proof of concept

American  

[proof uhv kon-sept] / ˈpruf əv ˈkɒn sɛpt /

noun

1. a small-scale demonstration that a business plan, product in development, etc., is likely to be successful in later stages (often used attributively): The next step is a proof-of-concept clinical trial to evaluate the drug.

   A rough prototype of the device was constructed as proof of concept.

   The next step is a proof-of-concept clinical trial to evaluate the drug.

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proof of concept British  

noun

1. commerce the stage during the development of a product when it is established that the product will function as intended

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Etymology

Origin of proof of concept

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

It is considered a "proof of concept" study to see whether the combination shows enough promise to justify larger trials.

From Science Daily

"In exploring this phenomenon, we also solved a longstanding challenge in pharmacology by developing safe and selective inhibitors of retinoic acid signaling and established preclinical proof of concept for their use in cancer immunotherapy."

From Science Daily

AI could be programmed to build consensus instead, and a recent study provided proof of concept for this approach.

From The Wall Street Journal

In this proof of concept, information was encoded into the UV-C laser by the source-transmitter and then successfully decoded by the 2D semiconductor sensor acting as the receiver.

From Science Daily

The ones still waiting for proof of concept will be writing case studies about what they missed.

From MarketWatch