Small Business Standards (SBS) has opened a call for experts to represent small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the standardisation process. In this framework, the objective is to appoint experts to represent the interests of SMEs in Technical Committees (TCs), Sub-Committees (SCs) and Working Groups (WGs) of CEN, CENELEC, ETSI, ISO and IEC. Experts will be appointed for one year and their appointment is renewable.

This call is open to candidates with technical expertise in any standardisation topic relevant for SMEs. Candidates shall be based in the EU or EFTA countries and applicants must demonstrate the absence of double-funding and the absence of conflict of interest. Applications on topics included in Annex 3 of this call are strongly encouraged, in particular for ICT and Digitalisation:

• Security and privacy
• Data (data interoperability, etc.)
• Digital skills/competences
• Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT)
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Artificial intelligence
• Smart cities, smart houses and domotics
• Quantum computing
• Cloud and edge computing
• Platforms (interoperability, open-source implementation)
• Standardisation in support of the Radio Equipment Directive (RED)
• Software and systems engineering
• Sustainable digitalisation of industries

Selected experts will be offered a contract for one year (2024). The amounts are twofold:

• € 10,200 (contracts for participation in European technical bodies) or
• € 17,142 (contracts for participation in international technical bodies).
• These amounts shall cover all the expenses (work, travel etc.) of the expert during the year.
• SBS expects to be able to fund around 68 experts in 2024.

A webinar will be organised on the 1st of September 2023 from 10:00 to 11:00 to introduce SBS and present the call for experts. This will allow interested candidates to ask questions about the calls and the role of SBS experts.