All goods and services produced or consumed by people can be ...

The growing use of technologies in production is a significant trend, along with the related structural unemployment of a considerable part of the workforce. This can result in a wild card which could be characterised as a turn...

A version of GM wheat starts producing a chemical which alte ...

This is possible, as common food products have important effects on health and wellbeing, so a major proportion of the population could be affected

Combine climate change with animal-borne diseases, and the l ...

there are the makings of a perfect storm. Certain conditions could come together to cause a major health epidemic or something that affects a significant sector of the agricultural business, or agricultural dependency, e.g. a w...

A major dip in the supply of UK human resources in science a ...

That would have significant impact on industry, which would exacerbate the effects that are already being picked up

Certain areas in research are no longer funded

If something arises which is currently low key, not particularly sexy in the research sense, then you begin to have a backlog, as you lack the research to deal with the threat when it arises. It is a wildcard that has already c...

Destabilization of the innovation system

Go back to the destabilization of the economy and losing funding. Society and the economy destabilize the innovation system. In Greece, for example, I imagine many Greek researchers will no longer look for research jobs in Gr...