01630540

Component

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.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABG10 Standing Committee on Conduct of Research.

01618707

17-04991

English

0000-0002-2299-6924

16p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Case studies; Evaluation and assessment; Research management; Technology

Maturity

Data and Information Technology; Research; Transportation (General)

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-04991

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 11:55AM