Janus – Impact Assessment Platform

Proposal

Develop an impact assessment platform that combines blockchain and artificial intelligence to facilitate informed decision-making in the strategic development and structuring of key sectors that assesses societal impact, environmental and economical impact to support informed decision-making and deliver holistic outcomes that align with the UN sustainable development goals and the principals of the Just Transition.

Named after the Roman God of Progress and Transition, Janus integrates learning, R&D, Innovation and Commercialisation to plan, implement and review societal, economical and environmental impact. The platform would align policies, projects and technology and derisk the large-scale adoption of innovative yet disruptive knowledge, products and services by collecting and sharing data that allows informed decision-making to assess the impact of current activities, plan future activities and optimise sustainable development.

Sustainable Smart Specialisation Strategies

The purpose of Sustainable Smart Specialisation Strategies (S4) is to align Smart Specialisation with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and would mirror a similar approach within the EU.

“Smart specialisation is a place-based approach, meaning that it builds on the assets and resources available to region and nations, that addresses socio-economic challenges in order to identify unique opportunities for development and growth”

Janus will be co-designed using the S4 framework, which will create a generic solution to support cooperation across regions and key sectors in Scotland and align with European regions and countries applying similar principals to support cluster partnerships, international collaboration on share issues, promote regional specialisation internationally and accelerate the commercialisation of innovative knowledge, products and services.

Examples of similar approach of using blockchain to solve environmental and societal issues as the Impactio platform; a collaboration between Kaleido and WWF to bring together practitioners, experts, donors and investors to make high-impact projects come to fruition, matching social and environmental impact projects with the support and potential funding they need to be a success. With the additional transparency and trust from Kaleido’s Ethereum blockchain, donors and funders gain confidence and are more likely to support projects.

Collaboration

The initial stage is to create a white label sector-agnostic demonstrator platform through co-design with experts in data science, strategy, and sustainable development to measure societal, environmental and economical impact.