Apply for StandICT.eu SME Mentorship Programme

More experienced experts (and notably returning StandICT.eu fellows) are given the possibility to be voluntarily put in contact with new fellows, matching their areas of expertise. This one-to-one mentorship programme aims to enable new coming SME experts with less experience of the details of the work to carry out in SDO technical committees to benefit from tips and advice from more experienced fellows.

This also gives the possibility to experienced standardisation experts to diffuse their knowledge to a new generation of European experts, and enable the European Union to maintain a strong standardisation knowledge base for the years ahead. The mentorship may come through any way the mentors see fit – whether through one-to-one exchanges, sharing of resources, or invitations to relevant meetings and conferences, where the mentee can get introduced to fellow peers.

Topics

• Foundational Drivers
  • Data Economy
  • Cybersecurity/Network and Information security
  • E-Privacy
• Key Enablers
  • 5G and Beyond (6G)
  • Cloud and Edge Computing
  • Data interoperability
  • IoT Internet of Things
  • Electronic identification and trust services (including e-signature)
  • E-infrastructure for data and computing intensive service
  • Broadband infrastructure mapping
  • Accessibility of ICT products and services
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • European Global Navigation Satellite Systems (EGNSS)
  • Quantum Technologies
• Societal Challenges
  • Digital health, healthy living and ageing
  • Digital skills
  • Digital learning
  • E-Government
  • E-call
  • Pandemic Preparedness
  • Safety, transparency and due process online
  • Emergency communications and public warning systems
• Innovation for The Digital Single Market
  • E-Procurement
  • E-Invoicing
  • Retail payments
  • Preservation of digital cinema
  • FinTech & RegTech Standardisation
  • Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies
  • Web 4.0 and virtual worlds
• Sustainable Growth
  • Smart Grids and Smart Metering
  • Smart and Sustainable Cities
  • ICT Environmental impact
  • European Electronic Toll Service (EETS)
  • Intelligent Transport Systems
  • Digitisation of European Industry
  • Robotics and autonomous systems
  • Construction building information modelling
  • Common information sharing environment (CISE) for the EU Maritime domain
  • Water management digitalisation
  • Single European Sky
  • U-Space
  • Circular Economy including Digital Product Passport

Funding Information

• Proposal type: LT – Long term contribution (with travel option)
  • Description: Contribution to ongoing standards development as a chair, convener, rapporteur or member of an SDO WG. E.g. comments on standards development and drafts, attending meetings also as an observer, paying membership fees.
  • Maximum Award Duration: 6 months
  • Funding Range: Up to €10,000
• Proposal type: ST – Short-Term contributions (with travel option)
  • Description: Contribution to standards documentation e.g. liaison to WG, comments on standards drafts, participation at meeting paying membership or registration fees.
  • Maximum Award Duration: 3 months
  • Funding Range: Up to €5,000
• Proposal type: OS – One-Shot contributions
  • Description: Support to ensure participation at workshop or event (e.g., participant, observer, presentation)
  • Maximum Award Duration: 3 months
  • Funding Range: Up to €3,000

Eligible Costs

• Personal Working Effort (this cannot exceed the EU maximum daily rate of 450 Euro)
• Travel costs
• Event registration fee(s)
• Membership fee(s) for SDO & SSO organisations

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants to Open Calls must be individuals or natural persons residing in the European Member States and Associate Countries from both public and private sectors, industry and service companies, including SMEs and start-ups, academia and research, and national and European associations, including NGOs representing consumer interests.
• Potential applicants are standardisation specialists, defined as professionals with proven expertise and experience in standardisation activities e.g. previous contributions to standards developments, participation in various SDO groups, previous or current chairs etc in the respective priority area. Also, European ICT experts willing to start their contribution to the standardization working groups and/or technical committees are eligible even if they do not dispose of previous proven experience. For these experts, StandICT.eu offers support with a dedicated mentorship programme.
• Applications from standardisation first-timers who are willing to increase their knowledge and experience in ICT standardisation activities are also welcomed. In this case, while filling in the application applicants can subscribe to the standICT.eu 2026 Mentorship Programme, that pairs new SME experts who are less familiar with the workings of SDO technical committees with seasoned fellows for guidance and advice.
• Applicants can apply to all StandICT.eu Open Calls, and can be funded for a maximum of 60k€ over this current edition of StandICT.eu which will end on 31 December 2025.
• Applicants can also apply for a continuation of the previously funded activities, as long as they clearly demonstrate the progress made with respect to the previously funded application, the improvements that will be performed in the new activities and the different timeline of the new activities – the latter criteria is very important in order to avoid the suspicion of double funding.
• In particular, it is crucial to note that applicants who copy and paste the same (even successfully funded) applications may risk being penalised. While they strive to guarantee continuity to their fellowships, it must be crystal clear that the new application is a continuation, highlighting the main new aspects it will address.
• In case of not funded activities, applicants can re-apply to the next open call and adjust the application according to the comments and suggestions made by the evaluators.
• In particular, the target of StandICT.eu open calls are European Experts who:
• Have profound knowledge in one of the priority areas covered by the Open Calls;
• Have experience regarding developments of standards, e.g., in SDOs, in groups set-up by the EC, or when creating documentation in open source developments;
• Are not receiving support from other instruments (PPPs, EU or national R&I projects) for the proposed activities, and are not being funded from other sources for an identical activity.

Evaluation Criteria

• The proposals will have to clearly demonstrate:
  • Added value to existing SDO activities;
  • Impact of work on European interests and the standard in question;
  • Expertise of the applicant in the respective priority area;
  • Expertise of the applicant in standardisation, e.g. previous contributions to standards developments, participation in other groups working on architectures, APIs, guidelines in the respective priority area
• Evaluations (for each proposal) will be performed using the following, four criteria principle:
  • Soundness of the proposal and foreseen impact on ICT Standardisation
  • Technical excellence & relevance of the activities proposed
  • Experience and qualifications of the applicant
  • Economics of the proposal

For more information, visit StandICT.eu.