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Research roadmap templates

The roadmap a proposal, thesis or grant application asks for, as ready-made Mermaid code: pick the template whose phases are closest to your plan, replace the text with your own steps, and export Word, PowerPoint or a high-resolution PNG. Free, no sign-up, no watermark; rendering and export happen in your browser.

13 templatesHow a research roadmap is written in Mermaid

Ready-made research roadmaps

Open one for the preview and the full code, and download PNG, SVG, Word or PowerPoint right there; “Open in the editor” lets you edit the text and pick a theme before exporting.

Three steps to a figure you can hand in

  1. 1Pick the template whose phases match your plan and click “Open in the editor”
  2. 2Double-click nodes in the preview to put in your own steps; phase names live in the square brackets after each subgraph. Or send the prompt below to an AI assistant with your topic and paste its whole reply back
  3. 3Pick a theme (Light for black-and-white printing) and export Word or PowerPoint. The file holds a high-resolution image with the code appended, so you can come back and edit

How a research roadmap is written in Mermaid

Try it: copy this and paste it into the editor to render it.

mermaid
flowchart TB
    subgraph S1[Phase 1 Preparation]
        direction LR
        A[Background] --> B[Literature review] --> C[Objectives]
    end
    subgraph S2[Phase 2 Design]
        direction LR
        D[Theory] --> E[Methods] --> F(Proposal)
    end
    subgraph S3[Phase 3 Implementation]
        direction LR
        G[Data collection] --> H[Experiments] --> I[Analysis]
    end
    S1 --> S2 --> S3
  • flowchart TB on the first line stacks the phases top to bottom; each phase is a subgraph with its name in square brackets
  • direction LR inside a subgraph runs that phase's steps left to right
  • Connect the phases themselves (S1 --> S2). Linking individual nodes across phases makes Mermaid drop the inner direction and stack everything vertically
  • Parallel work goes into one subgraph as two chains that merge into the next phase; mark deliverables (proposal, interim report) with a rounded node ( ) at the end of a phase

Ask an AI for your own version with this structure

Send the prompt below to ChatGPT or Claude with the parts in [brackets] replaced by yours, then paste the whole reply into the editor; the code inside is detected automatically.

prompt.txt
Draw a research roadmap in Mermaid flowchart TB syntax. The topic is [your topic]. Use one subgraph per phase with the phase name in square brackets, for the phases [Preparation, Design, Implementation and validation, Conclusion], and add direction LR inside each subgraph so the steps run left to right. The steps are: [phase 1: … → … → …; phase 2: … → …; …]. Connect the phases by their subgraph ids (for example S1 --> S2), never individual nodes across phases. Output only the mermaid code block.

Frequently asked questions

Roadmap, research framework or flowchart: which one do reviewers want?
A research roadmap is ordered by phases and steps: what happens first and what each phase produces. A framework diagram shows the logical relations between variables or modules; a flowchart shows the branches of one procedure. Proposals and methodology chapters normally ask for the roadmap, which is what every template on this page draws.
How many phases should a roadmap have?
Four or five is typical: preparation (background, literature review, objectives), theory and method, implementation and validation (data, experiments or system build, analysis), and conclusion (findings, contributions, future work). Software projects split implementation into design, build and test; algorithm research adds baseline reproduction and comparison experiments. Add or remove phases to match your department's template; each phase is one subgraph in the code.
The department wants a black-and-white figure
Switch to the Light theme in the editor before exporting: it prints as black text and grey lines on white. Export the PNG at 3x, or export SVG for unlimited print resolution.
Can I get a Word or PowerPoint file?
Yes. Word (docx) and PowerPoint (pptx) download straight from the template page: the file embeds a high-resolution image and appends the Mermaid code. After editing the text, export the same formats from the editor's menu. Free, no sign-up, no watermark.
There is no template for my field
Start from the template whose phases are closest and rename the phases and steps, or send the prompt on this page to an AI assistant with your topic, methods and phases. It answers with the same structure; paste the whole reply into the editor.

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