Technology Readiness Levels (TRL)
To define the innovation and product development of products or services into phases, the Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) can be used. TRL originated at the NASA. Nowadays it is a standard used by the European Union (EU). The TRL phases vary from 1 to 9, where TRL 1 states technology in the beginning of the development and TRL 9 states technology which is technical and commercial ready. These 9 TRL’s of degree of development can be categorised in 4 different phases. For the Circular Textile Days it is more than enough to use those 4 phases (see picture below) to define the development of the presented items.

For the market, it is important that a (circular) innovation can actually be applied. The Technology Readiness Level serves to clarify this. At what stage of readiness for the market is your product or service and does it offer a practical solution for end users?