Smart Materials & Systems Foresight

In addition to identifying the Foresight Drivers for this sector (below), members of the Smart Materials and Systems Committee have helped in the preparation of the Materials Foresight Reports Functional Materials - Future Directions (PDF 1mb) and Smart Materials for the 21st Century (PDF 613k).

Business Drivers	Issues	Technology & Innovation needs
Markets & Customers	Globalisation of markets
	New/ageing infrastructure	Sensors for structural health monitoring. Active control systems e.g vibration Active strengthening / disassembly e.g shape memory alloys
	Improved quality of life	Biomaterials Biomedical devices Telemedicine Functional consumer products Smart sports goods Smart systems for crime prevention Smart buildings
	Competitive products	Increased functionality
	Time to market
	Miniaturisation	MEMS devices 3-D printing
	Light weighting

Business practice and economics	Productivity pressures Cost reductions Corporate consolidations Distributed manufacturing

Education /workforce /image	Need for talented people De-emphasis on manufacturing Loss of skills	Robotics

Information technology	Growth of Internet Simulation/ modelling	Virtual world interface - sensors, actuators, force feedback