As the Europe INNOVA community met in Budapest, Hungary on 1-3 June 2008 for the 3^rd Annual Partnering Event, the clear message was that the initiative will in the future focus even more on the building of strategic partnerships between private and public sector organisations, development of better practices and the exploitation of practical tools and instruments that have been built up during the first years of activities.

The Standards Networks are already actively answering this call by interacting with their stakeholders through the organisation of several types of workshops that serve as platforms for not only informing the interest groups about project activities but also involving them in the generation of ideas and decision making processes. The Networks have long understood that a close relationship with stakeholders is the key for guaranteeing a successful knowledge transfer and efficient utilisation of project results on a practical level.

The discussions at the STEPPIN workshops have shown that the concept “innovation” is interpreted in different ways by stakeholders. It is necessary to distinguish between innovation (development of a new product, service, method, etc.), diffusion (dissemination of methods which are already used in other contexts) and substitution (incremental or small adjustments within an existing method).

Several participants at the STEPPIN workshops equated innovation with inventions. The use of standards in public procurement does not necessarily lead to revolutionary innovations, but it offers means of optimising the use of innovative solutions. This is only one example of a field in which the Standards Networks can increase the stakeholders’ understanding of the benefits of using standards in business processes.

In this issue we will present the latest news of the DEPUIS, STAND-INN, STEPPIN and BIOHEALTH Standards Networks.

More information: www.europe-innova.org > Standards Networks

In 1985 there were only a small number – approximately 20 – of EN standards. In 2006 the total number of European Standards (CEN) increased to 11,353. Since 1985 (and especially since 1992) this strong increase is directly related to the Single Market project of the European Union.

According to Jørgen Hagelund, standardisation manager at Danish Standards, there are standards for nearly everything: “Every standard expresses itself very distinctively just by looking at the type of content of the standard.” One way of organising this large amount of standards is therefore to make a distinction at a functional level.

The challenge is to find the methodology which makes it easier for any interested procurer or other party to find the appropriate standard for their specific need. The STEPPIN approach is based on this difficulty. Therefore STEPPIN generates a knowledge database to facilitate the life of procurers by giving precise instructions for linking innovative products with specific standards and helping them to find the right information.

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In late December 2007 the Commission adopted the lead market initiative which goes back to the former Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho's "Report on Creating an Innovative Europe". The Lead market initiative focuses on "areas where public authorities can facilitate industry-led innovation by creating favourable legal and regulatory frameworks, setting standards, improving access to risk capital, providing support for research and acting as a launch customer".

eHealth is one of the first six markets (protective textiles, sustainable construction, recycling, bio-based products and renewable energies, eHealth) chosen.

The Commission invites the member states to implement the actions identified in the initiative (COM (2007) 860). Thus the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic decided to support a "Governmental Intersectoral Committee for eHealth" using expert working groups. Czech participants of the Europe INNOVA project BIOHEALTH, Mr Tomáš Trpišovský and Mr Petr Struk, are involved and will be able to bring forward the results already achieved by BioHealth in these working groups as the committee is formulating National eHealth Policies.

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Analyses carried out in the DEPUIS project have shown that there are two main requirements for engineering data to support the Integrated Product Policy (IPP) of the European Commission.

First of all, the producer needs data that can be used at the design stage to estimate the impact on the environment of the product throughout its life cycle. Secondly, the producer needs design and manufacturing data that can accompany a complex product throughout its life-time so that its end-of-life phase can be properly managed. Both of these requirements need computer representations of data that are independent from proprietary software and each situation should be supported by the use of standards.

Now ISO has the standards for product data representation to enable data to be assembled from different sources, which can then accompany the whole life of a product. The benefits from using these two groups of standards in this complementary way were recently communicated at a meeting of the Sub Committee established by The Science and Technology Select Committee of the House of Lords in the British Parliament.

Furthermore, presentations of the DEPUIS project were made at a joint workshop of NASA and the European Space Agency on 28 March 2008 as well as at the Biennial Congress of the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining in the U.K, where the session on 13 May 2008 was devoted to eco-design and the role of materials in society.

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Construction is a resource-intensive industry, and the ongoing use of buildings consumes vast amounts of energy. The STAND-INN project – now entering its final quarter – has looked at ways in which efficiencies can be realised.

Two areas of construction are strong candidates for sustainability improvement. One is public procurement which, with its muscle and spending power, could dramatically reduce waste and adverse impacts by raising the bar in procuring new buildings. The second area is housing. Once sustainable practices are implemented, they can be rolled out in repeat housing projects on a significant scale.

So what action needs to be taken now? "We advocate innovation and the use of standards in the construction and ongoing maintenance of buildings", says Svein Haagenrud, the project manager of STAND-INN. "We have seen a wide variety of sustainable buildings in our research and are starting to hone our action points."

Construction clients in the public sector are advised to ask bidders to model life-cycle costs in their bids. They should also require bidders to show how their proposals will minimize energy use. Another task is to develop tools that will enhance efficiency in procuring new projects. Governments must also intervene to trigger greater sustainability in design and construction.

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Are you interested in reading how standards can support innovative sustainable housing that meets user needs and performance requirements with managed environmental and economic impacts during the whole life span of buildings? Or knowing about the potential physical damage caused by biometric devices in the e-Health sector? Or getting to know about a set of best practices and guidelines that can be used by the furniture industry in order to adopt the funStep standard in their business?

Answers to these and many other questions can be found on the Standards Networks website under the section “Reports”, where many of the networks have published the results of their research done during the first 18 months of the projects. A new section for on-line “Tools” has also been opened, and is worth visiting as it presents for example the standards repository developed by the BioHealth network. It provides a directory of security and identity management standards relevant to e-Health published by European and international organisations such as CEN, ISO, ETSI and ASTM. Detailed information about the activities can be found on the individual project web portals. The addresses are available on the Standards Networks home page under the section “Partners” of each project.

New reports and tools are in the pipeline, so regularly check the sites for updates!

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After the successful event organised in Valencia in 2006, the city of Lyon in France will be hosting the 2^nd Europe INNOVA Conference from 22 to 24 October. The conference is organised in collaboration with the French Presidency of the European Union.

The Europe INNOVA Conference 2008 will focus on accelerating innovation in Europe and how to optimise knowledge transfer, strengthening industry’s innovation capacity through strategic partnerships and supporting innovative entrepreneurs. The aim is to bring together the Europe INNOVA Community with key innovation stakeholders.

The conference will analyse and discuss policy instruments and current practices for transforming knowledge creation into successful businesses across a variety of sectors such as knowledge-intensive services, eco-innovation, life sciences and creative industries. It will also explore the most efficient ways of tackling access to finance, IPR issues and supporting fast growing companies and cluster collaboration.

Europe INNOVA projects will showcase the models and tools they have developed to accelerate the commercialisation of new ideas and support innovative companies.

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