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NICKEFFECT aims to develop novel ferromagnetic Ni-based coating materials to replace the scarce and costly Platinum and ensure high efficiency in key applications.

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UNE speaks at the European Commission’s event on Knowledge Valorisation

UNE speaks at the European Commission’s event on Knowledge Valorisation

On December 10, the stakeholder meeting organized by the European Commission on “Driving EU prosperity: The future of Knowledge Valorisation” took place in Brussels, with live streaming broadcast. The program, introduced by Maria Cristina Russo, Director Prosperity Directorate from DG Research and Innovation, included, among other topics, panels on Industry and Academia Co-Creation, Socially Responsible Licensing or Effective Management of Standards and Intellectual Property. UNE, the NICKEFFECT’s partner for standardization, participated in this roundtable about Standardization and IP.

 

UNE is the European standardization body with the largest number of participations in European research and innovation (R&I) projects, with around 120 funded ones, among which NICKEFFECT is one of those currently in progress. Fernando Utrilla, Head of the R&I Unit at UNE, conveyed to the event participants the best practices to take advantage of the benefits of standardization in these projects, as well as the lessons learned and recommendations to improve performance in the next FP10 framework programme, which is currently in the definition phase.

 

The main messages of his intervention were, on the one hand, that the contribution of R&I to standardization is essential to increase European competitiveness against other technological giants such as the USA or China. On the other hand, there is still a great lack of awareness and knowledge (and even some reluctance) among researchers towards this collaborative activity, largely marked by the lack of incentives and resources to use it.

 

To change this trend, together with recent coordination and support efforts from the EC (such as the Code of Practice on Standardization in the ERA or initiatives like HSBooster) and the work of the Standard Development Organizations, two urgent measures are needed from the policy side. In the short term, a radical quantitative and qualitative increase in the requirements on the use of standardization in Horizon Europe calls and in the next FP10, since this is currently the main motivation for researchers and innovators to use this tool and get the first contact with standard setting activities. In the medium term, training about standardization in universities, first for their staff, so that they can extend it to their students (the future professionals and researchers), together with the recognition of standardization activities in the professional careers of researchers and lecturers.

 

The good news is that the moment is propitious due to the effort that the EU is dedicating to promote the valorisation of R&I knowledge, the opportunity to define now the requirements and metrics of the future FP10, and the past experience of many Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects, such as NICKEFFECT, where standardization is successfully used.