Publications

INSIGHT REPORT

Pioneering the Future: Space

Technologies Poised to Revolutionize

Exploration and Economy by 2035

September 2026

FACTSHEETS

Pioneering the Future: Space

Technologies Poised to Revolutionize Exploration and Economy by 2035

June 2026

WHITE PAPER

Future of Space Law:

Operationalizing Space Governance

March 2026

REPORT

Clear Orbit, Secure Future:

 A Call to Action on Space Debris

Jan 2026

WHITE PAPER

The Future of Space Law

Insights from the ATS, UNCLOS, and ITU Frameworks

December 2025

WHITE PAPER

The Future of Space Law: 

The Evolving Dynamics of Air and Space Regulation

 September  2025

The Future Of Space Law

News

Centre for Space Futures, Novaspace and SpaceTech Gulf  Sign Agreement to Develop Global Space Capability Mapping Dashboard

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia , 23 Jun 2026|  Press Release

Clear Orbit, Secure Future: A Call to Action on Space Debris

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 26 Jan 2026 | Press Release

Centre for Space Futures Holds Workshop with Participation of 40 Global Experts

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 05 Dec 2025 | Press Release

Centre for Space Futures Releases White Paper on 'The Future of Space Law'

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 12 Sep 2025 | Press Release

The Board of Directors of the Centre for Space Futures Endorses Its Strategic Direction

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 26 May 2025 | Press Release

Saudi Space Agency to Launch the Centre for Space Futures with the World Economic Forum

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 29 April | Press Release

5 ways we can tackle growing risks from rocket bodies in orbit

Dec 09, 2025 | Economic Growth, Stories

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Forum Agenda

Forum Videos

VIDEO

Press Conference: Centre for Space Futures in Riyadh

The World Economic Forum's Special Meeting, April 29, 2024

VIDEO

The Purpose of Astronauts at Davos 2024

World Economic Forum , March 9, 2024

VIDEO

PortWatch: Monitoring Trade Disruptions from Space

World Economic Forum , Dec 18, 2023

VIDEO

India's Moon Mission Triumph: Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj's Insights

