Standardization
How can research results be brought to market successfully? That question was discussed by more than 80 participants at the Austrian Standards Summit on Research, Innovation and Standardization at the Austria Standards Meeting Center in Vienna on 13 June 2019.
Using practical examples, European initiatives and concrete results - in particular, from the European BRIDGIT2 project -, top-class speakers showed how standards and standardization can reduce development times and help turn innovations into marketable products and services.
Matzka: Austria as an initiator
Marietta Ulrich-Horn, Manfred Matzka,
Bernhard Strobl, Karl Grün
"Standards show the way to the future as they are always close to what is needed tomorrow," emphasized Manfred Matzka, Vice President of Austrian Standards International (A.S.I.), in his welcome address. He explained that in times of ever shorter development cycles, even a relatively small country like Austria could set thematic initiatives thanks to a passion to innovate and speed.
As hosts of the event, Karl Grün, Director Development at Austrian Standards, and Gerald Kern, team leader for Industrial Technologies and Transport at the co-operation partner FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency) opened the summit.
Innovative enterprises - successful products
Aljosa Pasic of Atos Research & Innovation presented the EU project CIRRUS on cloud security, and Bernhard Strobl of the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) discussed MobilePass, a decentralized solution for intra-European border controls. Based on the findings of BRIDGIT2, Karl Grün explained how standardization can help make innovations fit for the market. Marietta Ulrich-Horn of Securikett described participation in the standardization process from the perspective of an entrepreneur, and FFG manager Gerald Kern addressed the structure and funding practices of the EU programmes Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe.
Using standardization strategically
In the concluding panel discussion, the audience and speakers agreed: Standardization offers enormous advantages by providing access to existing networks, by systematically identifying the requirements of all stakeholders and by drawing up taxonomies in mutual agreement.
The common demand was that these great benefits of standardization for innovation and for strengthening competition should definitely be recognized in policy-making and should be used strategically in research framework programmes.
Link tips
Go to the detailed report on the Summit
Go to the online photo album
On 13 November 2019, the International BRIDGIT2 conference will be held in Brussels - its topic is "Boosting Innovation through Standards"
