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StandICT.eu has released a comprehensive report containing key actionable recommendations addressing critical aspects of the evolving ICT standardisation space, with a focus on legal compliance, innovation, and the delicate balance between open source and standardisation. The report gathers a series of key actionalble recommendations listed in five categories acrding to different categories of stakeholders. 

A Rapid Evolving Context

The most recent legislative innovations, including the Interoperable Europe Act, the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), the Product Liability Directive, and the AI Act, introduce new requirements for stakeholders in the software ecosystem. Understanding the relationship between open source and standardisation is paramount in the evolving ICT standardisation space, and in all technology areas covered in this report. Embracing this relationship and comprehending its dynamics are crucial for developing standards for new EU legislation and support the continuous evolution and resilience of the software ecosystem. Stakeholders, including SDOs, policymakers, technologists, and academia, must actively engage in this discourse, ensuring that standards developed not only align technically but also foster innovation in open source software development. The goal should be to create a robust, adaptable, and inclusive software ecosystem that balances the open source ethos with the rigour of standardisation and regulation, ultimately benefiting Europe’s digital landscape.

Key Actionable Recommendations

Over its three-year lifespan, StandICT.eu 2023 has sought to generate valuable recommendations and position statements that could offer significant insights for the European Commission policy setting. This has been mainly achieved through the synergistic and focused efforts of the EUOS (European Observatory on Standardisation), the EUOS Foresight Committee, and the External Advisory Group, which all consist of influential figures in the field of ICT Standardisation.

These entities substantially contributed to the development of StandICT.eu 2023 by providing a thorough and all-encompassing perspective on emerging technology standards policies globally. In this context, the subsequent, non-exhaustive list, comprises key actionable recommendations that have been presented to the European Commission and StandICT.eu Project Officers during the running of the project and in the final technical report.
These recommendations address diverse themes within ICT Standardisation, stemming from various tailored events and issued reports under the project duration. The report delivers a set of recommended guidelines to the European Commission for different stakeholders to help identify which priority areas to focus future activity on.

 
The list is divided into Recommendations towards H2020, HE and DEP, Recommendations to SDOs, Recommendations to Technology Domain Area, Recommendations to Policy Makers and funding Agencies, and Considerations on Open Standards.