The European Commission has launched an open consultation on a draft Code of Practice on standardisation for researchers. All interested stakeholders from science, industry and public society are invited to voice their opinion until 14 June 2022. The consultation aims to co-create the Code of Practice that shall be instrumental for research actors to raise awareness and to replicate good practices of effective standardisation strategies in bringing research results to the market.
The Code of Practice shall provide a set of recommendations, relevant for EU, national and local research and innovation (R&I) programmes, on how beneficiaries of public R&I funds can best valorise project results through standardisation. Research universities should build capacities to support the valorisation of R&I through standardisation. Finally, some recommendations target the policy level with a focus on the European Commission, national and local authorities and standard development organisations.
The Draft Code builds on the findings of a scoping study that the European Commission had commissioned in 2021. In order to ensure its usefulness and relevance, stakeholders are asked to give their opinion and to integrate their experiences on the role of standardisation in valorising R&I results.
The scoping study targeted Horizon 2020 beneficiaries, with the aim to identify and analyse projects which successfully exploited research results thanks to the involvement of beneficiaries in standardisation activities. The study results indicate the existence of stable and recurring good practices in research projects dealing with standardisation. One important result is that exploratory research activities and formal standardisation processes are different in nature and difficult to synchronise. Standardisation activities within a research project require engaging in wider stakeholder management. There need to be close ties between the research actors and the technical committees that develop standards.
