Following the Fellows - Impact Report from funded applicants to 2nd call of StandICT.eu 2023 Fellowship Programme

We are extremely proud to publish this second issue of our ‘Following the Fellows’ series which once more bears testimony to the palpable impact generated by European ICT experts within international Standardisation Developing Organisations’ Working Groups, thanks to financial support provided through the StandICT.eu 2023 Fellowship Programme, to the tune of three million Euro delivered over a set of 9 Open Calls as part of the broader mission of the  StandICT.eu 2023 Coordination and Support Action, funded by the European Commission’s H2020 Framework Programme.

The goal of these regular publications is to place the work carried out by our fellows centre centre stage and to illustrate the demonstrable outcomes that excellent research can make to both society and to the economy. Therefore, we attempt to substantiate how each effort on which the fellows are engaged provides a potential benefit to society and contributes to the achievement of specific, desired, societal outcomes as a result of the ICT Standardisation efforts.  In addition, as a further improvement to this edition, we have correlated the information provided with feedback from our fellows on the efforts that need to be made to improve legislation and policy-regulation in their area corresponding area of expertise.

The StandICT.eu 2023 Fellowship Programme constitutes the first component of StandICT.eu 2023’s mission. Delivery of the “EUOS – Observatory for ICT Standardisation”, an interactive platform that will monitor the global ICT Standardisation landscape, embodies the second.  The EUOS will also provide landscape analysis and gap analysis reports, through a number of ad hoc, rotating, Technical Working Groups in key identified domains with the ultimate goal of providing the community of ICT experts with accurate coverage of relevant and timely ICT Standards into which the results of the fellowships will also feed and contribute.   

Finally believe that this Report responds to the recommended approach under Horizon Europe to implement a more evidence-based impact, presenting the tangible results available from each activity in a timely fashion, as the result of careful and continuous monitoring of the impact that each successful applicant is making to European priorities and European contributions. Further liaison and ex post analysis with the National Standards Associations and contributions to other H2020 or from Horizon Europe projects will respond and document what share of implementation of European standards have been adopted as national standards by Member states as a result of the work carried out that will make up a final Monitoring Impact Report to serve also Standard Developing Organisations in understanding their priorities going forward through to 2022-2023.

Special thanks in putting together this booklet go to External Advisory Group who, as always, have provided high-level input to fine-tune the topics covered by the Open Calls, as well as the dedicated work of our External Pool of Evaluators who have vetted the numerous applications received in response to the calls, to our Partners, Dublin City University and AUSTRALO key to the monitoring activities, our project officers at the European Commission of DG Connect for their continued support and, of course, to our fellows for the dedicated months of work behind each contribution and impact.

Silvana Muscella StandICT.eu 2023 Project Coordinator