The International Digital Cooperation - ICT Standardization is a three-year project (started in 2018).
Launched by the Foreign Policy Instrument (FPI) unit of the European Commission’s European External Action Service (EEAS), the project aims to organize and support actions at both political and technical level.
By fostering connections between technical communities, policy makers and standardization players, InDiCo will boost shared visions of a digital society and of the importance of common standards, paving the way for increased collaboration.
Why InDiCo?
Europe is a key player in the global digital economy, with a competitive industry, a market of 500 million consumers, transparent and predictable rules and regulations that attract many overseas companies who invest and operate in Europe. Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) are foundational building blocks of the global digital economy.
For that matter, the European Commission devised a Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy, with two overarching objectives:
- Complete the (digital) single market within the European Union (EU) borders
- Increase the EU competitiveness in global digital markets
The InDiCo project seeks to create and stimulate synergies with key partner countries and regions in the domain of ICT standards enabling the DSM, fostering interoperability at a global level and contributing to building a larger market for industry players in EU and selected partner countries, namely Japan, South Korea, China, India, Brazil and the USA as well as their surrounding region where relevant. Learn more about the partner countries.
How?
To build the necessary bridges and ensure their sustainability beyond the project, InDiCo will engage in the organization and coordination of workshops at technical and political levels as well as in the setup of tutorials and developer-oriented events.
The project will also coordinate technical standardization meetings and be present at relevant trade shows.
- Act as a catalyst for collaboration between the EU and partner countries on ICT standardization.
- Help the EU and the partner countries come to a better mutual understanding regarding digital policies, regulatory frameworks, and standardization models.
- Contribute to easier and fair market access and business opportunities for players in Europe and the partner countries.
- Support making European ICT standards relevant worldwide by considering partner countries’ requirements.
Technical scope
InDiCo will focus on a limited set of technical areas, building on the ICT standardization priorities outlined for the Digital Single Market i.e. 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), Cybersecurity to which the topics of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) have been added.