Facilitate the engagement in global ICT standardisation development (CSA) -

Share information about global sectorial ICT standardisation ecosystems and engagement of European stakeholders in global standardisation settings.

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Set-up of a facility to support participation of European specialists in international ICT Standard Developing Organisations (SDOs) and global fora and consortia, which should increase the influence of Europe into ICT standardisation, including representation in leadership and key positions, to promote incorporation of European requirements, values and interests in ICT standardisation;
• Develop and update sectorial ICT standardisation landscape and gap analysis of ICT standardisation needs in support of EU policies as outlined in the Rolling Plan for ICT standardisation;
• Cooperate, synchronise and achieve capacity building with other similar initiatives or European players including from EU (and national) funded R&I projects; provide a forum for foresight analysis in different sectors;
• Increase awareness on ICT standardisation development;
• Financially support standardisation meetings in Europe of international SDOs and global fora and consortia, so that European players have easier conditions for participation.

This action will contribute to the objectives spelled out in the EU Standardisation Strategy and meeting the objectives of the European Green Deal and Europe’s Digital Decade, in particular to supporting the EU’s leading position in global standards-setting as a forerunner in key technologies and promoting EU core values, by supporting and empowering the participation of European stakeholders in the development of open technical specifications and standards with the aim to strengthen European competitiveness and sovereignty, promoting EU values and ethics, and strengthen the take-up, scalability and cross-sector interoperability of their technological solutions. This action will among the others support the Commission’s effort to address the critical issues related to internet, trusted and secured chips, or data standards as described in the EU Standardisation Strategy.

The aim is to reinforce the presence of EU and associated states experts in the global ICT standardisation scene, by setting up an ICT standardisation observatory and a facility supporting the participation of key European specialists (especially from SMEs, societal stakeholders and Academia) in key international and global Standard Developing Organisations[1]. In particular, the project should foresee actions related to topics in the Rolling Plan for ICT standardisation as well as related to internet standardisation.

The action will also contribute to the objective of promoting EU cutting-edge innovation that fosters timely standards, by coordinating with other EU funded projects and action that may contribute with their results to ICT standardisation, as well as with EU supported PPPs and Joint Undertakings, seeking for synergies.

To achieve these objectives, proposals under this topic should provide for:

• Landscape and gap analysis of international ICT standardisation, including identification of sectors and areas, in particular within the field of internet standardisation, quantum network, IoT, 6G mobile communication, data, edge computing, artificial intelligence, eGovernment, block chain / DLT, cyber security, smart cities & communities, data centres, trusted chips, robotics, circular economy certification etc.
• Setting up of a management facility to support contributions and leadership (e.g. chairing of technical committees, convenor positions) of European specialists (incl. from SMEs and academia) in activities in relation to international standardisation including in global ICT SDOs, fora and consortia.
• When relevant, support financially the hosting standardisation meetings and workshops in Europe to ease the participation of European experts;
• Facilitation of a foresight committee, which liaises with relevant on-going developments in EU and national Member States funded R&I projects, in particular with projects having identified standardisation outputs or with potential relevant results to contribute to standardisation, including as well other coordination and support actions, and relevant European Partnerships;
• Promotion of the relevance and benefits of ICT standardisation, especially for European industry competitiveness, driving sustainability, sovereignty, supporting objectives of the European green deal and EU values and ethics. The proposal will also include actions, including development of tools and materials, to promote education on ICT standardisation;

The proposal should take into account the previous activities carried out the observatory and facilities for funding experts within the topics ICT-40-2017 implemented by the StandICT.eu project and ICT-45-2020 implemented under StandICT.eu2023 project (see http://www.standict.eu).

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is strongly encouraged.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

[1] Such us ISO, IEC, ISO/IEC JTC1, ITU-T, 3GPP, IETF, OneM2M, W3C, OASIS, IEEE

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