Abstract
With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution accompanied by the Internet of Things, the implementation of smart technologies and digitalization already had a great impact in our society, especially when considering exponential innovation and human development. In this context, some types of employment have already been replaced or have been enhanced by the use of robots, human-machines interfaces and Artificial Intelligence systems. And there is likely more to come. If innovation can be viewed as a direct or indirect outcome of scientific research, which role will a scientist play in 2035? We developed a survey to investigate the opinions of scientists with respect to the possible future implementation of disruptive technologies, their feelings and approaches to digitalization, and particularly the impact of digital transformation on scientific education. In a futuristic scenario, we can imagine that scientists will be supported by technologies, carrying out numerous experiments, managing big datasets, producing accurate results, increasing communication, openness and collaboration among the worldwide scientific community, where ethics, regulations and social norms will always be observed. The new era of Digital Science is coming, in which humans will start to incorporate more disruptive and advanced technologies into their daily life; essential aspects for exponential innovation and development.
Highlights
A scientist is an individual whose role is to conduct and document scientific research to extend knowledge in a specific area of interest
We investigated their opinion speculating on a probabilistic future while asking several questions regarding their current working situation. How they did cope with Covid-19 outbreak and the need to switch toward home-office setup, how they imagine to be the future of science in 2035, how digitalization and the adoption of smart technologies would modify ethics and regulatory procedures, whether the progressive implementation of technologies would increase the quality and quantity of experiment execution, what they think about open science principles, the possibility to increase interactions with global teams through digital meeting platforms and virtual laboratories, and lastly the effect that digital transformation would have on scientific education, and the way of training future scientists to embrace the process of digital transformation
When we asked to think ahead in 2035, imagine how the future of scientists and the way of conducting scientific research would be, the most three common answers were “Artificial Intelligence (AI) manages big datasets” (60.5%), “Global collaborations using channel-based messaging/ meeting platforms” (36.8%) and “Revised education” (52.6%)
Summary
A scientist is an individual whose role is to conduct and document scientific research to extend knowledge in a specific area of interest. Throughout history the role of scientists evolved considerably. Scientists belonging to different epochs changed their status facing different norms and ethical values. Scientists assume relevant roles when taking social decisions in advising policymakers and stakeholders towards a human-centered society (Ramirez and CayónPeña, 2016). Scientists share the responsibility to enhance cross-cultural connections and the transfer of knowledge among scientific disciplines, in which the support of smart technologies, innovation and human development underwent rapid changes. With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, large-scale machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and the internet of things (IoT) have been integrated leading to increased automated processes improving communication, self-monitoring and production through the capability of smart technologies to analyze and solve issues without human intervention (Moore, 2020)
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