A. Description of the issue

Confronting today’s complex global challengesrequires creative solutions, collaborative actionand, most importantly, a systematic approachto implementation. Business, government andother stakeholders need to redesign theirstrategic models to withstand modern-day risksand resist technological, economic, social, environmental and political shocksto the system.

By bringing together the world’s greatest minds in the field of design –architecture and urban design, industrial, service and communications design,and innovation strategy – the Global Agenda Council on Design will serve as aunique source of interdisciplinary expertise for the wider network of Councilsto tap into. It will propose new frameworks and innovative approaches toaddress complex issues and demonstrate the potential of design for businessgrowth and social change.

Design is an agent of change that enables us to understand complexchanges and problems, and to turn them into something useful. Design canhelp transform the world.

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Design

B. Dimensions

• Architecture and urbanism: Interdisciplinary in nature, architecture

and urbanism embody the design of complex systems and consider

social, environmental as well as economic consequences.

• Industrial design: Through the application of strategic thinking,

industrial design is a discipline that creates solutions in response to the

driving forces and needs of society as well as business and aesthetics.

• Service design: Similar to the methodologies applied to industrial

design, service design focuses on developing solutions that optimize

the interaction between people, service providers and their customers.

• Innovation strategy: Businesses and organizations need to continually

innovate and pioneer new ideas and services to remain ahead of the

curve. Innovation strategy helps business, government and civil society

apply creative and design capabilities in response to a rapidly changing

environment.

• Communications design: With the rapid emergence of new

technologies and media, communications design explores effective

methods for communicating with people, an important discipline for

analysing complex changes and then enabling us to implement the

solutions.

• Interdisciplinary practice: This is a unique dimension that combines

elements of art forms such as painting, photography, sculpture and

digital art with disciplines such as design, architecture, engineering and

physics. This interdisciplinary practice can illustrate an abstract thought

and is a powerful vehicle for expression or visual communication,

stimulating human senses by triggering emotions or ideas.

These design dimensions represent just some of a range of expertise thatmembers of the Global Agenda Council on Design can offer to thenetwork of Global Agenda Councils. All of these dimensions areunderpinned by creativity, design thinking and design-led approaches,which can be extracted and applied to solution design for complex globalproblems.

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Design

A. Description of the issue

Innovation forms the foundation of acceleratedgrowth and development in any dynamic andcompetitive economy. Innovation may also helpaddress global challenges such as health andthe environment by bringing about newtechnologies and new products.

Government policies can encourage innovation and help ensure that it isgiven the best chance to develop into new products and processes. Thetrend is in reorienting innovation policies away from subsidizing research toalternative instruments, such as tax relief on R&D, and reinforcing the linksbetween industry and public research organizations to ensure that science isput to good use. In addition, a debate is beginning on intellectual propertylaws: relaxing these laws potentially removes R&D investment incentives whileexcessive intellectual property protection potentially disadvantages developingcountries and stifles innovation.

Many companies recognize that developing innovation “in-house” is notnecessarily sustainable or productive in the longer term. As corporationsmove towards networked innovation, they can now extend the search forinnovation across the globe. Yet open innovation still faces many challenges,not least that of intellectual property rights.

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Geography of Innovation

B. Dimensions

• Nurturing innovation clusters: Geographic clustering of research and

development (R&D) policy organizations, industry and higher education

institutions can influence innovation and bring a competitive advantage.

A system that invests in channelling the creative energy of these

individuals in a manner that links several institutions together and

fosters strong partnership between the public and private sectors

should be part of the national schemes of innovation.

• Public and private investment: While public funding has a critical role

to play in the development of innovative technologies, the private sector

must provide the lion’s share of research funding if cutting-edge

technologies are to be developed and widely exploited by industry.

• Intellectual property laws: Can patents deter innovation?

• Corporate innovation systems: What combination of actors,

activities, resources and institutions and their interrelations are in some

way important for a corporation’s innovative performance?

