System Readiness Levels.
A diagnostic for the maturity of a system around a problem, not of any single product. Where NASA’s TRL asks whether a technology works, the SRL asks whether the world is ready to carry a change: nine levels, read across six levers.
Levers · public opinion, research, solutions, orchestration, policy, capital
Rule · the weakest lever sets the level
Worked example · Campaign 01, Guardian Angel
Six levers, scored separately.
A system moves when six levers move: do people care, is the science done, do builders exist, is anyone convening, does the rulebook help, is money available. Each lever is rated at the highest level whose conditions are fully met, with at least one citable piece of evidence; partial credit rounds down. Arrows can note 12-month momentum.
The weakest lever sets the level.
A system’s readiness is the minimum of its six scores, because systems scale at the pace of their most binding constraint. The lowest lever names the next work; the work is done; the diagnostic is rerun. Where established scales exist for a lever, they serve as instruments: TRL for the technology, venture readiness for the builders.
Unnamed
The problem exists but has no shared name or owner.The problem is experienced but not talked about; no common name appears in media or everyday speech.
Scattered studies touch the problem without naming it; no review or shared agenda ties them together.
No dedicated solutions exist; workarounds are improvised locally and never shared.
Nobody convenes; the people touching the problem do not know of each other.
No policy instrument recognises the problem; it is invisible in regulation and budgets.
No funder category exists; money reaches the problem only by accident.
Framed
Named, mapped and spoken about; research underway.The problem has a name that circulates; early advocates and occasional media coverage exist.
The field is mapped: problem definitions, key questions and a first shared research agenda are published.
Concept-stage solutions and a handful of early builders can be listed by name.
A first convenor is naming the field, mapping the players and making introductions.
The problem appears in inquiries, consultations or reports, but no instrument yet acts on it.
Grant and philanthropic money funds discovery; no repeatable funding route exists.
Demonstrated
A solution works in at least one real place.Stories of the solution working in a real place reach general audiences and get retold.
Independently verifiable evidence shows the approach works in at least one real setting.
At least one solution runs live in a real setting; builders exist at working-prototype stage or beyond.
A working group with named members meets regularly around the demonstration sites.
Local authorities or single institutions grant the permissions, waivers or trials that let demonstrations run.
Pilot funding is winnable on merit: grants, angels or a first institutional cheque back demonstrations.
Networked
The players know each other; a coalition holds a common agenda.A recognisable movement exists: organised advocates, recurring events, a public identity bigger than any one organisation.
Multiple groups replicate and compare results; findings accumulate in a shared, citable base.
Several independent builders serve the field; leading ventures reach validated-outcome stage.
A backbone organisation holds a common agenda that named partners have signed.
Policymakers engage the coalition directly; the problem enters formal strategies and agendas.
Funders co-invest knowingly in the field; a visible pipeline of fundable projects exists.
Standardised
Shared standards, methods and data make results comparable.The narrative settles into the mainstream: the ask is understood without being explained from scratch.
Shared methods, metrics and datasets let results be compared across sites and studies.
Products interoperate through shared standards; switching between vendors is realistic.
The backbone maintains the standards, the shared measurement and an open evidence base the field actually uses.
Standards or guidelines are referenced by public bodies: procurement guidance, codes, certification.
Deals are priced on comparable data; funding instruments fit the field’s asset and revenue shapes.
Embedded
Institutions and procurement carry it routinely.Public expectation begins: the absence of the solution draws criticism in the settings it serves.
Evaluation is routine: outcomes data flows from operating sites into the public evidence base.
Multiple vendors deliver at operational scale; procurement can buy without bespoke design.
Coordination is institutionalised: roles, funding and governance no longer depend on founding individuals.
The solution appears in procurement frameworks, building codes or service specifications as a recognised option.
Mainstream budget lines and commercial capital fund deployments as ordinary business.
Sanctioned
The rulebook and the public actively stand behind it.Broad public support makes rollback politically costly; opposition is marginal.
The evidence base is authoritative: systematic reviews and official statistics report on the field.
A competitive market of providers exists, with recognised categories and market data.
Sector bodies and public agencies share stewardship; the original orchestrator is one voice among several.
Regulation actively requires or incentivises the practice: mandates, reimbursement, tax treatment.
Institutional capital allocates to the category through standard vehicles at market terms.
Mainstreamed
The default choice in its settings, funded on ordinary terms.The practice is assumed: media treat it as normal, not news.
Research shifts from “does it work” to optimisation and equity of access.
The default choice in new builds and services; laggards adopt to stay compliant or competitive.
Coordination runs through ordinary sector institutions; no special backbone is required.
The practice is the regulatory default; exemptions need justification.
Lenders, insurers and budgets treat it as standard risk, at scale, on ordinary terms.
Self-sustaining
The system reproduces it without champions.Absence is unacceptable: the public treats the protection as a right.
The field maintains its own knowledge institutions: journals, chairs, training pipelines.
Improvement continues through ordinary competition, without mission-driven actors.
The founding orchestrator can exit with no loss of function.
Embedded across the statute book; survives changes of government.
Self-financing through normal revenue, budgets and insurance; catalytic money is no longer needed.
This is a working draft, published to be argued with. Scores are dated, evidence-backed and revised as the work moves; the cell wording will be stress-tested against further fields before v1.
Lineage: NASA Technology Readiness Levels · ARENA Commercial Readiness Index · Innovation Fund Denmark Societal Readiness Levels · Impact Shakers Impact Readiness Levels (CC BY-NC 4.0) · the Collective Impact conditions.