R&D roadmaps are concise and comprehensive documents that  serve as a collaborative framework to underpin a vision, strategic goals and research priority areas to accelerate the development of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines to prevent and control severe emerging diseases caused by pathogens identified by the R&D Blueprint as priorities.

R&D roadmaps encompass basic research through to late-stage development, licensure and early use of products. They are critical tools to better identifying effective health technologies to save lives and rapidly integrating research into response (as demonstrated during the past outbreaks of Lassa fever in Nigeria, Nipah in India, and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

R&D Roadmaps for Ebola and Marburg (among the filoviral diseases), Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, Lassa fever (among the arenaviral haemorrhagic fevers), Nipah virus and Zika virus have been developed through broad and open consultations with leading experts and key stakeholders and are now publicly available in an advanced draft format.

These roadmaps will be revised in the future based on additional research and expert input.

An R&D roadmap for Rift Valley fever (RVF) is currently in development under the tripartite FAO-OIE-WHO Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), and the WHO R&D Blueprint has also been in discussion with partners for the development of the roadmap for Disease X.