• Information infrastructure: The importance of information technology

to current business practices has long drawn the attention of

practitioners and academics. To improve services in areas such as

health and education and boost national competitiveness, governments

are increasingly articulating policies involving the converging

communication and information technologies that will ensure the widest

possible access for all users.

• Cooperative networks: Strengthening collaboration with leading

research organizations and companies is fundamental.

• Innovation-led growth: Innovation is recognized as being key to

economic growth and development. But it doesn’t happen on its own.

It requires government to create a set of incentives that encourages

linkages and networking among the players, processes and

organizations.

• Role of design in corporate innovation: Designers have a unique

process for solving problems. Design thinking can be used to tackle a

wide range of creative and business issues including developing

strategies that help determine where a company can go in the future.

• New working models for science research: Aiming to improve

competitiveness, policy-makers are providing funding and tax incentives

to drive greater R&D budgets, but are paying much less attention to the

most efficient scientific research models that deliver tangible innovations

and cost-effective results.

1.250 | Summit on the Global Agenda

Geography of Innovation

A. Description of the issue

Technology is rapidly changing education,whether in the classroom, workplace or ourpersonal lives. As capabilities and adoptionrates accelerate, it is not readily apparent howpedagogy and organizations should evolve totake advantage of new opportunities madepossible by technology. While easier and greateraccess to education benefits many, thetransition to technology-enabled learning presents challenges for emergingeconomies that often lack the necessary digital and institutional infrastructure.Even in wealthier countries, many barriers to developing compellingeducational experiences online exist. This Council will explore howtechnological innovations, implementation approaches and investments canbetter enable governments, corporations, educational institutions andindividuals to attain their education goals.

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Technology and Education

Demography & Human Resources

B. Dimensions

• Pedagogical innovation: What best practices exist for using technologyto improve access to education and for increasing its impact (with primary,secondary, tertiary, vocational and general public content)? Whatapproaches suit different learning styles or audiences? What types ofassessment frameworks improve learning?

• Internationalization: As distance learning grows, how shouldinstructional design, curricula and online experiences vary across cultures?What are effective processes/tools for content development and adjustingapproaches to different languages and cultures?

• “Digital Divide”: What ecosystem best addresses the unique needs ofemerging economies? What cross-sector partnerships have provensuccessful? What successes can be replicated in richer countries?

• Cross- and intra-sector partnerships: The opportunity fororganizations to benefit from each other’s expertise is significant; theForum’s Global Education Initiative (GEI) has proven that multistakeholderpartnership initiatives can be effective in reforming education. How canthis model of partnerships be leveraged globally? What interests inlearning methodologies and research do different stakeholders share, andhow should they partner? How can primary or secondary schools moreeasily access/leverage university assets (e.g., courses, collections, etc.)?What other areas for cross-institutional collaboration (e.g., OpenCourseware Consortium, Sakai, etc.) exist?

• The future of education: What will “education” be like by 2020? Whatwill the most important challenges and priorities for stakeholders be asthey pursue their educational objectives? What can be done to prepare forthese challenges? What will high priorities for public and private sectorengagement be? What new technologies will be critical to the future ofeducation?

• Emerging technologies: What technological innovations can be or arebeing introduced to deliver high quality, relevant education? Whatchallenges and constraints have been encountered and how should thesebe addressed? What are best practices for mobile learning, both insideand outside the classroom? How can the impact of new technologies bemeasured?

• Intellectual property: Educational institutions creating multimedialearning experiences often face IP-related challenges. What systems (e.g.,fair use, permissions clearinghouse, etc.) should be developed/modified toaddress these challenges? How do these systems differ internationally andwhat partnerships are needed to implement them?

• “Business models”: Considerable financial investment is required fordigital education. What are the potential models for recovering costs andhow do they differ by type of initiative pursued in a given geography? Arethere ethical/legal considerations in pursuing certain strategies? Is itpossible to create standards for educational content monetization?

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Technology and Education