Purpose+of+a+technology+roadmap

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Module 4. Purpose of a technology roadmap.
 Technology Road Mapping (TRM) is a planning process which:
 * Supports decision-making for technology investments.
 * Simultaneously considers markets, products, technologies and R&D.
 * Starts with market and product needs – the demand side.
 * Looks for different technological contributions to problem solving.
 * Identifies technology investments needed to develop new products and services.

Technology Road Mapping (TRM) is a tool that helps to guide decision-making between different technology investment strategies. In TRM the basis for technology development is not the technological capabilities of the research institute (technology push), but the market demands for new (higher performing) products and services. Take the example of market or government demand for a more fuel-efficient motorcar – e.g. one that consumes no more fuel on average than 1 liter per 50 km. There are various ways to achieve this objective. Different technologies may and should be considered as it is unlikely that any one single technology can produce the results to meet such an ambitious objective. The use of composite materials to reduce vehicle weight, alternative car designs, more fuel efficient engines, motor management systems and driver assistance technologies need to be reviewed for effectiveness, investment cost and time required to develop the necessary innovations.

 There are a number of reasons for the increasing popularity of TRM. First, it helps to predict, based on informed assumptions, the market’s future technology and product needs and to identify the science and technology areas with the highest potential for an industry. Second, it helps a company or institute to focus on the needs of customers and users by explicitly involving them in the TRM process. Third, new products are more and more knowledge intensive and require ever larger investments in new technologies. R&D is expensive and TRM provides a method to support strategic decision making among alternative investments and to focus on those that are likely to provide high returns. Fourth, for complex innovation processes the TRM provides an instrument to coordinate the R&D and product development efforts of a company or an industry and to establish the consensus needed to move forward on a program of technology-development R&D.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 100%;"> For details see Developing technology roadmaps.