OC#8 2026

Organization

Virtual Dimension Center

Organization website

Virtual Dimension Center

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Proposal Title (8th Open Call)

Mapping and Structuring the Standardisation Landscape of Virtual Worlds

Standards Development Organisation

DIN

Web 4.0 and virtual worlds

Topic (8th Open Call)

Robin Renwick

Description of Activities

The fellowship tackles the lack of international, or European, standard or technical specification that focuses explicitly on privacy and data protection capabilities of DLT systems. With this regards, ISO TS 24946 “Requirements and guidance for improving, preserving, and
assessing the privacy capability of DLT systems” has now reached CD stage (July 2025) and will endeavour to move through this process and be completed in 2026. This process requires continued support from experts to ensure delivery, as scheduled. In this sense, the priority of this activity focuses at the European level, CEN/CENELEC JTC 19/WG3 to produce a European standard on PII protection within DLT which is strongly influenced by ‘DIN Spec 4997 - Privacy by Blockchain Design’ and the aforementioned ISO TS 24946. This European specification will seek to harmonise the GDPR and recent EDPB guidance to produce a technical specification intended for the European DLT ecosystem.
This European specification will provide much needed clarity for the DLT ecosystem as regards data protection and privacy capabilities, affordances, and assessment. Further harmonisation between the international specification at ISO and the European standard will support interoperability, and ensure that privacy and data protection capabilities are harmonised globally. The main challenges concerns exacting requirements from regulations such as Article 76(3) of MiCAR, as well as Article 79(1) of the European AMLR will require navigation. Standards
require alignment and compatibility with those legal texts, as well as corresponding regulations regarding personal data, data markets, and trust services (e.g., GDPR, Data Act, eIDAS2). Ensuring there are no gaps between regulatory texts and the proposed European standards will be a primary focus. Also, it must be ensured that there are no substantial gaps between international specifications and European standards will be the second focus. Standards alignment between ISO and CEN/CENELEC is viewed as a key outcome to benefit the global DLT ecosystem, and one that requires strong consensus building, given slightly different international privacy perspectives and preferences.

Country

Ireland

Open Call Topics

E-Privacy

Open Call

Organisation type

SMEs

Organization

Trilateral Research

Organization website

Trilateral Research

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Proposal Title (8th Open Call)

Harmonisation of ISO TS 24946 and CEN/CLC/ JTC19 WG3

Standards Development Organisation

CEN/CENELEC

Topic

E-privacy

StandICT.eu Year

2026

Topic (8th Open Call)

E-Privacy

Godred Fairhurst

Description of Activities

This was a one-shot contribution to provide travel support for participation to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and specifically participation at the July 2025 plenary meeting in Madrid. I attended this meeting as an Internet Transport expert contributing work and progressing standards to support the evolution of the Internet and its support for enhanced resilience, authentication and privacy. An in-person attendance at the technical sessions also allowed me to progress the work for which I am an editor: Qlog draft-ietf-tsvwg-careful-resume-qlog, a transport specification based on the “qlog” specification being developed by the IETF QUIC; and a recent work item in the IETF Congestion Control working group, “Increase of the Congestion Window when the Sender Is Rate-Limited” (draft-ietf-ccwg-ratelimited-increase). In-person participation at this meeting is particularly important in my current role as an Area Director of the WIT Area, where I will help organise and oversee the meeting as a whole and specifically support the WIT area WG chairs in organising WG sessions and supporting cross area review of emerging specifications.

Country

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)

Open Call Topics

Impact on society (8th Open Call)

Development of new IETF secure and resilient standards are important for a digital society. Since the last IETF plenary meeting 74 documents had been approved for publication in the last quarter and 83 RFCs had been published. Two new IAB workshops were announced: Joint
IAB/W3C Workshop on Age-Based Restrictions on Content Access and an IAB Workshop on IP Geolocation. The importance of standards was evident in serval meetings co-located with IETF-123. This including meetings with policy and regulators, a meeting on Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Internet Standards Deployment accompanied by an IEPG presentation by Rüdiger Martin of the Internet Governance Team from DG-CNECT, EU. This outlines plans around NIS2, and sought to develop understanding of challenges and barriers, provide timelines for deployments of protocols at scale and best current practice. The transport system is primarily concerned with robustness and resilience to disruption of the Internet service. IETF participants had various insights into the roll-out of new standards and the implications of the new regulatory landscape.

