Pharaon posts! Anja Seeliger, Standardization Manager

Innovations such as new devices, processes or systems can easily fail, even if relevant experts recognize them as being progressive. Therefore, it is important to reach out to different stakeholders to assess their needs and ensure a wide user acceptance. Standardization can be an important tool to increase user acceptance. Existing standards can be used to ensure the interoperability and compatibility of the innovation and confidence in the innovation can be advanced.

For that reason, standardization is included from the beginning of development in Pharaon, which means standardization can be directly included in R&D projects via the inclusion of a standardization body. Within the Pharaon project two national standardization organisations DIN, the German Institute for Standardization and UNINFO, Associated body of UNI (the Italian Standards Organization) in the field of information technologies, are partners of the consortium.

National standardization bodies within a project consortium are aiming to make the project partners aware of the existing standards in the specific field of interest. Thus important standards can be used during the development process. This can help to lower the development costs as the innovation does not have to adapt to a global market and to additional needs at a later stage of development.

A standard is a consensus-based document that provides state of the art and is developed by all interested stakeholders. The development of a standard is a well-structured process. Occasionally it takes time to prepare a full and mature standard. Thus there are fast-track alternatives on the national (DIN Specification – DIN SPEC; UNI Prassi di Riferimento), the European (CEN Workshop Agreement – CWA) and the international (International Workshop Agreement – IWA) level of standardization allowing the creation of a technical specification that underlies a process and is drawn up under the auspices of a standardization body. These alternatives allow the initiation and development of a technical guideline within the limited duration of a project. This approach is open to the public and therefore allows the discussion of relevant project outcomes with interested stakeholders outside of the project. Further, it can lead to the publication of these outcomes and helps to provide guidance in innovative fields, where standards are not yet developed.

As standardization is an open platform we look forward to informing the public about standardization activities within Pharaon and we kindly invite all interested stakeholders to get engaged and join the Pharaon standardization activities! More information will follow on the Pharaon website and in the Pharaon newsletter! Stay up-to-date and subscribe to the newsletter at: https://www.pharaon.eu/news/newsletter

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