Methodologies for the identification and integration of emerging and disruptive technologies

Emerging and disruptive technologies are those technologies which are deemed to have potentially disruptive effects to our current way of thinking and on current Defence Systems of Systems (SoS) solutions. The Emerging and Disruptive Technologies Action Group (EDTAG) within The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) has successfully influenced international and national strategic planning capabilities by developing and applying an end-to-end process to identify, assess, contextualise, and report on the impact of emerging and disruptive technologies on national strategic and force development programs. The EDTAG process is widely applicable across international organisations as well as national science and technology enterprises. EDTAG validated and implemented the process, which resulted in significant insight into several new emerging science and technology areas. In this paper, we discuss the end-to-end process that EDTAG developed from 2011-2013, the activities that comprise that process, and the recommendations and lessons learned from development and implementation.