For years, European R&I has been obsessed with TRLs (Technology Readiness Levels). Whether developing a battery, mobility service, or digital platform, the prevalent question (for improved clarity) always was: “What is its TRL?”. Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe baked TRL into work programmes, calls and evaluations, and it became a shorthand for maturity of a technology in a given environment.

That leaves a simple problem: you can have a technically perfect solution that never gets used because people do not trust it, cannot access it, or do not see it as relevant. With the creation of the Societal Readiness Level (SRL), this issue is addressed. As the first trial has started in Cluster 5, where it is treated as a contractual requierement by the EC, SRL's are no longer just a buzzword. Time for an introduction.

What is SRL

SRL is short for Societal (or Society) Readiness Level, and is used to describe how far a solution is adapted to and accepted by society. Innovation Fund Denmark originally formalised SRL as a nine level scale that mirrors TRL, but looks at societal adaptation rather than technical performance. SRL is defined as a way of assessing the level of societal adaptation of a project, technology, product, process, intervention or innovation.

Don't confuse it with "System Readiness Level", used with Integration Readiness Level to assess complex technical systems (sometimes used in the JRC context).

How SRL compares to TRL

TRL and SRL are not competing labels, they answer different questions.

• TRL tracks the maturity of a technology, from basic principle to proven performance in an operational environment. It is strongly focused on technical performance and validation. The scale comes from the aerospace and defence world, and has been standardised by ESA, NASA and was later integrated into EU R&I.
• SRL tracks the maturity of societal adaptation and acceptance. It focuses on whether stakeholders have been involved, whether concerns are understood, and whether the solution fits existing practices, institutions and norms.

A high TRL means the technology works reliably in its target environment. A high SRL means the technology or solution has been developed with strong stakeholder involvement, concerns have been addressed, and the context is ready enough that the solution can realistically be adopted and scaled.

How to use?

Where TRL is often used as a simple numeric condition in calls, for example “activities are expected to achieve TRL 5 by the end of the project”, the usage for SRL is a bit more complex. The Cluster 5 Work Programme builds a full approach around it, with explicit requirements on resources, work packages, SSH involvement, guiding questions and reporting.

The Horizon Europe wording makes the relation very explicit. Societal Readiness is defined as an indicator of research and innovation results that have accounted for different societal needs and concerns and thus have higher potential for societal uptake and adaptation.

So you can be at TRL 9 and SRL 1, which means you built a working solution that nobody wants or can use in practice. This issue is precisely what the European Commission wants to address.

Where to use?

The Horizon Europe Cluster 5 Work Programme 2025 introduced a formal Societal Readiness pilot in Climate, Energy and Mobility. Selected topics are and will be flagged as Societal Readiness pilot topics. A future example is the call "HORIZON-CL5-2027-06-D6-08: Enhancing Mobility for all: affordable, reliable, and accessible multimodal transport for inclusive rural and urban connectivity – Societal Readiness pilot".

For these, consortia must:

• Allocate explicit resources for societal readiness activities,
• Integrate societal readiness across work packages or through a transversal work package,
• Include partners with relevant SSH expertise,
• Produce a first and final public report on Societal Readiness.

A dedicated Coordination and Support Action, HORIZON CL5 2026 01 D2 09, will monitor and evaluate the pilot and provide recommendations to the Commission.

What to expect in the future?

The Cluster 5 pilot is explicitly designed as an experiment. The Work Programme text states that monitoring and evaluation of the pilot will feed into a Commission decision on whether to replicate and widen the approach. If the pilot is judged to be workable for applicants and evaluators and seen as helpful by policymakers, it is reasonable to expect an extension to other clusters and missions, especially where societal resistance is already a recognised risk, e.g. food systems, health data spaces or urban transitions.