The RAHS project began in July 2005 and we have developed a useful baseline operational capability. But we have only scratched the surface. RAHS requires a long-term commitment and investment. There is significant research and development work ahead of us.

We are approaching RAHS quite deliberately and systematically. There are four major components: the National Security Coordination Centre provides policy direction and drives the resource end of this enterprise; the Horizon Scanning Centre is the operational nerve centre, it coordinates and drives information sharing within the network and provides method-expertise for user case studies; the RAHS Experimentation Centre drives technology R&D efforts; and the Centre of Excellence for National Security surveys the landscape for new concepts, methods and techniques. The National Security Coordination Centre will ensure the different parts of the system are coordinated and move in tandem.

We have selectively extended RAHS on a separate unclassified network to agencies outside of government, beginning with the universities in Singapore. The universities can provide useful feedback on the software developed and help build models that can apply across different (political, social and economic) domains. In this regard, a pilot project with the Singapore Management University has just concluded and we are exploring the use of the software with the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University in 2008. Secondly, we are exploring how RAHS could be extended to domain experts outside of government, by building up trusted networks and communities of practice. We hope to consult these experts for their views on weak signals or outliers, and we hope to collaborate, for example to horizon scan for disruptive technologies. In the longer term, we could also extend our horizon scanning efforts to include international collaboration partners.

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