The X Club

In mid-Victorian London, a group of young, brilliant scientists, concerned about rising military and scientific competition from Germany, France, and the United States, created the "X Club" to promote innovation in British science. They knew at first-hand how important this enterprise could be. After all, they had lived through the industrialization of the British economy, transportation, and military; the rise of globe-circling telegraph lines, trade routes, and empires; and revolutions in biology, chemistry, physics, anthropology, and ecology.

They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Within a decade, they were all distinguished scientists, lions of the British scientific establishment, and government advisers. From the bully pulpit of scientific society presidencies, government commissions, and the popular press, they promoted the idea that science was now a critical resource for national security, and that governments needed to look ahead to understand what opportunities, threats, or disruptions might result from scientific advances and technological innovation. In short, they helped create the modern view of science.

The X2 Project

Today, science is entering another period of accelerated change, thanks to the growth of the Internet and dawn of pervasive computing; the explosive growth of new sciences like genetic engineering, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and simulation; the rise of new scientific powers in the developing world, the revival of amateur scientists, and the growth of citizen science movements in the United States and Europe; the growth of new institutions supporting scientific research and innovation, and changes in the structure and funding of universities, government, and corporate R&D labs. Science in 2025 and 2050 is going to look very different than it does today.

To map and make sense of all these changes, the Institute for the Future (IFTF) launched the X2 Project in late 2007. The purpose of X2 is to identify future disruptions, opportunities, and competitive landscapes related to the content and dynamics of global science and technology innovation; to develop a new platform for understanding global innovation trends; and to present this information to policy- and decision-makers, as well as the general public, in a useful form. The project conducts its research online, through an innovative experiment in open forecasting; in workshops with young scientists and engineers around the world; and in online games.

X2 is overseen by an ad hoc committee sponsored by the U.S. National Academies (comprised of the National Academy of Science, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council), and received its initial funding from the U.S. Department of Defense.

About IFTF

The Institute for the Future is an independent nonprofit research group headquartered in Palo Alto, California, in Silicon Valley. We work with organizations of all kinds to help them make better, more informed decisions about the future. We provide the foresight to create insights that lead to action. We take an explicitly global approach to strategic planning, linking macro trends to local issues in such areas as technology and society, health and health care, and global business trends.