The research and development industry has evolved alongside the Digital Era into a global industry worth over $160 billion a year. Trends and innovations in technology have generated a shift in how research is performed, making it easier for international collaboration and reshaping societal norms as they used to look.

Today, change is a regular occurrence that most people not only expect and accept, but take for granted, too. One reason it’s so easy for the average population to assimilate into these adjustments regularly is that researchers are constantly using current trends to create the technology and reforms in natural ways that guide the transitioning. To continue to do this, however, researchers need to develop a greater understanding for future trends because technology is changing at a breakneck pace and if academics aren’t able to stay on top of these innovations and predict them, it will be easy to fall behind.

Changes That Require Research Adaptation

The speed and velocity of change in today’s world is not limited to technological forces. Rather, everything from the ecosystem to societal norms are changing rapidly, and all of these changes require someone, somewhere, to be on the forefront of the scene, taking it all in, observing objectively, and then analyzing and predicting where science and research need to go from there.

This is a broad need on a global scale, and research and development industries have increased in their attempt to comprehensively target future trends that will require adaptation. It has become a lucrative industry, with the first people, businesses, institutions, or governments to create a way to drive important change becoming the ones with the power and the ability to make money off of licensing these products, services, or the knowledge that comes with the research.

The pandemic of COVID-19 took the importance of being the first in providing the most relevant research to a whole new level. Without a precedent set to deal with an invisible global enemy, everyone scrambled to adapt and come up with a solution that would benefit the world instead of only a percentage of society.

Using Data Collection to Determine Research Trends

COVID-19 snuck up on the entire world, but scientists are determined that nothing else will do so again. To ensure this is possible, new methods of data collection are continually being produced, analyzed, and evaluated to determine research trends for the future.

The future is impossible to predict, but even COVID-19’s effect was predictable using certain data collection methods; it just wasn’t accepted as factual when the evidence came out.

Evaluating data for trends is a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures requiring attention to tiny nuances and shifts. Trends are not always tied to the particular industry or aspect that they directly correlate with, so researchers must be open to watching every strand of change and then speculating through data and statistics as to how that change could impact other facets of life in a domino effect or chain reaction.

To deal with trends, academic experts pay attention to three main components:

●      Identifying them as a relevant need based on current societal situations, asking themselves to predict what might be necessary in the future based on events and situations that occur today

●      Analyzing the potential effects of every possible scenario of a trend and projecting the needs that must be met for each effect

●      Analyzing what those effects mean for a global population, which industries and sectors will be affected directly, and what type of research must be performed in order to combat obstacles and transition the population seamlessly into these projected changes

Because of the unlimited variables and uncertainties of dealing with projections, scientists have to pay close attention to any tiny blip on the radar of change. One small butterfly wing flap could have widespread consequences in the future.

Using Impactio to Map Your Research Trends

Part of being able to project trends is to have the right tools in which to develop them. Impactio is an all-in-one platform designed for academic experts to take them from start to finish with their research, including mapping trends.

With Impactio, you can easily incorporate your findings into text blocks, subsections, and visual images. Your data is quickly made clear when you turn it into charts, tables, and graphs using Impactio’s data building capabilities.

Finalize your work as professional PDF documents or web pages ready for publication, and then get back to completing the important part of your job - projecting trends for the future and gliding society into an easy transition into the solutions!