2.2 Technology readiness levels (TRL)

In this module, we're going to look at the concept of technology readiness level. And at the bottom of the first slide, you can see a web link that we've made. so any of the links I mentioned in the presentation you'll find them on this particular webpage. So,first of all, I want to look at just a quick overview of technology readiness level to see what it is. Then I want to talk about technology readiness level in Horizon 2020 and how technology readiness level can be used when you're selecting partners for the project. And finally, in the impact section of your proposal, you'll see me repeating the use of TRL so I just introduced the concept of TRL an impact here.

Now, the organization called EARTO has written an excellent report on technology readiness level. EARTO is an organization representing over 350 of the top research and technology organizations in Europe and you can see their website on this webpage. Now the concept of technology readiness level originated in 1977 and the aerospace industry introduced it as a way of expressing the level at which technology was evolving. So, there are nine levels to it which I'm going to explain in the following slides. In the eighties, it was then adopted by the Aeronautics industry and then other industries like electronics and pharmaceutical industry started to adapt it for their own needs and today most industries use it. So, the concept of TRL is not a European Commission concept. It's concept of industry but it has now been brought into Horizon 2020 and we look at in module two.

Now, the concept of TRL one, which is the basic principles are observed, so this is obviously the whole territory of basic scientists where's TRL nine means the product is ready to go on the market. So, in this presentation I’m going to use a computer mouse as an example of how you know how TRL can explain the evolution of the computer mouse. So initially the concept, somebody had this concept, that you can you move an icon across the computer screen and the technology concept was formulated. Somebody tried to decide how it will be done so this is TRL two. TRL three is laboratory experimentation, and you expect an experiment with many many different concepts, and you look at different concepts and you prove them but TRL four means it's working at laboratory level. So, let's have a look at TRL four mouse. So here is the official photograph of the first mouse. You can see it's made of wood. It's probably very heavy and probably if you move that, an item moved across the screen so it was pretty fundamental you couldn't sell this thing. And the 1984, I found this quotation that one of the top computer people in America said, that they didn't think that this will have much of the future. Now TRL five is where the technology is validated in a relevant environment, so it's tested but it's not power to the environment. TRL 6, it means it's demonstrated in a relevant environment, again it's not part of the system but it's being demonstrated. Now here in TRL seven it's demonstrated, and the key word here is in an operational environment, so it goes into a real system. Now in TRL 8, it means the system is working and the new component is integrated into the system. So, it's completed and here you could be looking at meeting standards meeting regulations and so on. And, in the TRL nine, the product is on the market. So, Logitech, which is one of the biggest producers of the mouse and it's said in their website that they've shipped over 500 million mice and that only represents about half of all the mice shipped over the last 20 years. So, it's an example of how technologies evolve.

Now, if you look at the pharmaceutical industry, that whole chain could be twenty years. If you look at the software industry, that chain could be 18 months. In energy, it might be 78 years from initial concept to having something on the market and, it varies between technologies, so TRL 1 to TRL 9 is a way of expressing the level at which your technology is at any moment. Now, this slide shows the more common terminology where basic research, laboratory research, technology research, technology demonstration, so those terms are sometimes used, and it just puts them in the position of the TRL table. Now, if we also look at the biotechnology sector and on the art or document, they discuss this comparison. So, you can see that phase one trials is about TRL 5 6. Phase two trials is TRL 7 and so on. Now, in Horizon 2020, they've adopted TRL as a way of expressing and where a folding scheme is focusing and what they've actually published is a general annex and annex G of the general annex on the participant portal contains the definition of the TRL and it is actually in the definition I have used in the previous section of the presentation and section one. Now, here's an example of a topic in column number one of Horizon 2020. So, we can see here it's NMP 1 2014 and we can see here that implementation of the proposed is intended to start at TRL 4 and target here at TRL 6. So, it means that the funding is focusing on projects that operate in this area. So, it's not funding basic science. It's not from the close to the market and it's telling the scientists so we're looking at technologies that have been developed in the laboratory. We want to focus on demonstration prototyping and so on. Of course, if you look at another program the transport program under aviation, and we can see the Caesar joint undertaking is focusing on TRL from one to six. That means in their ethics part of the program they've got from basic research basic concepts right up to demonstration and prototyping and so on. So, that's how would you see TRL appearing and TRL is mainly mentioned in pillar 2 which is industry leadership. Now on pillar three, which is societal challenges, they don't mention TRL too often but you have to use the same concepts when you're explaining and what lived in your project is focusing.