Impact on society (9th Open Call)

The IETF is the principal Internet SDO. IETF standards and guidelines are important to Broadband Infrastructure, ensuring resilience and security of Internet data.
The standards published by the IETF define the software, protocols, and practices implemented by equipment vendors and operators. When adopted by industry, these standards will be deployed by international companies such as Apple, Google, Meta, Cloudflare and others. Specifications in the working groups for which I am the responsible Area Director include: Differentiated Services, new transport protocol mechanisms and the effects of pervasive encryption, protocol design, network infrastructure operation. It is important that new specifications consider user privacy, security, resilience and robustness to build the next generation of Internet applications and service.

Open Call

OC#9 2026

Organisation type

Academia/Research

Organization

University of Aberdeen

Organization website

University of Aberdeen

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Proposal Title (8th Open Call)

Support for IETF transport protocol standardisation at the July 2025 Plenary Meeting

Proposal Title (9th Open Call)

Travel Support for the Montreal Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) plenary meeting

Standards Development Organisation

IETF

StandICT.eu Year

2026

Topic (8th Open Call)

Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

Topic (9th Open Call)

5G and Beyond (6G)

Jessica Illiano

Fellow's country

Italy

Impact on SMEs (7th Open Call)

A clearer framework for quantum network switching lowers the complexity barrier for smaller companies entering the quantum technology space. By harmonising terminology and defining core functions such as entanglement management, the project removes ambiguity that slows down development and increases costs. SMEs gain access to a shared reference point—state-of-the-art analysis, identified gaps, and actionable definitions—which helps them build interoperable solutions, align with emerging global standards, and participate in early-stage quantum markets with greater confidence and reduced risk.

Impact on society (7th Open Call)

Clearer standards and shared understanding in quantum networking accelerate the development of the future quantum internet, bringing long-term benefits such as ultra-secure communications and new scientific and industrial applications. By ensuring European perspectives shape early global discussions, the project supports technological sovereignty and reduces reliance on foreign frameworks for critical infrastructure. The resulting knowledge and standardisation inputs help create a trusted, resilient foundation for future innovation—supporting economic growth, high-value job creation, and Europe’s leadership in advanced technologies that will ultimately benefit citizens and public services.

Impact on society (8th Open Call)

The advancement of quantum technologies and quantum networks is closely connected to human rights, particularly regarding cybersecurity concerns. However, the specific activities associated with this fellowship do not directly address societal impacts. This distinction arises
from the maturity of the concepts involved—such as networking functionalities—as well as the timeline and objectives outlined in the proposal.

Linkedin Profile

Open Call

Organisation type

Organization

Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

Organization website

Personal website

ORCID

Portrait Picture

Proposal Title (7th Open Call)

Quantum Network Switching

Proposal Title (8th Open Call)

Quantum Network Switching

StandICT.eu Year

2026

Topic (7th Open Call)

Quantum Technologies

Noel Harrison

Fellow's country

Ireland

Impact on SMEs (7th Open Call)

Simulation standards make additive manufacturing easier to adopt and more affordable for smaller companies. Clear guidelines reduce the learning curve, cut costly trial-and-error, and help SMEs achieve consistent part quality from the start. With access to reliable, standardised simulation tools, SMEs can optimise designs, prevent defects before production, and innovate without the heavy investment normally required. This levels the playing field and allows smaller firms to compete more effectively with larger industry players.

