Technology and market perspective for future Value Added Materials

on European Technology Platforms, convened
by DG Research in early 2009. The
expert group examined how the current 36
European Technology Platforms (ETPs)
should evolve in the near future. This report
proposes that all ETPs be encouraged
to work in flexible clusters focused on
addressing the key problems facing Europe.
These clusters should involve all
relevant stakeholders, work across all aspects
of the knowledge triangle (innovation,
research, education), and be responsible
for implementing potential solutions.
Each of the Grand Challenges raises significant
issues for the future, while potential
solutions may be linked to Value Added
Materials.
When planning future research activities,
the European Commission formulated the
following Grand Challenges:
health, demographic change and wellbeing;.
food security and the bio-based economy;
secure, clean and efficient energy;
smart, green and integrated transport;
supply of raw materials;
resource efficiency and climate action;
inclusive, innovative and secure societies.
Sections below discuss these challenges,
then present an overview of how VAMs
might address them within a wider social
and economic context.
4.1.1 Health, demographic change and
wellbeing
Europe is bracing for the social and economic
impacts of a retiring ‘baby boom’
generation. But the aging of the population
is not a temporary European trend — it is a
long-term and global development, one
that will be felt for generations to come.
Paradoxically, perhaps, the new technologies
to some extent add to longevity, as
medicine, sanitation, and agricultural production
have improved. Life expectancy
around the world has risen and continues
to rise. This, combined with falling birth
rates, is causing what experts call the ‘demographic
transition’—the gradual change
from high to low levels of fertility and mortality.
One of the most important implications of
this transition is that the elderly constitute
a much greater share of the total population
than before. Europe has seen both
mortality and fertility fall since the 19th
century. Since the 1960s, however, fertility
has declined even more dramatically. Europe
now has so many elderly people and
so few newborns, that mortality rates have
started to climb again, now reaching levels
similar to some developing countries.
Today, 19 of the world’s 20 ‘oldest’ countries
— those with the largest percentage
of elderly people (age 65 or older) — are in
Europe. In Italy, the world’s oldest country
by these standards, over 19 per cent of the
population is elderly. This figure is expected
to reach 28 per cent by 2030.
Aging populations will create a number of
challenges for current and future governments.
One is how to sustain public pension/social
security systems as a larger
proportion of people reach retirement and
enjoy a longer life. New technological solutions
including Value Added Materials may
be used to cope with some problems related
to old age and frailty, and most of all to
health related challenges.
Public health and pandemics
The main consideration in public health
issues is to provide medical care to everyone
while minimising discrimination.
28