According to the Lisbon Strategy, innovation is considered as the vehicle for economic growth in Europe. The incorporation of the six Standards Networks in the Europe INNOVA Initiative emphasises that the concept of innovation itself must be innovated continuously. Standards do not necessarily only preserve and prescribe, but can also inspire and act as catalysts for innovative thinking and creativity.

Generally speaking, the mission of the Standards Networks is to demonstrate how standards can be drivers of innovation – with special regard to practical aspects, i.e., how enterprises, research environments, public authorities and purchasers can apply concrete standards as a means of stimulating the development of innovative products and services and improve business processes.

Each network operates in a field of its own, be it specific business sectors or cross-sectoral processes: the shipbuilding sector (EUROMIND), the furniture supply chain (INNOVAFUN), the building and construction sector (STAND-INN), the health sector (BIOHEALTH), environmentally friendly design (DEPUIS) and public procurement (STEPPIN).

Through factual news and features as well as case studies and examples, the Standards Networks newsletter will contribute to the dissemination of knowledge, outputs and results of the six networks and provide information on related topics. This information will refer to detailed information published on the Europe INNOVA Standards web pages where you will find more news and reports on the six networks' activities.

This first issue of the newsletter focuses on the thematic workshop on “Standards and Innovation" held at the end of March 2007 in Madeira.
It also gives an introduction to some of the first conclusions of the BIOHEALTH, INNOVAFUN and EUROMIND networks.

Forthcoming issues of this electronic newsletter will deal more specifically with central topics and keywords related to the standards and innovation. It will set the concept of open standards, sustainability, life cycle thinking, competitiveness, interoperability, public procurement and will report on the progress of the major tasks of the standards networks: bringing to the market the best standards that are able to stimulate innovation.
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The use of stardards in improving the  exchange of data in a safer and faster way is  the key issue for the Europe INNOVA Standards networks.  This question was addressed from many angles, when the Europe INNOVA Standards Networks met at their first thematic workshop “Standards and Innovation” on 29th March 2007 in Madeira. The workshop was organised as part of the 3rd International Conference on Interoperability for Enterprise Software.

The workshop focused on how the adoption of standards and standards-based e-government can drive systemic innovation in public administration and industry.Three perspectives on standards and innovation were looked at: standards in procurement, open standards for new products and services, and open standards in business processes.
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Innovation is based not only on industry’s ability to develop new products, procedures and processes, but also on its ability to do things in simplified and more efficient ways

In an organisational context, standards support performance and growth through improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitive positioning, and ultimately towards the access to larger market shares. These interoperable standards facilitate new ways of working, enabling better integration of business processes within SMEs and in relation to external stakeholders.

Several case studies illustrate how SMEs are given a real opportunity to better address their clients' needs and improve their market share by applying standards in their day-to-day processes, organisation and product development.
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With the INNOVAFUN project, the funStep standards solution is finishing the pilot phase and starting the practical implementation.
The Spanish furniture retailer, "El Corte Inglés”, and “Electrolux”, the world’s leading home appliance company have already begun to implement the funStep solution. funStep will help “El Corte Inglés” furniture department to retrieve catalogue data in an improved way and thus enable the company to provide better service to the end consumer.

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Promoting the diffusion, knowledge and understanding of existing and emerging security standards in eHealth is a major contribution of the BIOHEALTH project.

eHealth systems should be secure and privacy compliant at all times. It builds upon reliable communication and application security services. The specific areas that have to be dealt with are confidentiality, authenticity, data integrity and accountability.

Identity management standards and the potential physical implications caused by biometric devices have been revised by the BIOHEALTH project. Reports will be published on the  website after being evaluated externally.
Contact: Mrs Claudia Hildebrand, BIOHEALTH project coordinator Institute for Medical Informatics/ GSF- National Research Center for Environment and Health, GmbH.
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The first step in the  EUROMIND network project was to focus on the screening of existing (open) standards that could be applied for digital information exchange between partners in the shipbuilding business.
During this initial phase the EUROMIND team identified and analysed numerous standards in the sector. As a first result of this step, some promising standards were identified. This classification will be continued during the course of the project.

