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.

Nanotechnology is a key enabling technology for the development of next-generation sustainable energy systems, while also driving innovation across a broad range of advanced electronic and microsystem applications. Advanced nanomaterials, together with innovative micro- and nano-fabrication processes, are enabling significant progress in energy conversion, storage, and harvesting devices, while simultaneously supporting the development of photonic devices, high-performance sensors, wearable systems, biomedical devices, flexible electronics, and intelligent integrated systems through enhanced efficiency, miniaturization, multifunctionality, and reliability. Advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration strategies are becoming equally essential to transform novel materials into robust, high-performance devices and multifunctional microsystems.
Despite these advances, the transition from laboratory-scale research to industrial implementation remains a major challenge together with the advanced characterization of such large-scale devices which is far from small-scale prototypes and their characterization under operation. Scalable manufacturing, process reproducibility, heterogeneous integration, packaging reliability, long-term stability, and cost-effective production continue to limit the widespread adoption of nanotechnology-enabled devices across multiple application domains, including energy technologies.
This symposium will bring together researchers from academia and industry to discuss recent advances in nanomaterials, micro- and nano-fabrication technologies, characterization under operative conditions, advanced packaging, and heterogeneous integration. Particular attention will be devoted to manufacturing challenges, process scalability, device integration, reliability, and design-for-manufacturing approaches, including the development of new modelling and simulation strategies based on existing commercially available tools to support the design of devices that can be effectively transferred to industrial production. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, the symposium aims to accelerate the translation of innovative materials and fabrication technologies into robust, manufacturable, and commercially viable devices and systems for sustainable energy as well as emerging applications in electronics, sensing, healthcare, and smart systems.

X-ray absorption spectroscopy applications on a versatile laboratory X-ray diffractometer

This symposium explores the methods, tools, and strategies required to transform research results into sustainable technological and economic value. Particular attention will be devoted to the valorization and protection of research outcomes, the definition of appropriate performance indicators, stakeholder engagement, and the alignment of public and private investors. The contributions will also examine ambidextrous innovation strategies and quantitative, Bayesian-inspired approaches to assessing business-case readiness, supporting deep-tech ventures in their journey from scientific discovery to market impact.

The session explores the critical enablers that drive the scale-up of nanotechnology from lab to market such as fostering public-private partnerships, and aligning research with market-ready solutions to address “societal” challenges.
Through four distinct perspectives, we will uncover how strategic, infrastructural, and technological factors de-risk and accelerate innovation and bridge the gap between research and industrial application.
From defining the concept of "enabling factors" in innovation journeys to showcasing cutting-edge research and technological infrastructures, the talks will highlight real-world examples of how collaboration and AI-driven material development are shaping nanotech scale-up.