Skills for Assuring the Safe Adoption of Emerging Technology

As new and emerging technologies continue to pervade all aspects of society and commerce, we need to be confident that its adoption can and will be safe, and can be shown to be safe. A plethora of academic and grey literature considers the pitfalls and challenges to be faced by the advent of emerging technology, but offer no pragmatic steps to prepare for the safe adoption of emerging technology. The paucity of preparedness for safe adoption is underlined by the offerings of academic prospectuses - or rather the lack of offerings with regards to education and continuing professional development. Whilst we are able to highlight the challenges faced by an organisation seeking to adopt emerging technology, a substantial amount of further research is required before we can confidently recommend what competence looks like and how to provide the educational training needs associated with the safety assurance aspects of technology adoption.