Final Report Summary - SIPE (An environmental Standards Information Portal for Europe)
Executive Summary:
The Challenge: Interpretation of the EU Legislation differs from State to State and harmonisation by standardisation is required. The four standardisation communities, i.e. research, standardisation, policy and end-users, lack efficient communication and dissemination lines. This results in lost opportunities for effective translation of research outputs to Standards and their use for policy development and implementation. The challenge of SIPE was to facilitate better communication and information sharing among these four communities.
Project Objectives: Creating a platform to bring together researchers, European Standardisation bodies, policy and other relevant organisations and professional associations to analyse the current barriers and to identify the relevant standardisation needs in the field of environment, as well as the contribution of standards for a more efficient use of resources.
Methodology: Development of a structure of inter-linking information that best describes the complex world of Standards and Standards research; this structure includes the focus areas of environmental Standards in the sectors air, water, marine, soil and waste technologies.
Implementation of the SIPE-RTD web portal. This is an information ‘switch-board’ based on concepts of intelligent keyword linking and serves as a virtual structure of Communities of researchers, standardisation bodies, policy and enterprises/SMEs.
Collection of information on EC funded research projects and research results that address Standards innovation with a focus on those projects that address directly or indirectly the environmental sectors mentioned. In addition, collection of meta data on European Standards and European Policies in these sectors, and to upload relevant information to the web portal.
Enhancement of bi-directional communication by proactive interaction with stakeholders, including testing of the developments through an Interfacing Group and a Stakeholder Network.
Achieved Results: The SIPE-RTD Web Portal was developed and implemented (online May 2014: www.SIPE-RTD.info). It included an embedded environmental science & technology oriented categorisation scheme of keywords that was optimized based on internal Gap Analyses.
A user friendly input system is included in the Web Portal in order to receive additional contributions on relevant research projects and research results in support of Standardisation.
A vast number of relevant European Policies (191), European Standards (1110) and EC funded research projects (710) and results (910) for the environmental sectors air, water, marine, soil and waste were collected and their metadata were uploaded to the SIPE-RTD Web Portal.
A Stakeholder Network and Interfacing Group were set-up; their members were actively involved in development and testing of SIPE-RTD. At the project website all interested Stakeholders may find dissemination materials such as project fact sheets (4), policy briefs (3) and poster presentation: www.sipe-rtd.eu.
Ongoing Impact: Stimulation through SIPE-RTD of exchange of Standards’ ideas / needs / results within the community of researchers as well as within and between the communities of other stakeholders (Policy makers / implementers, Standardisation bodies and enterprises / SMEs), leading to research uptake, application and implementation.
Stimulation of the development (RTD) and implementation (Standardisation bodies) of new Standards that answer to the needs from policy and other end users (laboratories, enterprises, SMEs) will lead to a better environmental quality, having a positive impact on economic growth and social welfare.
Project Partners: HydroScan (BE), Mermayde (NL), WISE-RTD Association (BE), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (BE), IVL Svenska Miljoeinstitutet AB (SE) and Quality Consult (IT).
Project Context and Objectives:
Context:
The ‘Environment’ is of vital importance for any citizen in Europe, and beyond, now and in the future. Part of the policy instruments to protect the environment is – in Europe – via the EC Directives, and their implementation in national legislation. In Directives is laid down the measures that need to be taken to e.g. control the quality status of the different environmental compartments (air, water, marine, soil and waste).
To ensure that all 27 EU Member States have the same interpretation of the Directives and their national implementation, harmonisation is required. Standardisation plays an important role in strengthening innovation in the area of environment. Many Standards have been developed, usually by Standardization Bodies like for example the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN).
Standards are not developed from scratch. Often fundamental and applied research is required to find out what methods and methodologies form the best (analytical) option to be transformed into a generally accepted Standard. The European Community has funded fundamental and applied research for decades aiming at a sustainable management and development of the environment, e.g. via a series of Framework Programmes (FP).
Then there is the user of standards, such as the analysts in the laboratory who need to be adequately informed about the existence of Standards that apply to their applications.
We thus distinguish four communities: research, standardisation, policy and end-users. There is a challenge to link these four communities, to bridge the gap of poor communication and dissemination. Improved bi-directional dissemination/communication between the four stakeholder communities forms the basis for a win-win situation for all, thus having a positive impact on economic growth and social welfare. The project SIPE aimed to systematically link these communities by creating a web based information portal, the ‘Standards Information Portal for Europe”, in short SIPE-RTD.