Impact on SMEs (8th Open Call)

The development of ISO standards in simulation will help lower entry barriers for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are critical to the European economy. Standardization simplifies the learning curve and reduces the cost of adopting AM technologies by providing clear guidelines and best practices for operating the machines. SMEs can leverage standardized simulation tools to optimize their designs and production processes, fostering innovation and enabling competition with larger players. In this sense, this work provides guidance to all companies on how to utilize modelling in the AM process chain.

Impact on society (7th Open Call)

Standardised simulation improves the safety, reliability, and sustainability of 3D-printed products used across sectors such as healthcare, transport, and energy. More accurate predictions of material behaviour and part performance reduce waste, lower environmental impact, and increase confidence in AM-based solutions. As these standards accelerate responsible innovation, society benefits from cleaner production methods, safer components, and wider access to advanced manufacturing technologies.

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Open Call

Organisation type

Organization

University of Galway

Organization website

University of Galway

Personal website

ORCID

Portrait Picture

Proposal Title (7th Open Call)

Simulation in Additive Manufacturing- Guidance on computational methods for the manufacturing industry

Proposal Title (8th Open Call)

Simulation in Additive Manufacturing- Guidance on computational methods for manufacturing industry

Standards Development Organisation

ISO

StandICT.eu Year

2026

Topic (7th Open Call)

Digitisation of European Industry

Sergi Udina

Description of Activities

Regarding CEN/TC264/WG41, we are making hasty progress to a draft document early 2026 with the aim to issue a standard.

Fellow's country

Spain

Open Call Topics

E-Health, Healthy living and ageing

Impact on SMEs (9th Open Call)

There are many European SMEs trying to tackle the challenge of air quality in different ways and environments. In general, SMEs have a harder time generating trust than large companies due to fewer resources in communication, the availability of reliable protocols, metrics and institutions to establish the quality of sensor systems is paramount to aid SMEs in building trust in their products. The trust wheel starts spinning with good protocols and standards, and this is what this work aims to do in both aspects for air pollutants and olfactory nuisances.

Impact on society (6th Open Call)

This activity contributes to the several societal changes, icnluding:
Improved evidence-based policy making by ensuring sensor data reliability.
Environmental awareness as a motor for environmental behaviour change by making air quality measurements affordable to a larger community.
At a large scale, healthier living in cities by improving the common awareness of the air quality of cities and possible mitigation actions.
More sustainable industrial activity by improving the knowledge about generated pollution and odour nuisances.
Improved data availability for scientific models, early warning and forecasting by ensuring larger availability with lower cost systems, with sufficient data quality and accuracy.
The possibility to enforce effective compliance regarding odorous emissions with improved, cost-effective methods.

Impact on society (8th Open Call)

This standardisation effort on air quality has several societal key impacts, including:
Improved evidence-based policy making by ensuring sensor data reliability.
Environmental awareness as a motor for environmental behaviour change by making air quality measurements affordable to a larger community.
At a large scale, healthier living in cities by improving the common awareness of the air quality of cities and possible mitigation actions.
More sustainable industrial activity by improving the knowledge about generated pollution and odour nuisances.
Improved data availability for scientific models, early warning and forecasting by ensuring larger availability with lower cost systems, with sufficient data quality and accuracy.
The possibility to enforce effective compliance regarding odorous emissions with improved, cost-effective methods.

Impact on society (9th Open Call)

These targeted standards enable improved evidence-based policy making by ensuring sensor data reliability. Environmental awareness as a motor for environmental behaviour change by making air quality measurements affordable to a larger community. At a large scale, healthier living in cities by improving the common awareness of the air quality of cities and possible mitigation actions.
Also, these standards prone more sustainable industrial activity by improving the knowledge about generated pollution and odour nuisances. On the other hand improved data availability for scientific models, early warning and forecasting, contribute to larger availability with lower cost systems, with sufficient data quality and accuracy.