World Economic Forum , Aug 23, 2023

VIDEO

Space Exploration is Back at Davos 2023

World Economic Forum , Feb 16, 2023

Forum Publications

REPORT

Space: The $1.8 Trillion Opportunity for Global Economic Growth

World Economic Forum , April 8, 2024

REPORT

Navigating the Industrial Metaverse: A Blueprint for Future Innovations

World Economic Forum , March 12, 2024

REPORT

Digital Trust: Supporting Individual Agency

World Economic Forum , Jan 18, 2024

REPORT

The Future of Global Fintech: Towards Resilient and Inclusive Growth

World Economic Forum , Jan 18, 2024

Strategic Intelligence Insights

Europe invests heavily in science, technology, and infrastructure to understand, prevent, and combat wildfires. Key systems like Copernicus and the European Forest Fire Information System provide satellite data and fire risk information, complemented by weather forecasts and historical fire records. Despite abundant data, challenges arise from fragmented storage, varying data formats, access restrictions, and legal or security constraints. Integrating these datasets is critical for effective wildfire management. The FAIR principles—ensuring data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable—offer a framework to unify this data. Enhanced machine readability will enable AI tools to analyze diverse sources while respecting data governance, improving wildfire response capabilities across Europe.
Health
Unlocking Europe’s wildfire data
Environmental progress can become unstoppable by harnessing positive tipping points, where solutions improve and spread rapidly as they succeed. Unlike incremental change, complex systems like clean energy can shift abruptly once key thresholds are crossed, fueling further advances. Examples include the rapid cost decline in solar power, the near tipping of clean cookstoves in Africa through pay-as-you-go finance, satellite-monitored methane leak fixes, and expanding marine-protected areas that boost fish stocks and support local fishers. Despite challenges like limited investment in Africa, targeting these feedback-driven solutions with clear 2030 goals can accelerate environmental progress and help the Earthshot Prize amplify such breakthroughs.
Africa
Earthshot and the science of positive tipping points: how environmental progress can become unstoppable
Solar geoengineering aims to cool the climate by altering Earth's energy balance, with stratospheric aerosol injection (dispersing sulfur dioxide to form reflective aerosols) as the most studied method. Proposed outdoor experiments range from small-scale tests of aerosol behavior to larger releases up to 1,000 tonnes, comparable to emissions from mid-sized coal plants, to validate climate models. While small trials can refine understanding, they cannot predict full deployment impacts. Critics worry research may create momentum toward deployment, normalizing solar geoengineering despite concerns about its social, political, and environmental implications, highlighting that opposition often stems from broader value conflicts beyond scientific evidence.
Plans to artificially dim the sun have divided scientists – here’s what they’re actually arguing about
Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) from the World Economic Forum anticipate steady or accelerated progress in sustainability over the next year, driven by stronger business cases and advancing, cost-effective technologies. Challenges include policy uncertainty, short-term pressures, and geopolitical volatility, causing uneven progress across sectors and regions. Sustainability is increasingly integrated into commercial, operational, and investment decisions, with AI enhancing execution but requiring resource trade-offs. Adaptation is emerging as key to resilience and capital allocation. The core challenge for CSOs is embedding sustainability in value-creating, resilient decisions amid shifting economic and geopolitical landscapes.
Chief Sustainability Officers' Outlook September 2026
The Anthropocene concept, introduced in 2000 to describe a new geological epoch marked by significant human impact on Earth, was rejected in 2024 by the International Commission on Stratigraphy for formal recognition, primarily due to its recent onset. Nevertheless, evidence from global locations shows a clear planetary shift around 1952, coinciding with widespread plutonium from thermonuclear tests, marking a new geological boundary. The idea remains influential, bridging natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and law to understand and address rapid human-driven changes, known as the "great acceleration," affecting climate, ecosystems, and geopolitics. Adapting laws and education for this changing Earth underscores its continuing relevance beyond formal geological status.
Antarctica | Health
The Anthropocene was rejected as a geological epoch – but the idea is still changing how we see the world
Astronauts experience rapid health declines during long-duration spaceflight, resembling age-related conditions on Earth, with some effects reversing after return. Spaceflight's low gravity reduces mechanical stress on muscles and bones, causing muscle loss akin to sarcopenia, but over weeks instead of decades. The UK’s MicroAge mission uses lab-grown human muscle tissues on the ISS to study muscle aging mechanisms, focusing on mitochondrial function in follow-up research. Understanding these accelerated changes in space can accelerate identification and testing of treatments for age-related muscle decline on Earth, potentially speeding drug development for frailty and mobility loss in the elderly.
How studying astronauts could help tackle ageing on Earth