Objectives
The specific objectives of the SIPE Project were to:
# Collect and upload information on research projects and project results funded by the European Union that are in support of the development and implementation of Standards in the environmental sectors of air, water, soil, marine and waste technologies;
# Collect and upload information on (European) Standards related to these environmental sectors;
# Screen and upload environmental European policies and legislation (e.g. Directives) for tasks that relate to the above mentioned environmental sectors, and that (may) link to the development and implementation of Standards;
# In close cooperation with the Standards sectors (via an Interfacing Group and Stakeholder network) develop and implement the Standards Information Portal for Europe (SIPE–RTD) and its input facility in support of environmental policies and legislation, the Standards and Standards research communities, active in the areas mentioned, and all stakeholders/users, including SMEs;
# Bridge the gap in dissemination/communication between the four communities that operate in the field of standards development/implementation (Standardisation bodies, Policy, Research and Users/SMEs/associations);
# Using SIPE–RTD, provide gap analyses matching policies-Standards, Standards-RTD and Standards-Users, leading to detailed recommendations towards a better uptake of environmental European funded RTD project results in support of Standards with tangible impact on economic growth;
# Develop and implement dissemination/communication tools that support the implementation of the project and the newly developed portal.
Project Results:
In order to reach the project objectives next to the coordination and management three major activities (Work Packages) were defined, each with a number of sub-tasks: WP1: Collection and input of information; WP2: Development of structure and ICT; WP3: Stakeholder involvement, dissemination.
The collection and input of information related to three different information issues: Research, Standards, and Policies.
Research: the main aim of this task was to collate (research framework programme, FP) research projects that relate(d) to the environmental compartments water & marine, air, soil & sediment, waste & sludge, and that (may) be in support of the development and/or implementation of (European) Standards. Information was initially collated using the EU CORDIS database (http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/home_en.html) but in addition project websites were identified usually using Google. Especially for the more recent projects (FP7, sometimes FP6) such websites could be detected; quite a number had existed but had at the date of collection expired. On project websites usually relevant research results could be found. On CORDIS usually the information was limited to those present at the start of the project. Here only for more recent (FP6) projects final reports were identified.
A second source of EU funded research consisted of JRC Actions (research carried out by the EU Joint Research Centres), and only partly visible under the FPs. Although the JRC Actions website (http://projects.jrc.ec.europa.eu/jpb_public/mainMenu.html) contains updated information including a description of results, no project websites were identified (none set up) and no links to research results could be extracted.
The third source of information consisted of European Mandates, i.e. funding provided by the European Commission to the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), in the form of, earmarked for standards development/implementation in support of European policy were identified (http://www.cenelec.eu/). Few appeared to be relevant for the environmental compartments considered in SIPE.
Finally, few projects conducted outside the Framework Programmes were of interest to SIPE. These include for example the European Territorial Cooperation programmes (Cross-border Co-operation, Interregional co-operation, Transnational co-operation), and International Cooperation programmes. Guidance Documents, from EU or other organisations relevant for SIPE were harvested, as considered strengthening the communication and dissemination function of the portal. These include regional (marine) Conventions, or organisations representing professional network organisation (mainly focussing on quality of (analytical) information (OSPAR, HELCOM, BONUS, EURACHEM, ...). A special category of guidance documents collated formed the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) Guidance documents, which are policy guidance documents supporting the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD).
For all projects, mandates and JRC actions the research results and guidance documents were assessed for relevance to Standards (development, implementation). In principle the following full set of information was sought: whether a project/result focussed on either/or the compartments water & marine, air, soil & sediment, waste & sludge, project acronym, title, abstract, additional keywords, funding, contract code, start/end dates, Project URL, Cordis (permanent link) URL, coordinator name & e-mail address. Additionally project flyer/Policy Brief/Brochure were collected, as were the project logo and/or a typical project figure. A Weight Factor (ranging 1=low to 4=high impact on Standards) was attributed. For research results and guidance documents authors and year of publication were added (if present). Care was taken to redraft the abstract to a shorter (~15 lines) text in laymen’s English. For part of the FP6 and FP7 projects project links (URL) could be identified. For all FP projects a permanent link to Cordis was included, for JRC Actions this was a link to the JRC website.
