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A Recent Study Points out Importance of Standards for Research & Innovation
Standards have a fundamental value in supporting and mainstreaming research and innovation. Yet, this value is very often misunderstood or underrated, also by policy makers – with very serious consequences for the ability of innovation ecosystems to scale up. This issue is at the heart of a new study published by Alfred Radauer, Driving from the Fringe into Spotlight: the underrated role of standards and standardization in RTDI policy and evaluation.
The study, which was published in the November 2020 issue of the fteval Journal for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation, tackles this issue through a lot of practice-based analysis and provides a series of recommendations to improve the situation. In particular, the paper points out that, while attempts are being made to bridge the gap between the two world of standardization and research, it is also clear that more spotlight on the standards topic is needed to reap the potential benefits when innovating and supporting innovation. Based on this, Mr Radauer presents a series of recommendations, both for researchers and policy makers.
‘Designing Tomorrow’s World’: ETSI Unveils Strategy in Line with its Ambitious Vision
At the meeting of its General Assembly, ETSI has validated a new strategy, the result of an intensive development process over the last months. Titled ‘Designing tomorrow’s world’, the strategy has been shaped by ETSI’s diverse global community, drawing on the expertise and experience of more than 900 member organizations that include multinational and smaller companies, start-ups, research organizations and governmental institutions.
Representing ETSI’s values, mission and vision, Designing tomorrow’s world defines ETSI’s future direction as a world-leading Standards Developing Organization (SDO). The strategy builds on a recognition of the global importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in sustainable development, together with the role of ICT standards to support the digital transformation of society.
OneM2M Standard has been selected as a National Standard in India
oneM2M, the global standards initiative for M2M and IoT technologies of which ETSI is a founding member, is thrilled to announce that its standard has been adopted at a national level in India to develop the 100 smart cities plan of the country.
The standard, developed by a joint global collaborative effort, has already been transposed in India by the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI). The national adoption of the TSDSI transposition of oneM2M standard highlights the importance of collaboration, testing and certification in the development of IoT devices and software and it will also propel India in the global Internet of Things (IoT) market.
“We are pleased to announce the adoption of TSDSI transposition of oneM2M global standards as national standards for the IoT/M2M ecosystem in India. We have completed this adoption process after following an exhaustive process of consultation as well as critical analysis by a Consultative Committee,” said Sh. Udai K. Srivastava, Senior DDG at TEC. “IoT/M2M will play a significant role in the expansion of the digitally connected society and the realisation of the Smart City Mission program in India.”
How to Attract Investors with Standards: The Success Story of Bitmovin
Standards help researchers bring their innovation to the market and give credibility over the development of an innovative technology, and start-ups and spin-offs to scale up their business. The CEN and CENELEC Innovation Plan aims at addressing venture capital investors by highlighting the benefit of standards. For venture capitalists that invest in risky innovative business, it is crucial to assess the scalability potential of the businesses they are funding. From their perspective, seeing innovative technologies that are developed with the support of standards can reduce the risk for the companies in which they invest.
Bitmovin is a successful example of a start-up that managed to scale-up thanks to standardization. The company was started as a spin-off from research at the University of Klagenfurt, in Austria. Bitmovin’s founders were involved very early in the standardization process of a new video technology and they co-created the MPEG-DASH standard, adopted as ISO/IEC 23009-1. Here you can watch the video success story of Bitmovin.