The European Health Data Space Regulation (EHDS), adopted by the EU in 2025, creates a legal framework to enable patient-level and cross-border health data access while promoting data reuse by policymakers and industry. Despite its controversial aspects, the EHDS received limited attention during its development. This study uses interviews, observation, and media analysis across multiple European countries to explore why the EHDS is visible and recognized in some contexts but absent in others. It identifies four types of “distance” — temporal, experiential, affective, and scalar — that explain selective visibility, framing absence as a social outcome and suggesting ways for scholars to intervene.
Health, ICT
Selective visibility in datafied states: Examining the absence and presence of the European Health Data Space
Star Trek popularized the concept of wormholes as tunnels through spacetime connecting distant locations, inspiring interest in their scientific basis. Early portrayals, such as in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), depicted wormholes as distorted spacetime regions affecting starship systems but not accurately showing traversal or endpoints. The theoretical framework for traversable wormholes arises from Einstein’s general relativity, requiring exotic matter with negative pressure to stabilize spacetime curvature. Wormholes might connect distant places or universes, with normal time passage experienced by travelers inside, though differing elapsed times could occur relative to outside observers. While science fiction simplifies some effects like time distortion, wormholes remain a fascinating possibility supported by physics.
Star Trek used wormholes to jump through space – what’s the science behind them?
South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung's state visit to France on September 8, marking 140 years of diplomatic relations, highlights growing France-South Korea partnerships amid shifting global dynamics. Both nations are deepening collaboration in high-tech sectors such as semiconductors, aerospace, artificial intelligence, and energy, driven by shared concerns over U.S.-China rivalry and economic security. French firms are increasingly integrated into Korean value chains, while Korea offers mass production capabilities complementing France’s research strengths. Strategic cooperation focuses on compatibility in corporate culture and joint project execution, with promising opportunities in semiconductors, AI, space, and defense industries to strengthen future economic and technological ties.
Africa, ASEAN
President Lee Jae-Myung’s State Visit: France-South Korea, a Partnership for the Future?
Russian military spending surged by 30% in the first half of 2026, reaching 10.7 trillion rubles or 4.7% of GDP, defying planned cuts and threatening to exceed 9% of GDP by year-end—a post-Soviet record. This unplanned increase undermines fiscal consolidation efforts, contributing to a budget deficit of 2.8% of GDP, nearly double the target. Dwindling National Wealth Fund reserves and expensive domestic borrowing, with bond yields nearing 17%, exacerbate financing challenges. Amid rising war costs and economic strain, the Kremlin suppresses dissent, as exemplified by the dismissal of a prominent economist who warned of these fiscal and economic pressures.
Africa | Financial services
Russian military spending soars, upending the Kremlin’s budget plans
Europe’s strategic autonomy relies on keeping science both open and secure, expanding research capacity beyond elite institutions and member states. The EU’s Horizon Europe program fosters global collaboration with countries like Canada, South Korea, Australia, and India, enhancing knowledge networks vital for economic security and technological development. Strategic autonomy involves managing interdependencies, not self-sufficiency, ensuring critical technologies are safeguarded against risks such as unwanted knowledge transfer and foreign interference. Integrating research security into all cooperation phases is essential, but disparities in institutional resources risk deepening divides within the European Research Area.
Africa | Health, Financial services
Europe’s strategic autonomy depends on open and secure science
European defence modernisation intensified following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, resulting in increased spending and joint initiatives. Despite technical advancements, political cohesion lags, hindering full European strategic autonomy—the ability to develop independent defence capabilities and act collectively without heavy reliance on external actors. While small frontline states achieve operational autonomy in areas like counter-uncrewed aerial systems, dependence on the U.S. persists in strategic airlift, long-range strike, and space intelligence. Small states play a crucial role through operational innovation, industrial contribution, and shaping institutions, even without EU-wide consensus. The EU Drone Wall exemplifies how small-state-led bilateral partnerships can advance capabilities faster than broader EU processes but also highlights political divisions that limit integration.
Africa
Unity or Fragmentation? European Defence Modernisation, Small-States’ Strategies, and the EU Drone Wall
The World Economic Forum's 2025–2026 Annual Report details key organizational developments, combining financial and non-financial performance metrics. It focuses on five critical themes: people, growth, geopolitics and trade, technology, and planet, emphasizing foresight, dialogue, and collaboration. Highlights include the 56th Annual Meeting in Davos themed "A Spirit of Dialogue," leadership under Co-Chairs Laurence D. Fink and André Hoffmann and CEO Alois Zwinggi, and the activities of six global offices. The report also covers stakeholder metrics across governance, people, planet, and prosperity pillars, financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 2026, and an overview of initiatives from the Forum's 11 centres.
