AUSTRIAN STANDARDS INTERNATIONAL -STANDARDISIERUNG UND INNOVATION

Their core work

Austrian Standards International is Austria's national standards body, responsible for developing, publishing, and maintaining technical standards across industries. In H2020 projects, they serve as the standardization partner — translating research results into pre-normative frameworks, interoperability specifications, and certification schemes. Their work ensures that project outputs don't stay in the lab but become usable standards that industry can adopt. They cover a remarkably wide range of sectors, from cybersecurity and digital forensics to circular economy and building energy performance.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early projects (2018-2019) focused on environmental certification, circular economy standards (CEWASTE, SEALIVE), and digital forensics for mobile devices (FORMOBILE). From 2020 onward, the portfolio shifted markedly toward cybersecurity (CitySCAPE, CYCLOPES), smart building standards (D^2EPC, PRECEPT, Ashvin), and cross-domain interoperability (STRATEGY). The trend is clear: moving from product-level certification (waste, plastics) toward system-level standardization for digital infrastructure — cybersecurity frameworks, building digital twins, and IoT interoperability.

Austrian Standards is pivoting toward digital security and smart infrastructure standardization, making them an increasingly relevant partner for projects that need cybersecurity frameworks or building performance certification pathways.

How they like to work

They never coordinate — in all 13 projects they serve as a participant or third party, which is typical for a national standards body that contributes specialized expertise rather than driving the research agenda. With 241 unique partners across 37 countries, they operate as a high-connectivity node: many different consortia invite them for their standardization mandate. This makes them easy to work with — they are experienced joiners who know their role and deliver a specific, well-defined contribution without competing for technical leadership.

Exceptionally broad network of 241 unique partners spanning 37 countries, reflecting their role as a go-to standardization partner that diverse consortia seek out. Their reach is pan-European with no obvious geographic concentration beyond their Austrian base.

What sets them apart

As Austria's national standards body, they bring something most research partners cannot: a direct institutional pathway from research results to published standards. This is enormously valuable for projects that need to demonstrate exploitation and impact beyond academic publications. For consortium builders, adding Austrian Standards signals to evaluators that the project takes standardization seriously — and gives the consortium a credible route to convert findings into market-ready norms.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CYCLOPES
  Their largest funded project (EUR 239,730), running until 2026, focused on cybercrime standardization for law enforcement — signals their strategic direction.
• STRATEGY
  Directly addresses their core mission: streamlining and validating interoperability in EU pre-standardization processes for the security sector.
• D^2EPC
  Bridges their standards expertise into the energy/buildings domain with next-generation digital Energy Performance Certificates — a growing regulatory area across Europe.