In European-funded projects, dissemination makes results visible, while exploitation ensures they create real-world value. In Horizon Europe, exploitation is essential for turning research and innovation into tangible societal, economic and environmental benefits. By focusing on practical use, commercialisation, scaling or policy uptake, strong exploitation planning enhances result sustainability, maximises public investment, strengthens Europe’s competitiveness and supports strategic priorities like the green and digital transitions.
In the competitive landscape of Horizon Europe research, standards play an increasingly strategic role in ensuring that project results are not only disseminated widely but also effectively exploited for societal and market impact. Being aware that standards are a key bridge between scientific discovery and real-world uptake, the widerAdvance Facility (WIDER-A) project is delivering tailored mentoring services to support researchers in navigating the standardisation ecosystem — helping them identify opportunities, engage with relevant bodies, and contribute to the development of new standards or the improvement of existing ones as part of their result exploitation strategies.
Standards are essential for exploiting project results, enabling interoperability, market acceptance, scalability and regulatory compliance. They permeate everyday life (from trains and bank transactions to the phone in our pocket) ensuring safety, protection and seamless functioning. By aligning innovations with recognised European or international standards, or even helping develop new ones, projects increase adoption, integration and trust among users and investors. Standardisation reduces technical barriers, accelerates time-to-market, facilitates cross-border deployment and strengthens competitive positioning. In Horizon Europe, embedding standardisation strategies enhances long-term sustainability, market impact, and the overall return on investment of research and innovation projects.
Standardisation as a Catalyst for Impact
But how can we effectively communicate the role of standards, and why are they vital for the dissemination and exploitation of EU-funded research results? Standardisation is far more than a technical formality. It is a strategic bridge that links dissemination (sharing knowledge) with exploitation (transforming that knowledge into real-world impact). Standards act as the "common language" that heavily supports this transition.
By aligning its outputs with existing European (e.g. CEN, CENELEC and ETSI) and Global Standard Development Organisation (SDOs) (e.g. ISO), Horizon Europe projects ensure the legacy of their work and amplify both impact and adoptability of their solutions across Europe and support the implementation of EU legislation. Instead of the results gathering dust after the funding ends, they become part of the benchmark against which future projects in their field are measured.
The European Commission (EC) increasingly views standardisation as a "valorisation channel,’’ intricately linked to the dissemination and exploitation activities, since engaging with standards bodies early in a project allows researchers to influence the future of their industries [1].
To increase the resilience of this ecosystem of initiatives, the European Research Executive Agency (with the support of the EC) has launched the WIDER-A project, which aims at amplifying the role and sustaining the progress of widening initiatives through exploitation and dissemination of the results of research projects.
“Don’t miss the Standards: The Missing Link in Your Innovation Strategy” webinar, which explores how standardisation can boost the exploitation and impact of research projects. This free webinar is designed for researchers, project managers and innovation stakeholders, offering practical insights on integrating standards into your innovation strategy. Register now for 26 February 2026 to enhance your project’s reach and real-world relevance.
Autor: Rita Meneses and Anja Radonjic Trust IT-Service
[1]Source: https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/eu-valorisation-policy/knowledge-valorisation-platform/guiding-principles-knowledge-valorisation-and-implementing-codes-practice/code-practice-standardisation-european-research-area_en
