17. Should a project contribute to standardization itself or should this be done through its consortium partners

There are different aspects to consider when deciding to create a formal membership link with the standards body, either directly as a project, or through one of the consortium partners. In the end however, the decision must be driven by which is the best way to influence the standardisation process towards consensus that project results should be an industry standard. Some aspects that are common to both approaches to membership are:

• Fees – regardless of whether you participate as project partners or as a project, nearly all standards bodies have fees for membership, and some provision for membership fees need to be included in the project budgeting. The fees are sometimes linked to the size or turnover of the organisation that becomes a member. Standards organizations may not be willing to provide membership to the project at the same fee level as a single partner when the project consortium includes for example, a large multinational commercial organization. In some cases it may be cheaper to have one or two partners become members.
• Approvals – some partners will have internal procedures that make it difficult for them to become a member of a standards body. These can range from policies that strongly discourage joining any groupings to avoid implied endorsements, to having a centralised budget department for managing membership in industry groupings. These internal budgets or departments might be fully appropriated to existing groups making approvals for new groups time consuming even when fees are partially funded by the project.
• Legalities – some standards bodies require that membership agreements be between the standards body and a legal entity. This might be because there are provisions related to copyrights, confidentiality, etc. that can be sometimes difficult to interpret when dealing with an individual or project.

All of the aspects can usually be addressed and since most standards organizations are open towards contributions from research projects, contacts should be established with them to discuss the various options, and how to best proceed.

However, there are pros and cons to participating as a project as wellas to participating as a consortium partner with regard to achieving consensus for research results becoming standards. Some upfront discussions amongst the partners concerning how the project will participate in standards bodies and what restrictions might exist for some partners is therefore needed to avoid surprises later on, such as having to reallocate resources because a partner is prevented from becoming a member and undertaking planned standardization tasks.

17.1 Pros and cons to participating as a project

Pros

• Easier to share standards information amongst partners
• Opinions or positions may carry greater weight as a project position
• Participation in standards body meetings more cost effective for travelling, etc.

Cons

• Extra process needed for the partners to establish common positions in advance of voting in the standards body
• May not always be a consensus amongst partners for standards body decisions
• A single project vote will have less ability to influence formal decision-making

17.2 Pros and cons to participating as a consortium partner

Pros

• Partners can express their own views rather than only the consensus of the project
• Multiple votes will have more ability to influence decision making
• A mix of support from different types of organizations can be seen as a stronger en-dorsement of project proposals

Cons

• There may be restrictions for sharing detailed standards body information amongst project partners who are not members
• Individual partner opinions or positions may carry less weight than a project position
• Participation in standards body meetings more expensive due to more partner par-ticipants

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See also

15. Should every project interface with standards organizations
20. How do I embed standardization activities in my project'swork plan
22. What do I do when my project comes to an end and standardization activities have not yet been finalized
29. How should my project initiate a new standardization process