Why standards for Research and Innovation?
In the EU calls for research and innovation (FP7), standardization is identified as a key activity, deliverable or expected outcome for the future project.
Most people are aware of standards for building materials, paper size (A4), optical media (DVD), mobile telephones (GSM) etc . These standards are agreed definitions or specifications of units, methods, products, processes or services. They provide people and organizations with the basis for mutual understanding and are used as tools to facilitate communication, measurements, commerce and manufacturing.
There are many thousands of standards of various types. Standards can be categorised into 4 major types:
- Fundamental standards - which concern terminology, conventions, signs and symbols, etc
- Test methods and analysis standards - which measure characteristics such as temperature and chemical composition
- Specification standards - which define characteristics of a product (product standards), or a service (service activities standards) and their performance thresholds such as fitness for use, interface and interoperability, health and safety, environmental protection, etc
- Organisation standards - which describe the functions and relationships of a company, as well as elements such as quality management and assurance, maintenance, value analysis, logistics, project or system management, production management etc
By consulting our pages you will find out more about the role of standards in research projects and how best to integrate standardization in your proposal.