space.
If you would like to explore how frontier technology might be used in your context, send the Frontier Tech Hub help desk a request via this quick form.
If you want to receive this content directly to your inbox, you can sign-up and join in by following the sign-up link on our webpage: Frontier Tech Hub Network
See you next time!