Up and to the right: market information for technology research

An industrial research laboratory has to take a long view of technology. There is increasing pressure to make a business case for research projects. There are plenty of data and analysis of the past. There are a great many sources of news about the present. There is no shortage of individuals and agencies willing to predict the future. What does the researcher make of these? How do researchers build their own pictures to complement their technical work? The aim of this paper is to provide an insight into the information needs to support technology forecasting. The paper discusses the research environment. It focuses on short-term requests which put the most pressure on information services. It considers the information needs; the available resources; and the reliability of forecasts. The emphasis is on the analysis of published market information to support researchers in their technology goals.