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Open Call

Organisation type

Organization

Bettair Cities

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Proposal Title (6th Open Call)

Contributions to QA/QC Standards for Air Quality Monitoring within CEN/TC264 Working Groups

Proposal Title (8th Open Call)

Towards standardization of air quality sensor systems

Proposal Title (9th Open Call)

Towards standardisation of air quality sensor systems

https://standards.cencenelec.eu/dyn/www/f?p=205%3A29%3A0%3A%3A%3A%3AFSP_ORG_ID%…

Standards Development Organisation

CEN

StandICT.eu Year

2026

Year

E-Health, Healthy living and ageing

Topic (6th Open Call)

Topic (9th Open Call)

E-Health

Mohamed Khemakhem

Description of Activities

It aims to develop technical specifications and standards to efficiently manage terminology work ensuring seamless information exchange, minimizing misunderstandings, and enhancing both human-human and human-AI interactions.

Fellow's country

France

Impact on SMEs (6th Open Call)

My contribution benefits European SMEs and societies by advancing the integration of TM and AI, addressing challenges in communication, efficiency, and inclusivity while aligning with global standards like ISO. For SMEs, this project provides at this stage guidelines and recommendations for accessible AI techniques that are aligned with TM standards and practices, enabling cost-effective automation of terminology processes and improved productivity. SMEs in specialized sectors (e.g., biotech, fintech) and transversal fields (e.g. translation, interpretation) gain better insights for handling domain-specific terminologies, enhancing competitiveness in European and global markets.

Impact on SMEs (7th Open Call)

For SMEs, this work reduces adoption barriers by clarifying AI-related standards (e.g. AI Act, GDPR, ISO/IEC), mapping practical use cases, and addressing gaps in tools, skills, and compliance knowledge. This helps smaller organizations implement trustworthy AI solutions aligned with European norms without needing large technical teams.

Impact on SMEs (8th Open Call)

Yes, my contribution positively impacts both European SMEs and societies. The Technical Report ISO/AWI TR 25896 provides practical, standards-aligned guidance on integrating AI into terminology workflows, helping SMEs—especially in language services, translation, and AI-adopt advanced technologies efficiently and responsibly. It lowers technical barriers, supports scalability, and promotes competitiveness across multilingual markets.

Impact on society (6th Open Call)

For European societies, the project addresses ethical AI concerns like bias and transparency, ensuring responsible adoption in domains like healthcare, law, and education.

Impact on society (7th Open Call)

For European society, we foster ethical, transparent AI integration in sectors like healthcare, governmental services and justice. By involving diverse stakeholders, we ensure solutions address real needs, safeguard rights, and reflect EU values. Our approach supports innovation while reinforcing public trust in AI, making deployment more inclusive and impactful across communities.

Impact on society (8th Open Call)

This initiative helped position WG 6 as an essential platform at the crossroads of AI and linguistic standardization. It supported Europe’s role in leading the development of valuedriven digital standards aligned with ethical principles, interoperability needs, and the goal of a multilingual digital space. For European societies, the TR encourages trustworthy and ethical AI adoption by addressing issues like explainability, data quality, and inclusiveness. It supports transparency and linguistic accuracy in domains such as healthcare, public services, and education, aligning with core European values and fostering public trust in AI-driven tools.

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Open Call

Organisation type

Organization

MandaNetwork

Organization website

website

Portrait Picture

Proposal Title (6th Open Call)

Exploration of the mutual benefits between Terminology Management (TM) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Proposal Title (7th Open Call)

Support for activities as the Convenor of AFNOR/X03A GE IA “IA, Langues, Langage et Terminologie”

Proposal Title (8th Open Call)

Support for activities as the Convenor of the ISO/TC 37/SC 3/WG 6 “Terminology Management and AI”

Support for activities as the Project Leader of the TR “AI for Terminology Management”

https://www.iso.org/committee/48136.html

Role in SDO

convenor

Standards Development Organisation

ISO

StandICT.eu Year

2026

Year

Topic (6th Open Call)

Digitisation of European Industry

Topic (7th Open Call)

Javier Peris

Description of Activities

In this fellowship, the main priority focuses on helping organisations to drive innovation and technological transformation using the Centre of Excellence (CoE) as the best management mechanism in a context of a shortage of professional profiles with expertise in Artificial Intelligence and other disruptive technologies.

