Technology Readiness Level Assessments for Transportation Research

Understanding the maturity of a technology is a critical input to making investment and policy decisions for transportation research. This paper introduces a research maturity assessment tool, Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), for transportation research. TRLs can be applied to a broad range of research across industries and project types, as the logic behind the process remains the same in any technology research and development context. When used as a tool to improve project communications, project outcomes, and research program management, TRLs offer several benefits for transportation researchers and research program managers. However, while TRLs are a useful evaluation framework, they need to be placed in the proper context to account for their limitations. While TRLs bump up against challenges of oversimplification and an inability to forecast the cost and effectiveness of future research, their benefits to research and project management can be substantial. This paper describes the benefits and limitations of TRLs before turning to an accounting of potential alternatives and closing with a case study on using TRLs to assess a fiber-reinforced concrete research project. It argues that a TRL scale for transportation research offers a useful means of standardizing an assessment process that provides independent teams a tool for assessment and grounds for discussing future research toward technology adoption.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABG10 Standing Committee on Conduct of Research.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Cuddy, Matt
  • Towery, Nate Deshmukh
  • Machek, Elizabeth
  • 0000-0002-2299-6924
  • Myers, Jarred
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
• Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Evaluation and assessment; Research management; Technology
• Uncontrolled Terms: Maturity
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Research; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01630540
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-04991
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 28 2017 11:38AM