29th EURAS Annual Standardisation Conference – Empowering Standardisation Through Education

The most critical challenges of our time for Europe include the green deal, energy transition, digital transformation, sustainability, social inclusion and closing the gender gap. To adequately address these challenges requires active and co- ordinated participation of all stakeholders, including industry, governments, higher education, research and civil society.

Standardisation plays a key role in this process, providing a framework that not only supports innovation but also ensures equality of and balance between these diverse stakeholders. However, truly participative standardisation requires the development of relevant skills and knowledge by all stakeholders. This holds for the individual standardisation professionals, who will need to also take into account the likely impact of their work as well as for societal stakeholders, who will need to understand the crucial importance of their engagement in standardisation. This, in turn, calls for new educational frameworks to support the development of this professional knowledge on all sides.
The questions the conference aims to address include: How can education support standardisation to be a driver of change while promoting innovation, sustainability and social inclusion? What are the future challenges for formal and informal education on standardisation? Do we need lifelong learning frameworks for standardisation and if so, which challenges may emerge in this context? What is the role of research on standardisation in shaping the future of education in this field? What lessons can be learned from previous initiatives on education in standardisation? Which strategies will lead to successful stakeholder engagement and how may innovative approaches to teaching standardisation look like?