Structure of knowledge in the science and technology roadmaps

Science and technology (S&T) roadmaps are an attractive tool in R&D management, and have been widely used during the past decade. S&T roadmaps are typically described as a link among concepts such as product, technology, and science. However, it is still not clear what these concepts, especially, S&T, mean. In this work, we propose a framework describing engineering knowledge., and analyze two S&T roadmaps based on the framework. A distinct difference was seen between these roadmaps. According to our results, there are two types of roadmaps with respect to their description levels. One is entity-level description that is seen in environmental science and life science. Another is attribute-level description seen in the manufacturing industries including the semiconductor industry. We assume the attribute-level description of roadmap to be more effective because it enables us to set quantitative goals. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.