An important aspect of SIPE-RTD is that the portal acts as a ‘switch-board’ to information; SIPE-RTD is not a repository of research results (reports, publications). Instead, SIPE-RTD directs to the results using hyper links (URL).
An input template was developed in MS-Excel which was used for the automated transfer of information. The uploading of information was done in several batched throughout the project. As a result, at the end of the project in total information on 711 individual projects and information on 910 research results and guidance documents was contained in the SIPE-RTD web portal. For each of the environmental compartments considered the numbers of projects/results were: Water & Marine: 440/274; Air: 168/308, Soil & Sediment: 240/360; Waste & Sludge: 223/209 (projects/results could cover more than one compartment).
Standards: European Standards, governed by the European Committee for Standardization, CEN, include standards that relate to the environmental compartments water/marine, air, soil/sediment and/or waste/sludge. Standards were harvested from the CEN database. The methods involved free searching for these compartments, and by identifying those CEN Technical Committees that represented one or more of these compartments. Upon suggestion from the Stakeholder Network in addition to the Standards also relevant CEN Workshop Agreements (CWAs) were included in the list. CWAs are agreements developed and approved in a CEN Workshop.
A template (in MS Excel) was developed and used for bulk transfer. The following information was obtained, for each compartment: CEN Technical Committee involved, CEN Work item (WI) number, CEN European Standard reference number that relates to published Standards (usually starting with EN, European Norm), or to Standards under Development (starting with prEN or FprEN, indicating preliminary Standard and final text of a prEN, respectively), title of the Standard. To each Standard a ‘weight factor’ was applied by the WP1 team. This weight factor identifies the relevance of the Standard for the environmental compartments studied. On a scale 1 to 4 the 1 indicates highly relevant, 2 reasonably relevant, 3 minor relevance and 4 no relevance. A weight factor 4 is given to Standards that although the compartment is mentioned (such as Marine) they do not relate to the marine environment but to e.g. marine transport.
CEN (CCMC Environmental Helpdesk) cooperated in supplying the requested information on the selected Standards in electronic format (template). Information was transferred in several batches. Once the file was received, it was evaluated for consistency. To the Standards the compartment(s) concerned were identified and a weight factor attributed. The information was uploaded to the portal.
By the end of the project the following list identifies the Standards for which information is present in the SIPE-RTD web portal by environmental compartment: Water & Marine: 698; Air: 102; Soil & Sediment: 360; Waste & Sludge: 152; Total: 1110 (Standards can be relevant for several compartments).
Policies: All relevant EU Policies related to the 4 environmental compartments Water & Marine, Air, Waste & Sludge and Soil & Sediment were collected and processed in order to link them with the categorisation system that is embedded in SIPE-RTD. This comprised not only the main Directives, but also other Policies like Communications, Regulations, Decisions, etc. to complete the policy picture. In a separate process the respective Annexes were included as well (that often were available in pdf format only).
The Policies were split into individual articles and annexes in order to avoid that too many related information would appear per Directive and to be able to link the content on a deep level. This resulted in a 2-level system of Policy documents (parent level) and underlying articles/annexes (children’s level). Processing of the policies was carried out in order to have an optimal linking within the categorisation system, and to ensure that repealed Policies were linked to newer versions.
In order to lower possible language barriers, links to the EU policies repository (EUR-LEX website: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/) were included for all available languages and Policies. As this website revised its structure during the SIPE implementation, all links were updated. All information related to policies (for the compartments mentioned) were uploaded to the SIPE-RTD web portal.
By the end of the SIPE project the number of Policies/Articles-Annexes for each of the considered environmental compartments was: Water & Marine: 80/1849; Air: 59/1254; Soil & Sediment: 14/465; Waste & Sludge: 80/1389; Total: 191/3433 (some Policies are relevant for more than one environmental compartment).
Development of structure and ICT
The SIPE-RTD portal was set up based upon the categorisation scheme of keywords, leading to the different user entries at the different search levels, and algorithms.
The ICT structure of the SIPE-RTD web portal (www.SIPE-RTD.info) was developed and implemented during the project. Its outlook and user functionalities and its input system were discussed, implemented, tested and optimised in an iterative process.
