Impartial expert advice is vital if high-potential innovations are to be brought successfully from concept into commercial reality. Clear guidance in steering projects from Technology Readiness Levels 1 to 6 can be especially valuable, as Anthony Smith reports

It is often said that too many otherwise very promising technology-based ideas fail to reach market and achieve their true potential due to failures in the initial stages of the innovation process. In terms of NASA’s well-known model of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), this is a problem that particularly affects the early stages of technology development, from concept to a robust prototype demonstration in a relevant environment (TRLs 1 through 6).

The negative effects of this lack of understanding about the process of innovation are all too obvious for those immediately engaged in the endeavour of attempting to bring new concepts from the ideas stage to market maturity. But there is a much wider group of stakeholders who are also affected.

For those seeking to invest in new technologies, for example, the level of technological uncertainty will translate into a risk premium to any backing advanced. A technological innovation might be disruptive to a particular landscape – so an ability to strategically view and scenario-test different models of market engagement may provide crucially needed confidence to proceed. Likewise, for those who are heavily invested in the technological status quo, an ability to envision the likely future maturity of disruptive technologies can provide mission-critical information with which to inform the optimal timing of, for example, the strategy of a planned market retreat.

Independent knowledge
With its increasing active engagement in the processes of technology innovation across a wide range of industrial sectors throughout the world, Ricardo is well placed to apply its independent market and technical knowledge, tools, techniques and experience to any point in the development cycle.

Dr Penny Atkins leads Ricardo’s Advanced Technology Development (ATD) team, an organization which has been established to act as a focus for activities in this area. “In effect,” says Atkins, “the ATD team provides an access point to Ricardo’s engineering teams and technical experts, wherever they are located and whatever their market and technology specializations. By understanding the clients’ needs in detail, we can configure exactly the right team to tackle the technology innovation challenge being faced. In this respect our mission can be summarized as providing services in the broad areas of technology strategy development, technology feasibility assessment, and technology demonstration exercises.”

The innovation processes being applied by the ATD team are very familiar from Ricardo’s in-house research projects, or from the product development programmes it carries out for the major OEMs. But, as Atkins explains, the customers for this new service are far more broad ranging: “We are as likely to be working with an investment fund manager as we are a technology start-up, or even an industry-wide body seeking to evaluate the potential of an entirely new mode of operations,” she reveals.

The following three case studies outline the breadth of focus of the ATD team and illustrate the diversity of its customer base…..

Technology and market perspectives on the automotive demand for platinum group metals: We describe a project carried out for a major South African fund manager with an interest in the likely future automotive demand for platinum group metals. [Read more…]

Development of the YAN Engines high-efficiency D-Cycle engine concept: We present the case of technology start-up Yan Engines and its efforts to develop its D-Cycle engine concept and to move towards a physical prototype using bespoke simulation technology developed by Ricardo. [Read more…]

A potential future multi-vector energy landscape for the UK: We look at a study on the potential development and implementation of a multi-vector energy landscape, carried out for the UK Energy Systems Catapult. [Read more…]

This article is an edited version of a feature published in RQ magazine, Q4, 2016 - click on the magazine cover below to go to the magazine version: