[HORIZON EUROPE] Horizon Insights - Technology Readiness Level: An important measure of research maturity in Horizon Europe

In most Horizon Europe project applications, describing the maturity of your concept or technology is required. The Technology Readiness Level (TRL) can be used as guidance in this process.

Technology Readiness Level: what is it? 

The TRL scale comprises nine technology readiness levels (TRL 1 to TRL 9). These levels indicate how far a technology is from being fully applied in its intended environment. For example, TRL 2 to TRL 4 indicate that the concept is being developed in the laboratory, TRL 5 to TRL 7 indicate that the technology is being validated or demonstrated in a relevant environment (piloting), while TRL 8 and TRL 9 imply that the technology is fully implemented, e.g. in a commercial environment. This TRL scale was originally developed by NASA, initially introduced in Horizon 2020 and is now fully established in Horizon Europe.

Table 1 - Technology Readiness Levels as defined in the General Annexes of the Horizon Europe work programme

TRL 1	Basic principles observed
TRL 2	Technology concept formulated
TRL 3	Experimental proof of concept
TRL 4	Technology validated in a lab
TRL 5	Technology validated in a relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
TRL 6	Technology demonstrated in a relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
TRL 7	System prototype demonstration in an operational environment
TRL8	System completed and qualified
TRL9	Actual system proven in an operational environment (competitive manufacturing in the case of key enabling technologies, or in space)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How is the TRL used in Horizon Europe?

The TRL scale is a maturity model, and because it is an abstract concept, it can be used to 1) compare different technologies; and to 2) monitor the progress of one technology over time. As Horizon Europe funds several stages of research, the TRL scale is used to indicate boundaries, namely the start and end point of a given technology in your project, and thus the progress that should be obtained during the lifetime of a project. With the TRL scale, the European Commission (EC) gives potential applicants an indication of the maturity level of the current research on that topic. This enables applicants and evaluators  to align with the expectations of the call topic. The project proposed needs to match with the expected TRL, as it acts as a (soft or hard) eligibility criterion, depending on the type of collaborative project.  

When is the TRL concept relevant in Horizon Europe?

The TRL concept is used mainly in Pillar 2 and Pillar 3. In Pillar 2, the maturity of a concept is used, amongst others, to distinguish between Research & Innovation Actions (RIA), at lower maturity, and Innovation Actions (IA), at higher maturity and closer to implementation. In a project proposal, the maturity level of the research concept or technology should be indicated. For technological development this is generally done using the TRL concept. In certain call topics, the start and end TRL required will be explicitly mentioned. It is important that 1) the start and end TRL of the technology developed match the requirement of the call topic; 2) the expected TRL at the end of the project is realistic and achievable; and 3) you are able to justify the claimed maturity level of your research results. Evaluators will take this into account when scoring your proposal. The higher the TRL or maturity required for a research project, the more important it also becomes to involve all actors along the value chain in the project consortium as partners, from the technology developers to the users.  

In Pillar 3, particularly in the EIC component, TRL is integrated into the programme architecture. The sister funding schemes Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator are explicitly meant to move technological ideas upwards on the TRL ladder towards commercialisation:

• Pathfinder: science-to-technology, proof-of-principle; from TRL 1 to TRL 4
• Transition: maturation, validation, business activities; from 3/4 to TRL 5/6
• Accelerator: rolling out the market introduction strategy, final technical tweaks, business development work; from TRL 5/6 to TRL 8

An example to illustrate the TRL concept

A project with Ghent University involvement aimed to develop a technology to valorise liquid sidestreams from the food industry in a continuous flow reactor. The call topic, a research and innovation action, asked to achieve a TRL 5 by the end of the project. 

Basic lab experiments, in this case shake-flask experiments with both synthetic or real sidestreams, already proved that certain micro-organisms added can produce a compound of interest from this sidestream. At that point in time, the technology reached is TRL 3 (Experimental proof of concept). 

During the first part of the project,  the produced compound was quantified in a continuous reactor running in the laboratory over a representative period of time, under different operational conditions, generating several datasets. At this stage, different technical components of the technology had been integrated. The technology now reached is TRL 4 (Technology validated in a lab).  

Next, the lab-scale demonstration included the use of a real sidestream, and the key barriers for upscaling were identified through more advanced experiments. This milestone leads to TRL 5 (Technology validated in a relevant environment). 

From here on the research group can apply for a follow-up project, a Horizon Europe innovation action, aiming at TRL 6. Reaching TRL 6 (Technology demonstrated in a relevant environment) involves the design and operation of a system prototype, which can still be done at laboratory level, but aims at reaching a performance close to target expectations. Here, stakeholders along the value chain (problem owners, technology providers and end-users) have been identified, and are involved as partner in the project consortium. The technology is ready to leave the laboratory environment. 

Applying for an Innovation Action that requires a TRL of 5 at the start of the project, would have been unsuccessful at the stage of the basic lab experiments. At the development stage of TRL 3, too many risks may still occur, while an innovation action implies that some of these risks have already been successfully eliminated. When applying for a Research and Innovation Action with a start TRL of 3, be realistic in claiming the end TRL that will be obtained after the 3 or 4 years the project will run. Some technologies evolve relatively quickly to TRL 5, while in other cases a high number of experimental runs will be needed and an end TRL of 4 will be more realistic.

Other maturity scales

The TRL scale is the most prominent scale used in the Horizon Europe programme. However, the Symbiosis Readiness Level (stated as SRL) is also found for specific call topics, in Cluster 4 for example. The SRL goes beyond technological maturity by making it possible to define the level of readiness for integration of a technology into a complex industrial symbiosis context. This scale is a conceptual framework for facilitating industrial symbiosis partnerships.

Variations exist for non-technological nature projects where the TRL is not applicable, and although these have not been implemented in Horizon Europe yet, these can be relevant for your proposal. In the medical context, a translation of the TRL scale for medical research that includes clinical trials has been proposed. In this scale, TRL 4 corresponds to in vivo demonstration of the activity and efficacy of a new active substance, and TRL 6, 7 and 8 to respectively Phase 1, 2 and 3 of the clinical trials.

To measure the maturity of new societal developments, or the societal acceptance of new technologies and processes, the Societal Readiness Level (also abbreviated to SRL) scale has been introduced by Innovation Fund Denmark. This SRL scale is technology- or innovation-neutral, providing the same advantages as the TRL scale. Although not adopted yet by the EC, it can be useful to use this scale to indicate the readiness level of the society to adopt (the) solution(s) proposed in your research project, independently of the (non-)technical nature of this research.

More information

Are you inspired by this article and wondering how you can apply the Readiness Level concepts in your project application? Ask for individual guidance. Ghent University's EU team is very experienced in developing project concepts and providing guidance during the writing process.

• Check the EU team intranetpages
• Consult our support activities when you are thinking about applying: European proposal support sharepoint site 
• Link to a research article on TRL, societal readiness level and other maturity scales 
• Contact person EU-team@UGent.be

About Horizon Insights

Horizon Insights is a feature in the BOZI newsletter where the EU team wishes to share own insights, going beyond information.  

March 24, 2022, 10:59 a.m.