Supporting successful standardization processes in complex emerging fields through quantitative analysis

The field of nanotechnology is characterized by its rapid development and a multitude of participating communities and different subareas of scientific and technical activities, challenges regarding the understanding, coordination and implementation of new technologies. By reviewing some of the main challenges for successful knowledge-based standardization in complex emerging and heterogeneous fields this paper will present a range of quantitative methods, applied to publication data, that will provide a blueprint for further foresight activities in complex R&D fields. It addresses the issue of identification and integration of topics and researchers in such research fields that can be decomposed into thematic subfields and present solutions for an integration of this plurality into standardization processes.