Fellow's country

Spain

Open Call Topics

IT Consultancy/Development

Impact on SMEs (5th Open Call)

The main opportunity for SMEs is their incorporation to a future sectorial cluster type and other potential movements of knowledge collectivisation.

Impact on SMEs (8th Open Call)

European small organisations do not have the experts or economic resources to hire specialised AI consultants, so they must postpone the application of AI in their businesses. This generates a new delay in their innovation gap. The main opportunity for SMEs is their incorporation to a future sectorial cluster type, laboratory of a City Hall, and other potential movements of knowledge collectivisation. Creating a standard on how to constitute and manage an AI Center of Excellence enables European small companies to have a higher success rate in AI innovation initiatives, making them easier to realise and reducing risk.

Impact on SMEs (9th Open Call)

Create a standard reference model for AI productivity support and automation that helps ICT professionals, teams, and departments to be more productive, focused on value creation and with better time management .ill impulse SMEs and VSMEs competitiveness opportunities. Achieving high levels of performance in ICT areas will also allow SMEs to accelerate their digital transformation.

Impact on society (9th Open Call)

Currently there are no standards dedicated directly on helping ICT professionals organise their lives. This standard will help professionals to better organise their goals and work, which will improve work-life balance. As professionals improve their organisational and productivity skills in ICT areas, this improvement will spread to other areas of the company and to society in general.

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Open Call

Organisation type

Organization

Business, Technology & Best Practices, S.L.

Organization website

S.L. Business&Co

Portrait Picture

Proposal Title (5th Open Call)

AI-CoE Phase II: Artificial Intelligence for Business powered by Center of Excellence. Model and TS

Proposal Title (8th Open Call)

AI-CoE Phase-III: Proof of Concept of the CoE Reference Model on Artificial Intelligence Adoption

Proposal Title (9th Open Call)

AIxPP: Artificial Intelligence framework to improve Professional Productivity. TS Standard

CTN 71/SC 40 - Gestión de servicios de TI y Gobierno de TI

Role in SDO

chair

Standards Development Organisation

StandICT.eu Year

2026

Year

Topic (5th Open Call)

Topic (9th Open Call)

Denis Pinkas

Description of Activities

The use of digital identity wallets is foreseen to be the best appropriate solution to support an age verification method, which uses the date of birth of the individual without disclosing it.

Fellow's country

France

Open Call Topics

Impact on SMEs (5th Open Call)

If successful, the impact will not be restricted to European SMEs and/or European societies.
As my contributions are both for ISO and the IETF, the impact can be worldwide. However, I have not observed the presence of another European expert motivated by the topic of Age assurance systems that participates both in ISO JTC1 SC 27 and in the IETF.

Impact on society (5th Open Call)

The societal impacts can be important. Age assurance which entails age verification, age estimation and age inference is applicable for a large variety of use cases. Protection of children is the most prominent use case.

Impact on society (8th Open Call)

Access to pornographic content and age-restricted services or products available online, like alcohol, diets, self-harm or suicide information, needs to be better controlled. Legislation is necessar,y but will not be sufficient: efficient methods need to be put in place. Two main categories of solutions are promising: age estimation using AI facial analysis and digital identity wallets. The AI Act published in the Official Journal (OJ) of the European Union on 12 July 2024 considers applications using AI for age estimation as “high-risk applications”. The EUDIW (EU Digital Identity Wallet) is expected to be usable for performing age verification in both online and proximity modes. Besides these usages, age verification, estimation, or inference will be useful in other areas, such as controlling the age of teenagers or elderly people, so that they can obtain rebates. This will speed up controls and avoid the presentation of physical identity documents.

Open Call

OC#5 2026

Organization

CEO, DP Security Consulting SAS

Portrait Picture

Proposal Title (5th Open Call)

Age-restricted accesses to services while preserving the privacy of individuals

Proposal Title (8th Open Call)

Privacy preserving age assurance systems for online or in-person access to services or goods

Standards Development Organisation

StandICT.eu Year

2026

Year

Topic (5th Open Call)

Ruth Lennon

Description of Activities

A strong priority for this work is to contribute to standards to enable consideration of the support for data management in the cloud. Data spaces can only be fully realised with the application of strong quality management controls through standardisation at multiple levels.

