Developing+technology+roadmaps

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Module 5. Developing technology roadmaps.
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.

Guidelines for Technology Road Mapping <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> This document is based on extensive experience within TNO (the main technology and research organization in the Netherlands) with Technology Road Mapping in recent years. Many different people contributed to the development and further refinement of this approach. Contents:

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 1. What is technology road mapping? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 1.1. Introduction <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 1.2. Why use technology road mapping? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 1.3. Applications of technology road mapping <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 1.4. Types of road maps <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 1.5. Differences with other planning tools

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 2. How to do technology road mapping? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 2.1. Step 1: Define the scope of the TRM <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 2.2. Step 2: Develop a vision of the future <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 2.3. Step 3: Identify future market demand and needs <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 2.4. Step 4: Identify priority research or innovation program areas <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 2.5. Step 5: External program validation <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 2.6. Step 6: Planning and implementation of TRM

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 3. Resource requirements and conditions for success <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 3.1. Resource requirements <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 3.2. Conditions for success

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 4. Tools to support the TRM process <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 4.1. Mind mapping <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 4.2. Logical framework <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 4.3. Critical path analysis <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 4.4. Decision tree <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 4.5. Scoring methods for priority setting

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> References <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> Resources on the web <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> Annexes

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> These guidelines were developed under the S&T Commercialisation in the Russian Federation Project, funded by EuropAid (EUROPAID/115381/C/SV/RU). Used with permission.