Research programme 7 - Technology Foresight
The technology foresight programme identifies technological disruptions and imagines the impacts they may have through use cases that could redefine how the security of Switzerland is defended and preserved. It evaluates their impact in a military context and highlights the potential consequences for the Swiss Armed Forces, allowing armasuisse Science and Technology (S+T) to help identify the technologies of tomorrow that will totally transform the military environment.
Anticipate, inspire, inform, instruct, impact (AI4).
This is the ambition of the research programme known as Deftech (Defence Futures Technologies): to give armasuisse and the DDPS the means to think and act in an environment that is being transformed. Adopting the idea put forward by Gaston Berger that “the future is not what comes after the present, but what is different from it”, it explores futures that represent a rupture from a simple linear extension of the present.
The programme focuses on what new technologies make possible, seeking first and foremost to understand and explain this change by identifying applications that deliver tangible benefits in the defence sector. Applying rigorous foresight methods that are open to imagination and fiction, it explores different futures, learns from them and helps spread concepts, ideas and contrasting visions between stakeholders.
With a focus on both military and civilian implications, the programme fosters synergies between national and international stakeholders. In this way, it helps to anticipate disruptions, inform decision-making and sustainably strengthen the armed forces’ ability to meet future technological challenges.
Areas of competence
Networking
Developing technical competences builds on an active network of partners from the world of business, higher education, universities and other research centres in Switzerland and abroad. Close contacts are in place and information is exchanged with end-users and the planning, procurement and testing divisions of the DDPS to ensure the capacities acquired are relevant.
Deftech Scans
Every two months explore the latest, where the frontier between science fiction and reality disappears.
Link: https://savoirs.atelierdesfuturs.org/?c_234_c&t_496_t
Newsletter - to stay informed
Events
Further informations
- All the activities of the programme since it started
- History of the programme
- All publications
- All workshops
- Forward-looking documents (methodology and themes)
- Deftech podcast
Contact
