The Code of Practice shall provide a set of recommendations, relevant for EU, national and local research and innovation (R&I) programmes, on how beneficiaries of public R&I funds can best valorise project results through standardisation. Research universities should build capacities to support the valorisation of R&I through standardisation. Finally, some recommendations target the policy level with a focus on the European Commission, national and local authorities and standard development organisations.

The Draft Code builds on the findings of a scoping study that the European Commission had commissioned in 2021. In order to ensure its usefulness and relevance, stakeholders are asked to give their opinion and to integrate their experiences on the role of standardisation in valorising R&I results.

The scoping study targeted Horizon 2020 beneficiaries, with the aim to identify and analyse projects which successfully exploited research results thanks to the involvement of beneficiaries in standardisation activities. The study results indicate the existence of stable and recurring good practices in research projects dealing with standardisation. One important result is that exploratory research activities and formal standardisation processes are different in nature and difficult to synchronise. Standardisation activities within a research project require engaging in wider stakeholder management. There need to be close ties between the research actors and the technical committees that develop standards.

As part of the implementation of the ERA Policy Agenda for 2022-2024 Guiding Principles for Knowledge Valorisation are being developed as well as a set of codes of practice to help practitioners on the ground implement these principles. One of these codes of practice will be the Code of Practice on standardisation for researchers.

Watch a discussion on standardisation as an instrument for knowledge uptake at the EU Knowledge Valorisation Week 2022 and learn more about the presented good practices of EU funded projects from Denmark, Germany and Italy.