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Sustainability Corner

Where a new method stands on the nine readiness levels, and the publicly funded projects taking methods from the lab towards use. The check of which EU rules apply to your company is here too, in development.

Why innovation

Technology readiness, measured

Levels 4 to 6 are where funding runs out: research grants tend to end at proof of concept, and investors tend to wait for a working pilot.

  1. 1–3
    ResearchFrom basic principles observed to an experimental proof of concept.
  2. 4–6
    InnovationValidated in the lab, then validated and demonstrated in a relevant environment.
  3. 7–9
    DevelopmentFrom a prototype demonstrated in an operational environment to the actual system proven in operation.
Innovation Management, for levels 4 to 6
Technology readiness levels drawn as a growing plant: 1 to 3 academic and fundamental research, 4 to 6 a dip labelled the valley of death, 7 to 9 development, then market.
Example reading, not a projectEntered at 4Now at 6Next: 7, a prototype shown in operation
Readiness levels as defined in the Horizon Europe work programme, General Annex B.

Funded projects

What each project tests, who funds it and where it stands on the readiness scale.

DPP4CD partners around a table at a project workshop
Product passportsPublicly funded

DPP4CD

Saxion leads a two-year test of a Digital Product Passport across a working denim supply chain, with MUD Jeans as the pilot company. Our role is dissemination.

Read the DPP4CD entry

What we look for

  • Past proof of conceptReadiness level 4 or higher, with the evidence for that level on the entry.
  • Publicly fundedEU, national or regional funding, with the funder named.
  • Tied to an EU goalWorks towards a goal set in EU law or strategy, named on the entry.
  • Published with permissionNothing is listed until the organisation agrees to the entry as written.

What a listing gives a project

  • A page of its ownThe project’s results and sources, on this site.
  • A networkIntroductions to the companies, researchers and partners we work with.
  • Our readiness readingWhere the project stands on the nine levels Horizon Europe uses, published with its agreement. Funders make their own assessment.
Send us a project that fits

Does this apply to us?

Twelve questions about what you make, sell and import. When the check opens, your answers will be matched against every EU instrument in our register, and each duty found traced to the article that creates it.

See an example result All the rules, by topic Free guidance, not legal advice. In development: until the matching is built and tested, the check shows an example result.