WS.III

FROM LOW TO HIGH TRL: TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGES AND SYSTEM EVOLUTION ACROSS RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY

16 - 17 September

This two-day workshop will explore the revolutionary role of technological challenges and system evolution, mandatory to connect the worlds of research and industry, which until now have been very distant.
The transition from low to high Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) represents one of the most critical and complex phases in the lifecycle of technological innovation. While early-stage research (TRL 1–3) is typically driven by scientific exploration and proof-of-concept validation, the progression toward industrial deployment (TRL 7–9) requires profound transformations in system architecture, design methodology, validation protocols, and stakeholder engagement. This workshop aims to promote a multidisciplinary dialogue on the technical, systemic, and organizational challenges that emerge during this transition, with particular focus on the fields of energy systems, electronics, sensing technologies, and biomedical applications.
The transition from laboratory prototypes to scalable, market-ready solutions requires much more than incremental technical refinement. Design choices that are acceptable in early experiment stages often prove inadequate when confronted with integration constraints, manufacturability requirements, cost optimization, safety standards and regulatory compliance. Furthermore, system-level considerations, including interoperability, reliability in real operating conditions, life cycle assessments, and sustainability, often reshape the original technological vision. The workshop will therefore examine how technological artefacts evolve not only in terms of performance metrics, but also in terms of architecture, materials, validation strategies, and risk management approaches.
A key focus will be on challenges related to scalability and system integration technologies. Those who demonstrate promising capabilities on a small scale may encounter unexpected limitations when integrated into complex infrastructures or subjected to industrial manufacturing processes. Through a comparison of different sectors, the workshop will seek to identify recurring patterns of bottlenecks and systemic constraints that characterize TRL-progression across all sectors. Another key aspect concerns regulatory and standardization frameworks. As technologies approach higher levels of technological maturity, compliance with safety standards, certification procedures and quality management systems become a central factor in design evolution. Understanding how regulatory pathways interact with innovation timelines is essential to avoid delays, redesign cycles, or misalignments between research outcomes and industrial expectations.
The workshop will encourage discussion on strategies to integrate regulatory foresight and system-level thinking from the early stages of research.
Ultimately, the workshop aims to contribute to a more structured understanding of how innovation in research can be effectively aligned with the requirements of real systems and the needs of society. By promoting knowledge exchange between different sectors and systemic awareness, the initiative aspires to accelerate the path from scientific discovery to robust, reliable and high-impact technological diffusion.