CEN and CENELEC offer advice on how to link Horizon 2020 projects with relevant standardization activities
The European Standardization Committees CEN and CENELEC are actively looking for opportunities to establish links between European research and innovation projects and relevant standardization activities. To this end, CEN and CENELEC together with their members in 33 countries are offering advice and support to organizations and consortia that are preparing proposals for projects to be co-financed through the European Union’s 'Horizon 2020' Programme. The European Commission launched the first calls for proposals under Horizon 2020, the European Union’s new multi-annual programme for research, development and innovation - with a total budget of some €80 billion over seven years. The calls under the 2014 budget will support priorities in all three pillars of Horizon 2020: Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges. In the first wave of calls under Horizon 2020, the European Commission focuses on 12 priority areas: Personalising health and care, Sustainable food security, Blue growth, Digital security, Smart cities and communities, Low-carbon energy, Energy efficiency, Mobility, Waste, Water, 'Overcoming the crisis' and Disaster-resilience. CEN and CENELEC are currently working on standardization topics that are relevant to all of these areas. Standards can codify and disseminate the results of research, development and innovation activities, thereby helping to bridge the gap between research and the market. A study carried out for CEN and CENELEC earlier this year, showed that linking-up with standardization activities can bring positive benefits for European research and development projects, notably in terms of improving the dissemination of results. Welcoming the launch of the first calls for proposals under Horizon 2020, Elena Santiago Cid, Director General of CEN and CENELEC, said: "We know from experience that standards are excellent tools for bringing new ideas and new technologies to market. Horizon 2020 provides us with new opportunities to show how standards can help to support innovation, deliver benefits to society, and boost Europe’s economic competitiveness." Together with their national members in 33 countries, CEN and CENELEC are ready to work with project proposers to help them establish links between their (potential) projects and standardization. In certain cases, this could mean contributing to standardization activities that are already underway, for example by establishing a liaison with one of the Technical Committees in CEN or CENELEC. In some other cases it might mean starting a completely new activity, for example by setting up a new CEN or CENELEC Workshop and inviting other interested parties to contribute their ideas and inputs.
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Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom