Innovation at Federal Lands Highway
What is Innovation?
Innovation provides opportunities to move the State of Practice forward by integrating new technologies and practices into the way the Office of Federal Lands Highway (FLH) conducts its work. While innovation has traditionally been the logical next step of technology transfer following research efforts, we recognize that innovation can also result from our regular work through deployment of ingenious solutions to real-time problems.
At FLH, we deploy innovative solutions across the field offices. Our staff work with other Federal agencies through the innovation Heightened Utility and Deployment committee (iHUD) to support strategic innovation deployment across all Federal agencies.
Innovation in Practice
One goal of the Innovation and Research (I&R) Program is to widely share innovations that are being developed and to identify and deploy innovative technologies into practice. FLH Technical Discipline champions generate and promote innovative solutions and technical resources based on their expertise. The I&R Program supports these and other innovations spearheaded by FLH and Federal Land Management Agency (FLMA) staff. See the FLH Technical Resources page for more information about available resources and the different Technical Disciplines.
Technology Readiness
The I&R Program uses the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) to measure and assess the maturity of a technology throughout its life cycle, from planning activities to research activities and, eventually, to practice in the field. TRL is an industry standard that NASA developed to reference technology evolution and is measured from TRL-1 for early planning and research through TRL-9, when the technology has been proven and is ready to be used broadly.
The FLH Innovation Program promotes technology that has advanced beyond research, from its demonstration in an operational environment (TRL-7) to an institutionalization stage (TRL-9), whereas the FLH Research Program promotes development of TRL-3 through TRL-6.
Other Resources
The following FHWA programs support the deployment of innovations through State, local, and Tribal agencies.
Last updated: Tuesday, July 29, 2025