Africa | Health
Annual Report 2025–2026
SpaceX disrupted the aerospace industry by applying first-principles thinking, prioritizing cost reduction over traditional emphasis on reliability and risk avoidance. This shift enabled rapid prototyping, rocket reusability, and iterative learning cycles, creating a virtuous circle of data, improvement, and economies of scale. The company’s IPO in June 2026 initially saw stock surges but quickly faced steep valuation declines amid market volatility and concerns over unprofitable AI investments. The public offering also raised questions about governance and founder Elon Musk’s leadership, highlighting challenges in sustaining competitive advantage and market integrity as SpaceX transitions from private to public ownership.
From first principles to public pressure, the SpaceX IPO is a market test
The GENESIS EU project, led by Fraunhofer IPMS and involving over 50 European partners, aims to make microchip manufacturing more sustainable by 2028. The initiative focuses on reducing emissions, substituting critical materials, recycling, and minimizing waste throughout the chip lifecycle. Key efforts include reducing PFAS and greenhouse gas emissions by exploring alternative materials and optimizing gas cleaning, as well as recovering valuable raw materials from chemical mechanical planarization slurries. Fraunhofer IPMS’s advanced clean rooms enable realistic testing of sustainable processes to accelerate industrial adoption, supporting the European Green Deal and the EU Chips Act objectives.
More Sustainable Microchip Production
Family firms, often seen as naturally sustainable due to their long-term outlook and emphasis on socioemotional wealth, do not universally outperform others on ESG criteria. Research analyzing over 3,000 public companies found family-owned firms generally scored lower on environmental, social, and governance measures compared to other ownership structures. However, when family ownership is active and family members hold CEO roles, these firms show significantly better ESG outcomes. Alignment between ownership and management, such as shared vision and governance practices like independent boards and ESG-linked pay, enhances sustainability performance. Understanding family firms' broader social impact requires considering activities beyond their operating companies.
Health
What drives sustainability performance? Lessons from family firms
Science’s value extends beyond economic growth, innovation, and health improvements; it is fundamental to democratic governance by providing objective truths that inform political deliberation and accountability. Scientific knowledge shapes political agendas and societal change, making the funding and direction of science a deeply political issue. True public stewardship of science requires citizen involvement in these decisions. Recent federal proposals shifting research oversight to presidential appointees and increasing private sector influence risk undermining science as a public good, threatening its democratic and societal roles.
Health
How to Save Science
NASA's new flagship space telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, the agency's first chief astronomer and a pioneering American astrophysicist. Roman made key discoveries about stellar populations and galactic structure by linking star motion and chemical composition. She overcame significant gender discrimination during her career, including wage inequality and lack of tenure opportunities. Roman helped establish NASA's astronomy program, overseeing early space telescope projects that laid the groundwork for future missions. The Roman Space Telescope will complement the James Webb by surveying vast sky areas to study cosmic evolution in broad detail.
Nasa’s new telescope is named after astronomer Nancy Grace Roman – but who was she?
Europe is increasingly dependent on US technology, losing control over crucial data that drives its industries. To regain digital sovereignty, Europe must create protected spaces allowing domestic alternatives to grow, as China did with its own platforms. This requires selecting areas where disconnection from non-European tech is feasible, costs of dependence are high, and catching up with market leaders is achievable. Unlike China, Europe needs to base policies on agreed laws and leverage its unique assets like companies such as ASML and the SWIFT system for negotiation. Social media is a prime area to target for developing European platforms, as the gap with US services is narrow and the societal costs of dependence are significant.
Africa | ICT, Financial services
Europe needs to fight back against US software dominance – and now is the time
Up to 40% of the world’s land is degraded, impacting over 3.2 billion people and threatening economies reliant on healthy soil. Unsustainable land use, short-term economic incentives, and climate change drive this decline. Healthy soil is a critical economic asset that supports productivity, resilience, and long-term value, yet it is often overlooked in financial and risk assessments. Investing in soil health is urgent and essential for sustaining business operations and ensuring economic stability.
Africa | Health
The Hidden Economic Power of Healthy Soils

Centre For Space Futures

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