Identifying future fields of standardisation:Methodology and empirical experiences

The paper describes a methodology for standardisation foresight developed for the German Institute for standardisation (DIN), to systematically identify innovative standardisation topics by involving the science and research community.Up to date,formal standardisation bodies have not undertaken systematic efforts to conduct these kinds of forecasting studies. This approach identifies future standardisation aspects in dynamic, innovative fields of technology by combining a computerised quantitative analysis of science and technology indicators (e.g., patent applications, scientific publications, etc.)and Delphi-based surveys.We first describe the function and economic effects of standards in the innovative process.Then, we introduce an indicator module to identify future fields of standardisation and combine this qualitative analysis with an online Delphi survey.To illustrate the general methodological approach, we exemplarily display major results on nanotechnology.We c onclude by assessing the application of our standard foresight approach and its extensibility towards computer-aided information retrieval.