Are you familiar with the Valley of Death for technology products? ☠ 🔬 If a technology reaches TRL 4, it has been validated with a Proof Of Concept (POC) in a research lab. 💼 Once in TRL7, the private sector takes over. The technology is integrated into the system and tested in a realistic environment. ❌ Between these two lies a mix of bad indicators that prevent technologies from moving up the maturity gap (TRL 5 & 6): high investment need, unproven commercial viability, and remaining technology risk. Overcoming these challenges and finding the right projects to continue requires an interdisciplinary approach. However, due to this complexity, most projects are halted and do not progress beyond TRL 5 & 6, leading to the term 'Valley of Death' 🎯 Overcoming the 'valley of death' is a complex task, but it's not insurmountable. The success rate can be improved through better collaboration between industry and academia and a focus on Key Enabling Technologies. ✅ Solutions: Government-backed institutions like TII (Technology Innovation Institute) in the UAE solve this problem. In other Western countries like France, it is solved by creating spinoffs, a mix of European institutions (like Horizon 2030), and private-sector funding. The funding landscape in MENA is not at a stage where several deep technology projects can be funded to cross the valley. I believe this transition will arrive once the VC maturity and funding amount attain a certain level to fund projects when they come out of the lab. If you want to read more about the Technology Readiness Level, read my article on the subject. It has all the resources you need to go further. https://lnkd.in/dqyW-AXP #MENAMAKE I write about technology product development and the MENA ecosystem
Sadek Amrouche
6mo
I think it’s worth mentioning that there are several types of « Valley of Death ». The most commun is obviously the « Technical Valley of Death » which is around TRL 5 and 6 as you mentionned. But hidden 🫥 in another dimension, you should also keep an eye on: - Market Valley of Death (commonly know as Product Market Fit) in other words: is there a market for your piece of tech? - Profitability Valley of Death: are you able to find a sustainable business model to sell your piece of tech. Kudos for the post! 👌
Docteur ingénieur en Génie mecanique
6moSalut Amine, juste pour compléter ton post, j'ajouterais que l'échelle des TRL a aussi une lecture " développement de produit". Les TRL amont portent sur la phase avant ptojet avec les études d'opportunités et de faisabilité (trl4} Les TRL 5,6,7 développement et validation d'un démonstrateur en situation opérationnelle. Les TRL 8 et 9 sont pour la phase industrielle. C'est la lecture qui est donnée dans une norme datée de 2013 et relative aux systèmes spatiaux