The German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF), the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) and the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (DKE) are now joining forces and pooling their expertise to promote the current and future innovation activities of German SMEs.
"Medium-sized companies make up 99.5% of the German economy," emphasizes Professor Michael Bruno Klein, Managing Director of the AiF. A memorandum of understanding was signed at the end of November 2023, demonstrating their closer cooperation for the benefit of the research-based SME sector. The common goal is to sustainably increase the innovative strength of Germany as an industrial location.
"Standards support global trade and serve the safety, interoperability and functionality of products and systems," emphasizes DKE Managing Director Teigeler. "Norms and standards promote technology transfer and are therefore an important catalyst for innovation worldwide. They thus support the national and international competitiveness of the German economy," explains Sibylle Gabler, member of the DIN Executive Board, and AiF Managing Director Klein adds: "At the same time, it is our joint endeavor to facilitate application-oriented research in German SMEs."
"SMEs make up 99.5% of the German economy"
The three organizations plan to cooperate in particular in the future areas of circular economy, hydrogen technologies, artificial intelligence/IoT, resource efficiency, transformation of the energy system, foresight and other innovation topics. The intention is to make the research results usable for industry and society via standardization alongside the processes established in the research associations. Specifically, according to the joint declaration, the added value of standardization as a transfer instrument for research results is to be made more visible and a training programme for transfer managers and multipliers from the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector is to be developed.
All three partners are also in favour of strengthening the Industrial Collective Research (IGF) funding programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and integrating standardization in IGF projects and the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs. In addition, they are seeking to increase the influence of SME interests as part of the national "Hydrogen Standardization Roadmap".
