Universal Methodology for the Innovative Technologies Assessment

Development and application of advanced methods for monitoring and evaluation of research programmes is a topic of significant importance in the field of knowledge transformation and technology transfer. Firstly, its importance stems from the necessity to develop products, technologies, and conduct projects that are innovative and comply with market expectations. Secondly, it is connected with the need to evaluate research projects and assess their results. An important group of methods is applied for technology assessment (TA), which is one of the key challenges in innovation management concerning support for the decision-making processes with regard to the development and implementation of technologies. The dominant actors in the field of technology assessment have been policy-making bodies; however, the subject was later directed to research and industry. In the traditional understanding of technology assessment, two aspects are stressed: the usefulness of TA in the decision-making process and the impact on the society of the introduction of a new technology or the expansion of an already existing technology. The non-mainstream methods of TA research emerged in business, industry, and non-governmental circles, and these methods of research are currently being developed and will probably expand in the future. It is connected mainly with economic evaluation, decision-making, and technology measurement methods. The authors of the paper present the origins and development of technology assessment approaches and the methods employed. In this field, single methods as well as simple and complex models for technology assessment are applied. There are models that focus on one homogenous group of assessment factors and complex models that simultaneously take into account various aspects of technology development. Against the background of existing approaches, methods, and systems in technology assessment, a universal methodology for innovative technologies assessment with respect to the implementation maturity, commercial potential, and innovativeness level, is presented. The methodology is embedded in the non-mainstream research of TA, corresponding with the needs of business and industry. It has been developed by the authors of the paper, verified, and experimentally implemented at the Institute for Sustainable Technologies - National Research Institute in Radom, Poland. The main advantage of the methodology comprises the possibility to assess innovative products at any stage of a project execution, including ex-ante, ongoing, ex-post, and follow-up, and to compare the assessments results at different stages of product development (from the concept stage, through the development stage, to the final technology stage). The practical value of the methodology has been proven by its use for the assessment of several hundred technological solutions for the needs of research organisations, technological parks, and enterprises in Poland. Using the methodology, approximately 170 innovative technological solutions developed within a strategic research programme "Innovative Systems of Technical Support for Sustainable Development of Economy," 2010-2015, co-financed from EU structural funds are assessed every half a year at consecutive stages of their development.