New challenges facing standardization

Standardization is among the many areas facing new challenges due to global competition, climate change and the shortage of skilled workers. In this article, Knut Blind, who has analysed various aspects of standardization over many years in his capacity as head of the German and European Standardisation Panel, takes a look at the most important issues.

Standardization is currently facing numerous challenges caused by a range of factors, both internal and external. Internally, standardization activity is among the areas affected by the wider shortage of skilled workers. At present, over 60% of the experts in standardization are aged over 50. Several thousand will therefore be retiring in the near future. At the same time, women remain strongly under-represented, notwithstanding the slight change observed in this respect in recent years.

Externally, standardization is being challenged by a growing pace of change in science and technology, not least by the digital transformation. Topics such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology, and also the circular economy, call for new standardization projects and the support of competent experts, who – as already stated – are becoming increasingly scarce.

Parallel to these developments, climate change is the greatest challenge currently facing mankind, and one in which standardization certainly has a role to play. Despite that, the potential¹ of standardization in this area has not been exploited to the full.

Regulatory and political framework conditions

In Germany and Europe, standardization is embedded within a range of policy initiatives and the corresponding regulatory frameworks. Numerous activities by the European Commission for the regulation of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cyber resilience and the data economy give rise to further challenges for the standards sector: it must underpin the proposed legislation by means of suitable standards. Should it fail to do so, the European Commission will increasingly draw up specifications of its own, in which case adequate involvement of industry and other stakeholders will not necessarily be assured.

At the same time, the business model of the standards institutes is being placed in doubt by a ruling of the European Court of Justice, known as the “Malamud case”. The court has ruled that free access must be granted to a number (admittedly as yet very small) of harmonized European standards to which reference is made in European legislation. The long-term consequences of this ruling for the standards organizations based in Europe, and also for European standardization in an international context, are still unclear.

Finally, European standardization activity must also be considered in the context of growing geopolitical tensions. On the one hand, China continues to cement its commitment to international standardization. On the other, American tech companies are exerting increasing influence on standardization. Taken together, this presents a challenge not only for standardization, but for Europe’s competitiveness and values.

New initiatives are needed

Altogether, it can be said that standardization in Germany and in Europe as a whole is facing a number of major challenges. However, standards are needed for tackling global tasks such as combating climate change, and also for safeguarding Europe’s competitiveness and values. Consequently, a number of initiatives must be launched or stepped up.

First of all, the pool of experts active in standardization must be assured. This pool must also become younger and more diverse. Women therefore need to be recruited to standardization activity in greater numbers, in order to counter the impending shrinkage in the pool of staff from Germany and elsewhere in Europe. To this end, attention must be drawn in universities, and perhaps also in schools, to the importance of the topic. The European EDU4Standards.eu project is intended to make an important contribution in this respect. It would also be advantageous to give greater weight in academic curricula to the importance of standardization in combating climate change, and also for achieving the other sustainability objectives, including energy efficiency.

The dynamics of research and development and their implications for standardization must be taken into account by expansion both of state funding programmes for standardization activities, and of tax incentives for research and development.

Increasing embedding of standards in European policy initiatives and arrangements for regulatory frameworks must be taken into account at an early stage both in standardization processes and in the regulatory arrangements, in order to optimize interaction between these two spheres and prevent conflicts between them. The European standards institutes must develop their business models further and strategically to prepare themselves for potentially far-reaching consequences of the European Court of Justice’s Malamud ruling. New products and services are needed here, as are new pricing models.

Ultimately, Europe can face the geopolitical challenges in standardization only by continuing to maintain a strong presence of European experts. Funding for this is already available through national programmes such as WIPANO and European projects such as StandICT and SEEBLOCKS. At the same time, coalitions with like-minded countries must be formed at an early stage, as planned in the recently launched EU INSTAR project.

Altogether, a strategic and therefore long-term approach is needed. This must include stakeholders from areas far beyond standardization itself, such as educational and research institutions, and also regulatory bodies – at national, European and international level.

Prof. Dr. Knut Blind
Fraunhofer ISI & TU Berlin

knut.blind@isi.fraunhofer.de
knut.blind@tu-berlin.de