The next step in the project is to identify and to analyse some best practices. The team will take a different approach to perform this objective. The end users will be consulted and be asked what kind of solution they are looking for.

On that purpose the project team will organise several national meetings around Europe. The main target group of these workshops is the people who are working in the primary shipbuilding processes and who are in regular contact with other companies/departments. These are mainly users in engineering, purchasing, designing, planning, sales, and other intermediaries.
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Within the Europe INNOVA initiative, STEPPIN is part of the Standards Network which aims at demonstrating the competitive advantages of applying standards to enhance innovation in Europe. STEPPIN intends to give insights into how reference to standards in public procurement processes can improve innovation performance.

The ambition of STEPPIN is to stimulate innovation by improving the way existing standards are used in European public procurement processes. Based on a survey of the current situation and extensive discussion with and involvement of networked stakeholders, the project will develop a practical handbook with guidelines for making reference to standards in procurement. Workshops in different Member States intend to convince individuals and organisations on how to use the findings in their daily procurement work. Finally, policy recommendations will be communicated to the relevant Commission services with recommendations for activities at European, national or local level.

Contact: info@steppin.eu
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CEN releases paper on innovation and standardisation

According to a newly released paper from CEN - the European Committee for Standardisation - standards help inventions become innovations. Without standards based on consensus in European civil society on the best product or procedure, inventions could not have enjoyed the same level of market success. Innovation is based not only on European industry’s ability to develop new products, procedures and processes, but also on its ability to do things in simplified and more efficient ways. In an organisational context, innovation may be linked to performance and growth through improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitive positioning, market share, etc. This means that every organisation can innovate.
Since CEN covers a wide range of activities with its sector-oriented approach, it is part of the innovation cycle.
The aim of the paper is to illustrate the role of standardisation in this innovation cycle by examples taken from the different CEN sectors, such as environment, services, and healthcare, ICT and information society standards. The paper also describes how the process of European standardisation itself has innovated over the past decade.

The 'CEN and Innovation - position paper' is available here

New guide - How can public procurement motivate innovation?

A new guide from the Commission deals with the promotion of innovation through public procurement. It focuses on public procurement as part of a broader innovation strategy and explains how public procurement can support the uptake of innovative products, works and services.

The new guide helps establish more favourable conditions for the creation of new markets, in particular in areas of public interest. The guide therefore helps identify how governments can facilitate competitive market demand for innovation. The guide has been created to assist public procurement professionals and outlines 10 elements of good practice:

1. Act as an "intelligent" customer
2. Consult the market before tendering
3. Involve key stakeholders throughout the process
4. Let the market propose creative solutions
5. Seek value for money, not just the lowest price
6. Take advantage of electronic means
7. Decide how to manage risks
8. Use contractual arrangements to encourage innovation
9. Develop an implementation plan
10. Learn for the future.

The guide is available on www.proinno-europe.eu -> publications.

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Consultation on the contribution from standardisation to innovation in Europe

The conclusions of the Competitiveness Council of 4 December 2006 asked the Commission to develop proposals for action to be taken by appropriate bodies for reforming and streamlining the European standardisation system. In this perspective, a Commission Communication on standardisation and innovation is planned for the last quarter of 2007 in order to mobilise the stakeholders of European standardisation, with the objective of a stronger role of standardisation in support of innovation.

To ensure wide consultation of the stakeholders, a discussion paper on the subject has been prepared. Please send your comments to this paper by email to entr-europe-innova@ec.europa.eu (indicating " Consultation on standards & innovation" in the subject line) by 16 July 2007.
Download the Final draft Discussion paper Standards Innovation VISA LI  - Top