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Technology readiness level

NASA-developed method for estimating the maturity of technologies

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ1478071
Source-derived summary

Technology readiness levels (TRLs) are a method for estimating the maturity of technologies during the acquisition phase of a program. TRLs enable consistent and uniform discussions of technical maturity across different types of technology. TRL is determined during a technology readiness assessment (TRA) that examines program concepts, technology requirements, and demonstrated technology capabilities. TRLs are based on a scale from 1 to 9 with 9 being the most mature technology.

TRL was developed at NASA during the 1970s. The US Department of Defense has used the scale for procurement since the early 2000s. By 2008 the scale was also in use at the European Space Agency (ESA). The European Commission advised EU-funded research and innovation projects to adopt the scale in 2010. TRLs were consequently used in 2014 in the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 program. In 2013, the TRL scale was further canonized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) with the publication of the ISO 16290:2013 standard.

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“Technology readiness level” enters the record as nASA-developed method for estimating the maturity of technologies. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Technology, readiness and level can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008, 2010, 2014, 2020—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1974. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Technology, readiness and level.
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“Technology readiness level” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Technology, readiness and level provides the most credible route into that argument.

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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1478071. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2020.

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This entry incorporates text from Technology readiness level” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.