We are on the threshold of a new industrial revolution, generated by Deep Tech: potentially capable of having an impact on business and society equal to or greater than that created by the advent of the Internet
by Carlo Bagnoli, Massimo Portincaso and Giorgia Berton
The last two years has been characterized by the definitive affirmation of Deep Tech. This new approach to innovation is the basis of the record-breaking development of the Moderna vaccine, of the renaissance of nuclear power as an energy source to counter the decline of Russian fossil fuels (such as, for example, the Commonwealth Fusion Systems), but also of the boom in (aerial) space exploration activities (e.g. SpaceX) and the choice of Elon Musk as "person of the year" by the US magazine Time.
Deep Tech is there fourth wave of innovation and, probably, the more disruptive after those released by the first and second industrial revolutions (such as Haber-Bosh's industrial ammonia synthesis and Houndry's catalytic cracking for crude oil refining), large corporate research laboratories (among others, Xerox Parc and Bell Labs), and then , from digital and bio-tech start-ups (for example, Apple and Genentech). Despite the enormous success of some digital and bio-tech companies, their innovation capacity has started to show limits which have also been recognized by the co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, who in 2011 stated, with a clear Twitter reference: "We wanted flying cars, but we got 140 characters."
The impact of Deep Tech
The fourth wave of innovation has the potential to have an impact on business and society equal to or greater than that created by the advent of the Internet. There are basically four elements that characterize the Deep Tech approach:
- Problem orientation starting not from new technological solutions, but from "old" market problems.
- Convergence between disciplines: advanced science, design and engineering.
- The convergence of technological clusters: computation and cognition (AI and behavioral and neuronal sciences), sensors and motion (IoT and robotics), matter and energy (nanotechnologies and synthetic biology).
- The Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) cycle, which constitutes the bridge between the problem faced and the science and technologies implemented for its solution.
The importance of the fourth wave of innovation lies in the ability to exponentially expand the space of options that can be pursued to address fundamental problems, primarily those related to sustainability, and this at a speed of development and marketing that is larger than what we are used to. It promises to be the most transformative wave of innovation known to date: the Big One.
A very promising field of application of Deep Tech for Italian companies is represented by future farming: an innovative production paradigm capable of generating products destined for precise industrial applications, using nature as a manufacturing platform and, therefore, promoting a "generative" approach consistent with the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Indeed, for the first time in human history, we are in the position of being able to use nature as a platform to design, engineer and produce at the atomic level. It is therefore possible to move from a purely "extractive" economic model, son of the 1st and 2nd industrial revolution, to a model that can be defined as "generative" since the products are generated atom by atom. It is once again moving from being a society of "hunters-gatherers" to one of "breeders-farmers", this time, however, of raw materials.
Future Farming is a paradigmatic example of the fourth wave of innovation. In fact, it adopts the Deep Tech approach to innovation being problem oriented, based on the convergence between different disciplines and technological clusters, and on the DBTL cycle. More precisely, it is a new domain on the border between disciplines (life sciences, chemistry, engineering, information technology and design) that intercepts two emerging trends: Nature Co-Design is Controlled Environment Agriculture.
The operational and scientific insights generated by agriculture in a controlled environment make it possible to overcome the current technological and structural deficiencies of Nature Co-Design; in parallel, the latest innovations generated by Nature Co-Design can be applied in the field of agriculture in a controlled environment (for example, molecular agriculture, synthetic biology and CRISPR). Future Farming focuses on the cross-sectoral impact of life forms, from microscopic to macroscopic (viruses, bacteria, algae, fungi, plants, insects). The life forms are raised sustainably within controlled environments to achieve specific purposes: to become food, biomolecules, biopharmaceuticals, biomaterials, etc. The impacts of Future Farming, in fact, are transversal and range from the food industry to the wellness industry, from the biopharmaceutical industry to biomaterials, up to environmental sustainability.
The total affordable market of Future Farming exceeds 700 billion euros nationally. Given the manufacturing vocation of the Italian production system, Future Farming represents an unmissable opportunity for Italian companies to assume global leadership in the field of innovation for sustainability.
Deep Tech, in addition to having given the "the" to a new form of (industrial) civilization thanks to the disruptive power of Future Farming, has paved the way for other revolutionary paths that offer interesting opportunities: Future Computing and the ability to solve extremely complex problems that conventional computers cannot handle; Atomic Renaissance and the opportunity to combine nuclear power with renewable energy sources to accelerate the energy transition and to help meet energy needs, especially in the difficult current context that the International Energy Agency (IEA) called it the "first real global energy crisis"; Space Economy and the possibility of opening up to a new frontier of economic and social development that transcends the earth's atmosphere; Decarbonization and Carbon Removal and the opportunity to convert to an economic system which, by sustainably reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂), ensures carbon neutrality in the future.
The Deep Tech approach to innovation offers extraordinary opportunities, especially in the fields of application analysed. These opportunities are even more extraordinary for Italian companies, given that the economic and industrial fabric they form is well suited to ride this fourth wave of innovation. The Deep Tech approach will affect the way of producing in every industrial sector and if Italian companies are able to develop effective business models to exploit their potential, they will be able to rejoin the train of innovation as they race.
Charles Bagnoli he is Full Professor of strategic innovation at the Management Department of the Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
Massimo Portincaso he is the founder and Managing Director of Deepwave Ventures and Executive Chairman of Officinae Bio, and is Chairman of Hallo Tomorrow.
Georgia Berton is a research fellow at the Department of Management of the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. The unabridged version of this article was published in Macrotrends 2022-2023 by Harvard Business Review Italia.
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