This article discusses a method for planning RD projects that bring engineering professionals' knowledge of the RD arrangement and its peculiarities to bear on the challenges of planning new RD projects. Reducing planning uncertainty is achieved by a set of models proposed. The knowledge of RD arrangement and the company's intellectual capital encapsulated into the ontological model that provides estimates of several indicators of RD. The simulation model uses indicators obtained with the RD ontology for assessing time characteristics of RD activities the feasibility of RD deliverables. The article also presents examples of the models' work.