Integrated Readiness Matrix (IRM)

An innovation’s maturity is often measured through its technology, owing to the widely adopted Technology Readiness Level (TRL). But while TRL provides a critical dimension of an innovation’s stage, it speaks primarily to whether a technology is feasible and whether it can actually work. It does not capture other dimensions such as market readiness (how desirable is the technology?), commercial readiness (is there a viable path to market?) and societal readiness (what impact can it have?). Without these, a project can end up with a functional technology that serves no market need, that nobody wants to pay for, and that does nothing for society. This report introduces the Integrated Readiness Matrix (IRM), an integrated scale that anchors market, commercial and societal readiness around technological maturity, making the relationship between them visible and actionable.

Our interviews across the R&I ecosystem, from investors to TTOs, revealed that stakeholders are consistently assessing projects across several of these dimensions, alongside others such as team, investment, IP and governance; but unlike TRL, these assessments are not standardised or uniform, and everyone has different needs. Moreover, formal quantitative metrics are almost entirely absent, with stakeholders depending on qualitative judgement to assess readiness. The report maps what different stakeholders actually need from an integrated tool, sets out practical use cases for each, and provides a step-by-step guide to applying the matrix to your own projects and decisions. If you design or deliver innovation support, manage a portfolio, assess ventures, or are building one yourself, this report will help you see where your projects and ventures really stand and what they need next.

In the next phase, we are developing a digital tool that will let you configure and weight the IRM’s dimensions for your own context. We’re inviting stakeholders across the R&I ecosystem to sign up to be a beta tester using this link.

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