Now let's look at this diagram again. This zone, let's call it, these TRL's are referred to as the value of debt now academic researchers don't like TRL 5 6 & 7 basically because there's no publications in either. Industry doesn't like 5 6 & 7 because it's very expensive and it's very very risky. Now framework 7 the previous European program came to about TRL 4. But horizon 2020 is going to TRL 7. So, that's why Horizon 2020 is called a research and innovation program. Now there's a problem with their funding schemes. When national and European bodies are designing funding programs, they have to take into account that are called European competition law and international state aid rules. Basically, what they say is that the Irish government cannot fund a company to make it more competitive than a German company or an American company. So, these are very very strict rules. So, when funding bodies are designing their programs, they are restricted by competition law and stated rules to focus on approximately up to TRL 7. So that's why if Horizon 2020 is called a pre-competitive research program. So, let's look at the different programs in horizon 2020 and see where they're actually located. Now national funding goes from TRL 1 from the basic science up to demonstration and prototyping and programs like Eurostar's which is for research intensive companies bringing things close as close up in the market. That's about TRL four, five, and six. ERC phones frontier our basic research and that's roughly TRL 1 going into TRL 2. Fed future and emerging technologies is roughly TRL 2. Now, pillar two and pillar three stretch from TRL 2 up to about the end of TRL 6. Now, public-private partnerships, this is where European, national, and private funding is put on the table. Now, when your private funding put on the table, that means you can go further than the competition losses because industry is putting money on the table. but you can see the public-private partnerships are focusing on TRL 5 plus. Marie Curie fellowships they fund postdoctoral research but they also fund things like industrial PhD’s, the rise program for staff exchange between academia and industry. So, some of them are equally programs are focusing on the development of skills for people dealing with industry.

EIT, European Institute of Innovation and Technology is trying to position itself across the valley of death and accessing finance is about funding high-growth companies at TRL 6 plus. It's also used for other applications but, in the case of enterprises, it's for funding this part of the program. So, you can see here, how all the different programs and how they're related. Now, as you go towards TRL one, the main evaluation criteria becomes excellent scientific excellence. As you move in the direction of TRL four five six, the main evaluation criteria becomes impact. So, if you're at TRL, say, 2 to 4, then you have to consider both excellence and impact. Now, the different grants in Horizon 2020 address different parts of the TRL chain. The ERC grants of course are forming the ERC program. Now, in such an innovation actions, these grants cover from about TRL 2 to about the end of TRL 4 or early TRL 5. innovation actions are focusing, and demonstration prototyping living labs and they normally cover about TRL five, six, and seven. The SME instrument is mainly TRL 5 plus. So, it's looking at bringing technologies closer and closer to the market and the new type of grant fast-track to innovation is also focusing on TRL 5 plus. The public procurement, this is where public bodies demand innovation or research, that's actually getting closer at to the market. Now, coordination and support actions, these fund studies therefore networks and if cover the full range of TRL 1 to TRL 9 but it's mainly studies dealing with these particular areas.

Now, let's see how a TRL can be used when you're selecting partners for your project. The universities and research centers public research centers normally operate in the range of TRL 1 to TRL 4. Some of the research centers like Max Planck in Germany they would be operating at TRL 1 and 2. A lot of universities, you know, might be more basic research, which are TRL 1 and 2, where some research centers would be at TRL 3 or 4, but generally the public research centers are in this range. Research and technology organizations operate from about TRL 4, you know, up to TRL 7. and again, this is where EARTO, the European Association of research and Technology Organization tries to operate. So, it's getting closer to the market so it's working with universities and research centers but doing things that are more relevant to the needs of Industry. Research intensive companies now these could be big companies fairly large companies that have research departments, or they could be spin-off companies from research centers where, you know, highly qualified researchers set up their own company. They can bring results, you know, from TRL 5 onwards. Whereas, high tech companies, these are is that like to have technologies verified demonstrated piloted, and again they are normally operate maybe around TRL 7 or 8. So, when you're selecting your partners, you can see that for TRL 1 & 2 we are seeing fit, it's more suited to universities. Whereas TRL 4 5 6 is more suitable to the research and technology organizations. Now impact. Impact is asking the question what is coming out of your project and who will use those results. Now, if you're looking at an ERC project, now this is fundamental research. So, if that's operating a TRL 1 then the people that are interested in those results is the scientific community. So, if you look at the evaluation of ERC, they talk about what is the research impact of the results.

Now, if you're operating in a research and innovation grant, which is operating TRL 2 to TRL 5, then obviously the people that are interested in these results are people operating at about TRL 6 and, in that case, it would be the research and technology organizations and research-intensive companies. However, if you're looking at things like innovation actions, which is at TRL 5 and 6, then the organization’s interested in these results would be high technology companies, standards organizations, and regulatory bodies. Now if you're looking at an SME instrument, then you're getting really close to the market and the lead users here would be the early adopters of new products, new services, and business models. So, when we look at the impact part of the proposal, you will see how we will use the TRL table and, I think what we've shown in this presentation is the concept of TRL is a very useful way of describing the programs, describing the grants, describing the role of the different partners, and describing the impact.

So, I hope you enjoyed the presentation and again you can look at this website. It's an open website and you can find all the links that I described in the presentation. So, thank you very much and I look forward to seeing you in the next in the next modules. Bye for now!