For the ICT programming it was decided to use DRUPAL, an open source content management platform. Drupal is a framework for building dynamic web sites offering a broad range of features and services, including user administration, publishing workflow, discussion capabilities, news aggregation, metadata functionalities using controlled vocabularies and XML publishing for content sharing purposes. The version DRUPAL6 was used because of the use of the ‘Alchemy’ API (Application Programming Interface). This interface enables automated keyword generation based on content. Alchemy API is an (open source) software package (www.alchemyapi.com) providing a series of algorithms for analysing collections of words, and e.g. ‘tagging’ with the most important words and phrases. By using the free version of the ALCHEMY API, keywords for up to 400 items can be generated per day.
By using Alchemy API, a powerful NLP (Natural Language Processing) system was used to read and understand the information that has been entered in the Web Portal. Alchemy API is a cloud-based text mining platform providing semantic tagging to developers.
In order to obtain an initial list of relevant keywords, all items contained in the Web Portal were analysed using the Alchemy API. This algorithm already takes into account an exclusion list of standard words that are certainly not relevant (the, or, and, a, of, …). The analysis led to a ranking of keywords for Policies, Research projects & results and Standards for the 4 compartments. These rankings of keywords display the frequency that a keyword appears in the Web Portal. The higher in the ranking the more ‘important’ the keyword is. As result, thousands of keywords were collated and ranked.
Many words (or word combinations) are too generic or too general in the context of the Web Portal. Therefore the next step was to create a specific exclusion list of keywords. In order to create a top ranking of meaningful keywords for each specific item, all items in the Web Portal were analysed again, taking into account this specific exclusion list. The resulting top ranking of keywords for each specific item is the final keyword fingerprint that is further used to relate the item to other items.
Based upon all these keyword fingerprints for each item, a global keyword (top) ranking was made. Again, the highest ranking will contain the most relevant information. In order to deal with possible synonyms or similar words (e.g. singular versus plural) that occur and that would confuse the proper selection of keywords, a list of synonyms/plurals was set up. When present they will be merged into one keyword.
Based on all (key)words from the different types of information (Policies, Standards and Research projects & results) the categorisation system was developed.
At the highest level, the four main compartments were used as user entries, i.e. Water & Marine, Air, Waste & Sludge and Soil & Sediment. Furthermore, the categorisation system was based on cloud tagging, using partly existing open source technologies and extended with methodologies defined by the project beneficiaries. Once set up, these developments made an easier categorisation system to maintain, which supports the sustainability of the SIPE-RTD web portal. The algorithms (for processing of the keywords as well as linking and scoring them) and corresponding keyword lists (exclusion list, plurals and synonyms list) were constantly optimised. After implementation of these lists and the removal of keywords with a low frequency, a remaining set of about 1,500 keywords forms the kernel of the inter-linking system.
The categorisation system proved instrumental for the selection of a top ten list of sub-entries for each of the four environmental compartments (i.e. user entry level 2). This was not only based on how many times a keyword appeared, but also if it has links to information in the different types of information (Standards, Policies, Research). Furthermore, the categorisation system was used to develop secondary user entries in the form of word clouds on all search levels.
For each of these items the keyword fingerprints were created by the algorithms mentioned above. Matching fingerprints of keywords identify related results. These related results, from either Policy, Standards or Research, are presented. Their ranking is based on a prioritisation algorithm that takes into account the weight of the item and the correspondence between the keyword fingerprints. At all levels (search mode and related results) there are easy ways to narrow down (and expand, e.g. cross-thematic over the environmental compartments) the selection of results using the word clouds.
At the SIPE-RTD web portal extensive hyper-linking was implemented. For European Standards links are defined to the CEN website (https://www.cen.eu/) and to the corresponding pages at the websites of all European National Standardisation Bodies (NSBs). For Policies, links are included to the relevant pages at the Eur-lex website (http://eur-lex.europa.eu); consolidated policy versions have been included for all available languages at Eur-lex. For Research links are included to project websites (if present) and to the permanent links at Cordis (http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/home_en.html). Research results, often consisting of reports/documents were not uploaded, but hyperlinks (URL) were included in the SIPE Portal. The portal texts have been kept in English only, but the contents on Policies and Standards are in principle linked to versions in all languages available.
The SIPE-RTD portal was populated with a huge content of different nature (information on research projects and results, policies and standards). This content was uploaded to the portal. A document repository was set up for smaller documents and pictures (e.g. flyers, fact sheets, brochures …). A list of substances, identified from the research, standards and policies included in the portal was implemented. The substances are linked through a synonyms list that leads to the same search results whether one searches for the full compound name, the abbreviation, the CAS number or the EINECS number. The substances list includes all relevant elements.