Fellow's country

Ireland

Open Call Topics

Cloud and Edge Computing

Impact on SMEs (4th Open Call)

Contribution to the national body position through discussions with our members provides a voice to the concerns or challenges of our SMEs as well as to larger organisations.

Impact on SMEs (6th Open Call)

It is critical to establish common European standards linking hardware and software particularly in new areas of technology and standardization. Example use cases include the improvement of reliability of edge and cloud computing where processing of personal data, or highly regulated data is concerned. This is even more important when considering the complexities of combining (even anonymized) data sets and processing that data in cloud hosted environments. With the impact of layered approaches to address these complexities the necessity to harmonize software and cloud-based techniques is essential.

Impact on SMEs (8th Open Call)

This preliminary work item has been proposed so that we can separate out the concepts involved in observability. Observability can occur across cloud computing, mutli-cloud, distributed platforms and other areas. From early discussions with national bodies on the proposed preliminary work item was created to ensure a clear separation between the standards that are anticipated to come out of the work. Work on dataspaces with the CEN/CENELEC JTC 25 group have also indicated a need for greater quality management which can be enhanced through the application of observability. With these potential work items delineated more clearly we can aid growing organizations to improve their quality management in a scalable manner. This is essential for companies expanding across a European or wider market.

Impact on society (4th Open Call)

As a national body we have members contributing to the CEN Focus Group on 'Data, Dataspaces, Cloud and Edge'. We feel this is important as the cloud supports data and dataspaces whilst at the same time data is utilised in supporting the cloud. This could have a large impact on standards created in the near future. Obtaining expert advice from many areas is important in this early stage of these standards.

Impact on society (8th Open Call)

Europe needs to continue the harmonisation of standards across standards bodies in evolving areas such of software development for cloud hosted or cloud enabled technologies. The key areas of Cloud computing and distributed platforms, and software development are essential supports for dataspaces, data management in Big Data and AI.

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Open Call

OC#4 2026

OC#6 2026

Organization

Lecturer, Atlantic Technological University

Organization website

Organisation

Portrait Picture

Proposal Title (4th Open Call)

Actively contribute to ISO/IEC/JTC 1/SC38 and IEEE S2ESC to harmonize Cloud and DevOps standards

Proposal Title (8th Open Call)

Actively contribute to ISO/IEC/JTC 1/SC38 and IEEE S2ESC to harmonize standards across observability

Role in SDO

Standards Development Organisation

NSAI

IEEE

StandICT.eu Year

2026

Year

Topic (4th Open Call)

Cloud and Edge Computing

Topic (6th Open Call)

Cloud and Edge Computing

David Artuñedo Guillén

Description of Activities

My contribution has a direct impact in 3GPP Release 19 specifications in the TR 23.946 CAPIF Guidelines.

Open Call Topics

5G and Beyond (6G)

Impact on SMEs (4th Open Call)

By adopting CAPIF, following the guidelines that will be created in SA6, European companies will increase their competitiveness making better products, easier to deploy over 5G Networks, improving their interoperability with commercial solutions from vendors that support CAPIF.

Impact on SMEs (8th Open Call)

The new TR will provide Guidelines for SMEs in Europe to develop Applications and Services based in 3GPP SA6 API frameworks. This alignment of OpenCAPIF to the standard is critical to provide European Developers a consistent framework where the 3GPP CAPIF Guidelines will instruct European Developers on how to use CAPIF, and OpenCAPIF as the practical and open source reference implementation for European Developers to use it for Development, Integration and Testing of European Applications for 5G Networks. European companies do have an Open Source implementation of CAPIF to develop Applications and Services compatible with 5G standard API Exposure making their products more competitive.

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Open Call

OC#4 2026