
The World Economic Forum’s network of Global Future Councils is the world’s foremost multistakeholder and interdisciplinary knowledge network dedicated to promoting innovative thinking to shape a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future.
The network convenes more than 1000 of the most relevant and knowledgeable thought leaders from academia, government, international organizations, business and civil society, grouped in expertise-based thematic councils. It is an invitation-only community and members are nominated for a one-year period.
Mission
Global Future Council members provide strategic insights, scientific evidence, forward guidance and multidisciplinary understanding of major issues that will shape the post-COVID world through:
- Identifying and monitoring the latest trends, scientific research and frontier technologies with significant potential to transform societies, industries and regions
- Contributing their expertise and knowledge, sharing key lessons and developing innovative ideas to “building back better” initiatives of industry, regional and solution platforms
- Providing decision-makers from business and government with a multidisciplinary understanding of the strategic implications
- Deepening understanding of the drivers and enablers of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how emerging technologies can be leveraged to address global, regional and industry issues
- Informing the World Economic Forum’s strategic initiatives by providing feedback on the direction of existing projects as well as new areas of focus
- Increasing public awareness of the potential benefits and risks related to major breakthroughs
Members' engagement
Council members participate regularly in online interactions and council activities via the Forum’s TopLink platform, emails and regular virtual meetings. The council delivers its outcomes as part of the Forum’s ongoing projects, initiatives and meetings.
Future Focus 2025: Pathways for Progress from the Network of Global Future Councils 2020-2022 offers a positive and inspiring agenda around which a sustainable and inclusive recovery can ...
Artificial intelligence (AI) has great potential to benefit society, but the technology’s full potential can only be realized if it is representative of the diversity of populations it im...
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted whole economies. Immersive media businesses, which focus on technologies that create or imitate the physical world through digital simulation, have been no...
Companies face increasing scrutiny of their social and environmental performance from consumers, communities, workers, governments and investors. Business leaders are being urged to consi...
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been met with unprecedented trade and other economic sanctions. Some members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have revoked Russia’s most-favoured-...
More than half of the world’s GDP – US$44 trillion – is at immediate risk due to nature loss. Fortunately, investing in nature allows us to not only mitigate future environmental catastro...
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role that manufacturing and supply chain systems play in powering the global economy. To navigate current and future market and climate ...
The Global Risks Report series tracks global risks perceptions among risk experts and world leaders in business, government, and civil society. It examines risks across five categories: e...
The growing shift in corporate governance requires organizations to break down silos and create more deliberate alignment and collaboration across critical functions, including ESG/sustai...
This White Paper, from the Global Future Council on Urban Mobility Transitions, evaluates road pricing mechanisms and calls for an acceleration towards equitable, clean and financially re...
To achieve the goal of a safe climate, we will need to both dramatically reduce emissions to achieve absolute zero greenhouse gases and simultaneously start reducing the stock of pollutan...
Synthetic biology is a frontier field that employs science and engineering approaches to design biologically based parts, novel devices and systems as well as redesign existing, natural, ...
Published under the auspices of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Clean Electrification, this Insight Report invites policy-makers, regulators and investors to place great...
The financial system is playing a critical role in facilitating the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. As the recovery is largely digital-led, members of the Forum’s Global Future Counc...
Climate change is one of the greatest global challenges. The accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, particularly from anthropogenic emissions, is changing Earth’s climate at ...
The World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Data Policy liaised with the Global Future Council on Media, Entertainment and Sport and the Global Future Council on AI for Humanity t...
As companies around the world increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) in their decision-making processes, there is an ever greater risk of creating or reinforcing unfair bias. This ...
The highly asymmetric impact of the pandemic has reinforced historical inequalities within and between countries and is now giving rise to a highly divergent recovery. Technological chang...
In collaboration with Deloitte
This report, co-authored with Boston Consulting Group, is the second in our series for the Net-Zero Challenge. It showcases the opportunity that all companies have for huge climate impact...
In partnership with Marsh McLennan, SK Group and Zurich Insurance Group
Cities cover 3% of the earth’s land surface yet they create more than 70% of all carbon emissions. To keep global temperature increases to 1.5°C or below, cities have to achieve net-zero....
These are the most exciting technologies that emerged in 2020 and – according to our experts – have the greatest potential to positively transform society and industry. What opportunities...
The Future of Jobs report maps the jobs and skills of the future, tracking the pace of change. It aims to shed light on the pandemic-related disruptions in 2020, contextualized within a l...
Recovery from the economic downturn attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic calls for an inclusive and sustainable economic transformation capable of economic growth that is conducive to the ...
The simultaneous disruption caused by the COVID-19 crisis in nearly every country around the world has forced societies into a moment of pause and reflection on what is truly of value. Re...
Digital trade in Asia had been booming even before the COVID-19 pandemic that drove large numbers of firms and consumers online. The region has also been at the forefront of digital trade...
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a rapid transformation of the global financial system: Businesses, small and large, needed almost-instant liquidity, individuals embraced digital and c...
Cybersecurity is one of the most systemically important issues facing the world today. Cyber information sharing is critical to helping better collective security in the digital ecosystem...
The power of infrastructure to shape economies and societies is enormous. Infrastructure underpins commercial life, provides vital social services and supports human interaction around th...
COVID-19 is a watershed moment for the digital transformation of business. The rules for success have changed and are ever more reliant on harnessing the power of digital models to create...
The Future of Nature and Business, the second of three reports in the World Economic Forum’s New Nature Economy series, provides the practical insights needed to take leadership in shifti...
A series of reports showing the relevance of nature loss to boardroom discussions on risks and opportunities. These insights provide pathways for business to be part of the transition to ...
A Community Paper by the Global Future Council on Quantum Computing.
A Community Paper by Global Future Council on New Network Technologies
The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Toolkit explores the practical opportunities and risks that rapidly emerging technologies represent for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The to...
Sinking, swimming or surfing: Perspectives on operating and business models
As governments and businesses grapple with the effects of COVID-19, other global challenges remain. Once the immediate crisis abates, countries must intensify environmental action to tack...
How people and goods get around our cities is undergoing considerable change. As new mobility options are introduced, cities and communities are trying to lower emissions, improve safety ...
Shifting geopolitical sands: competition, cooperation or conflict?
The World Economic Forum has created a new index to measure social mobility, providing a much-needed assessment of the current state of social mobility worldwide.
Look out: Nature Risks on the Rise
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is still in its early years yet it is already changing the way we work, live and interact. As 4IR technologies become faster, smarter, and more wide...
As globalization and rapid advancements in technology continue to transform civic space and the world of work, education systems have grown increasingly disconnected from the realities an...
What might the world look like in 2025? In autumn 2020 the World Economic Forum convened expert-led Global Future Councils, time-bound think tanks, to explore that very question.
The war in Ukraine makes painfully clear that financial markets and anti-corruption are intimately intertwined with global security and democratic prosperity.
A stark picture of the future of our planet was painted when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released its Sixth Assessment Report.
As one of the largest empirical research undertakings on the effect of COVID-19 on the global fintech industry, the Global COVID-19 Fintech Market Impact and Industry Resilience Study dra...