Innovation is often associated with breakthrough technologies, disruptive business models, and visionary entrepreneurs. Yet the ability to transform an idea into a commercially successful product or service depends on something far less visible: the infrastructure that enables innovation to scale.
The Edu4Standards.eu project, funded by Horizon Europe, has set up the first European student network around standardization, called the European Students’ Standardization Association (ESSA).
As announced in the previous edition of On the Spot, June was dedicated to Education for Standards. The first highlight was the first Austrian Academic Standards Day in Graz, where Prof. Dr. Karl Grün, Deputy Managing Director of Austrian Standards International, highlighted the strategic role of standards in translating innovation into practice, building trust, and connecting academia, industry, and society.
On 12 June 2026, the Bulgarian trade union confederation Podkrepa, in collaboration with the ETUC, organized Bulgaria’s first-ever trade union awareness event on standardization. The event highlighted how technical standards ensure safe and healthy working environments and explored how workers and their representatives can actively engage in shaping them.
The EU has taken an important step with the adoption of its first framework for science diplomacy. The framework aims to strengthen Europe’s global role, promote its values, and foster more strategic and coherent international research cooperation.
The Cyprus Organisation for Standardisation (CYS), under the auspices of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2026, successfully hosted the CEN and CENELEC Annual Meeting from 16 to 19 June 2026 in Agia Napa, Cyprus.
Standards. All of them. This was the starting point of "Standards4Future Skills – Hack Your Way Into the Industry", the Academic Standards Day organized by ASRO on 28 May 2026 at the "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iași, Romania, as part of the Edu4Standards project.
The RESSE Project – Reinforcing the European Standardization System through Education has launched a call for experts for the development of a Pan-European Certificate on Standardization.
In the beginning of June, the CEN and CENELEC Presidential Committee Annual Plenary Meetings brought together the SME Working Group (SME-WG) and the Societal Stakeholders Group (SSG) to present ongoing initiatives and align on future priorities for inclusiveness in the European Standardization System (ESS).
The May issue of the CEN and CENELEC newsletter 'On the Spot' is out now!