08 March 2022

“Standardization, research and innovation” this was the title of the webinar held last March 1st organized with the aim of consolidating the links between UNI and the world of standardization and the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS). The event, reserved to ISS staff, is one of the initiatives envisaged within the framework agreement signed between UNI and the Institute.

During the meeting, aspects concerning the role of technical standardization in facilitating technology transfer and promoting innovation were examined, acting as a link between innovation and the market. In particular, research and innovation projects were discussed, highlighting how standardization can be a valid tool through which to convey research contents directly to the market. During the event, the relationship between standardization and innovation was first analysed, underlining the advantages that the former can bring to the latter; subsequently the focus fell on the role of standards within the funded projects, bringing the practical example of Horizon 2020 projects. In this regard, the new EU strategy on standardization “which outlines the EU approach to standards within the single market and globally. It aims to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness globally, promote a resilient, green and digital economy and integrate democratic values ​​into technological applications ” was mentioned.

The second part of the webinar focused on a particular standardization tool, the CEN Workshop Agreement or, more commonly, CWA: a pre-standardization tool frequently used in the activities envisaged by research projects as it is highly innovative and able to transfer, in a relatively quick time, the results of a research project directly to the market. The benefits that the use of tools such as CWAs can lead to the exploitation of the results of research projects have been listed. In support of this thesis, and as evidence of what has already been done, two CWAs implemented as part of two different Horizon 2020 projects were presented.

To complete the picture, UNI presented the case of the Horizon 2020 European project ASINA in which UNI participates as partner for a series of activities concerning standardization.