TECHNOLOGY-FORECASTING AND ASSESSMENT - THE CASE OF ZERO EMISSIONS

The world is facing pressing problems. The Zero Emissions Research Ini tiative (ZERI) has succeeded in identifying clusters of technologies w hich respond to specific needs such as the provision of water and food , the administration of health care, construction of housing, and the creation of jobs. The person responsible for the program is not a scie ntist, but an executive with broad experience in industrial innovation s. A network of over 3000 scientists has contributed to the implementa tion of the program through a system of ''electronic zooming'' based o n the Internet, which has resulted in less than three years in the tra nslation of scientific ideas into commercial applications. ZERI has de veloped a theoretical framework, a common methodology, and a set of ca se studies. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.