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Kick-off meeting for STAIR-EMPIR working group

One goal of EURAMET’s new European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR) is the performance of specific Research & Development activities with impact for standardisation. “Therefore our central question was ‘how can we learn about the needs of the standardisation community?’ ”, asks Maguelonne Chambon (LNE, France), member of EURAMET’s Board of Directors.

The answer was to establish the joint working group STAIR-EMPIR to facilitate the communication between the metrology research communities in Europe and CEN and CENELEC members. The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) are together with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI, the officially recognized European Standardization Organizations. The collaboration between CEN-CENELEC and EURAMET aims to promote the value of standardization within EURAMET’s projects and to inform about metrology research needs identified during standardisation.

The STAIR-EMPIR group combines the joint CEN-CENELEC Working Group STAIR (Standardization, Innovation and Research) with representatives of European technology platforms, European Commission and EURAMET. The group is chaired by Maguelonne Chambon and acts as a platform where standardisation, industry and metrology meet to identify the most needed metrological research expertise for forthcoming and running standard developing projects.

The STAIR-EMPIR kick-off meeting was held in November 2014 with more than 40 representatives from standardization, metrology and policy participating. Technical experts from National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) and Designated Institutes (DIs) were encouraged to contribute to the identification and development of future pre-normative research under EMPIR. EURAMET Technical Committee Chairs and Task Group Convenors presented examples where metrology supports the development of robust standards and where closer collaboration would be beneficial. At this meeting goals and timelines were agreed.

“We would like to express our sincerest thanks to STAIR and CEN-CENELEC for providing this great opportunity to intensify and strengthen our successful cooperation,” underlines Beat Jeckelmann (METAS, Switzerland), EURAMET’s Chairperson-elect.

Experts from the EURAMET community who would like to contribute to pre-normative research or have general questions should contact EURAMET’s support for standardisation, Eveline Domini (LNE, France) under the following e-mail address: eveline.domini@lne.fr.
 
 
CEN and CENELEC
Outcomes of European Conference 'Standards: Your Innovation Bridge'

According to CEN-CENELEC the European conference “Standards: Your Innovation Bridge” succeeded in building bridges between standardization, business, research and innovation communities. The conference was organized by the European Standardization Organizations CEN and CENELEC, in partnership with the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). With more than 370 delegates the event attracted a lot of interest in various communities.

EURAMET’s Chairperson Kamal Hossain was invited to present the cooperation between metrology and standards and showed where metrology can be a strong support to robust and reliable standards.

The full version of the CEN-CENELEC press release can be found on the CEN-CENELEC website: www.cencenelec.eu/news/press_releases/Pages/PR-2014-08.aspx

Videos of the sessions are available on the YouTube channel of CEN-CENELEC https://www.youtube.com/user/CENCENELEC