Objective

The overall objectives of the project are:

• to continue promoting the visibility of European standardization and promote EU/EFTA-India cooperation on standards related issues
• to facilitate cooperation between EU/EFTA and Indian decision makers, opinion setters and stakeholders in the standardization, policy and regulatory system, both at the policy making level as well as in a series of sectors identified as high priority
• to collect and analyze policy, regulatory and standardization related information and increase knowledge of the partners on developments and stakes on the Indian market.

The Expert will have to be multi-faceted by handling various different types of activities, responsibilities and roles:

• Promoter: He undertakes promotional and visibility activities aimed at improving the visibility of the European standardization in India and at increasing the cooperation on standards related issues between the EU/EFTA and India; he possesses the necessary expertise for conveying complicated messages to any audiences, is able to plan and execute the publication of promotional material, updates the SESEI website and delivers the right message at the right time to the right people.
• Facilitator: He supports activities that are aimed at facilitating European access to India, from gathering the right information, by having the right contacts for reaching out to the right stakeholders, to doing technical lobbying to Indian technical bodies. He demonstrates a global expertise and has problem-solving capabilities for understanding the needs of the EU, EFTA and ESOs and ensures that they are thoroughly addressed.
• Networker: He ensures that cooperation between European and Indian counterparts improve, through the development, maintenance and deepening of contacts to the right stakeholders (be it on the regulatory, standardization or technical levels); is able to approach people of all levels, gender and background in order to expand the contacts for possible future cooperation.
• Represents: He becomes the face, contact point and representative of all standardization and related issues both for European stakeholders approaching India and offers Indian ones the first entry point to the European system. The expert should have an overarching, yet detailed understanding of the interests of the parties he/she represents and the willingness to continuously learn and stay up-to-date with the ever changing issues, rules, and interests of all the partners.
• Researcher: He conducts detailed analytical and research activities aimed at facilitating strategic decisions and providing market, policy and standardization intelligence; the resulting reports are focused, contain recommendations and propose follow-up activities. He necessitates strong analytical and deductive skills, together with the ability to focus and to distil complex information to its basic building blocks and therefore understand the consequences of the different courses of actions.
• Planner: He plans strategies and proposes actions to be taken based on his findings, ensuring timely results by using his/her ability to see the “whole picture” in the short, medium and long-run, and by correctly estimating the resources that are needed for each action.