A Search result (being a Research item, a Policy item or a Standards item) and obtained via a Guided search, a Free search or through the Word clouds of keywords will result in more detailed information, depending on the nature of the item. Always there are hyper-links included for more detailed information, such as for projects to the Cordis website/project website and to research results, for policies to the ‘parent’ level (e.g. the full directive), for standards to CEN as well as to the NSBs. Each Result will be accompanied by three sets of ‘Related Results’, for the three types of items: Standards, Research, Policy. Next to the type of information, the number of items is displayed. The ranking of the items is based on relevance (how well do keywords of the items match) and the weight factor of the items. In order to better visualise the related results, a ‘full view’ link is available. There are options to narrow down, or widen the search.
In order to ensure harmonisation and consistency in the SIPE-RTD portal, the uploaded information was checked by making bulk downloads and performing integrity checks on the information in spreadsheets as part of the quality control. These checks were carried out on the different types of information (Policies, Standards and Research), as well as on the keyword lists and the interactions between all of them. Furthermore, in order to verify the proper working of SIPE-RTD, testing of the portal was carried out on searches by the specialists aiming to find expected results.
Under the menu ‘How it works’ information is given on the usage of the portal. One finds there an extended e-flyer to guide the user, and an interactive presentation.
An easy to use interface has been developed and implemented in the web portal for the uploading of research information (SIPIS, Standards information portal input system). Under the button ‘Contribute’ project coordinators can, after registration, upload information on research projects and their research results. The input is facilitated by a 6-step procedure. After submission of the input the information can be viewed for approval/editing. In order to achieve maximum involvement of the researchers, individual e-mails have been sent to FP6 and FP7 project coordinators of the projects contained in the SIPE-RTD Web Portal to check the information present, and to update or add information.
The SIPE-RTD web portal has a feedback button where any user can give feedback using a dedicated feedback form. Other dissemination features in SIPE-RTD are the ‘mail a friend’ option, which allows disseminating information on search items to be communicated by e-mail to potentially interested people. A LinkedIn group set up with a link at the home page of SIPE-RTD. All dissemination material is available on the SIPE-RTD Web Portal under ‘About SIPE’.
The Web Portal was fine-tuned based upon the feedback of the Interfacing Group, the Stakeholder Network and internal testing within the project consortium in an iterative way. The first open version was made available on-line mid-May 2014, the final version (within the SIPE project) was implemented by the end August 2014.
Based upon the categorisation system and the interlinking of its items, gaps can be searched for. Specific items might only appear in Directives or Standards, but not in research and vice versa. A tool was built to perform such ‘Gap analyses’. It was run several times during the project to create resulting tables. Through the back office of the SIPE-RTD Web Portal, several queries were developed in order to retrieve answers to the gap analysis questions e.g. on how much information is available in the portal on different topics, Standards, Policies, … and especially how much of this information is interlinked. The final analysis could only be performed at the end of the project when all content had been uploaded to the SIPE-RTD portal. The gap analyses resulted in the conclusion that a lot of items are linked to related information from the three types, while many others lack related items. Because of the huge amount of items of each of the three types of information there is a large variety in degree of relations.
Next to this single moment gap analysis, the SIPE-RTD web portal is, in its concept, a tool that can be used to perform individual gap analyses. The tool has been created such that every user of the portal can perform a gap analysis with respect to her/his interests. For this purpose different user entries were set up to find related information to specific areas of interest.
Stakeholder involvement, dissemination
A Communication and Dissemination strategy was developed and implemented. The project website (http://www.sipe-rtd.eu/) was regularly updated. It contains a public section and a section with restricted access (used as intranet for project partners and the Interfacing Group and Stakeholder Network).
In order to assure that the web portal SIPE-RTD would meet the needs of the targeted end-users, the SIPE Interfacing Group (IG) was initiated. In the end 16 out of the 31 invited institutions accepted the invitation to have a representative in the IG. Four IG workshops were organised over the project duration, which resulted in advice and suggestions for improvement of the web portal. The functioning and lay-out of the portal was discussed in detail from the search function to the outputs, with emphasis on technical detail as well as on user-friendliness. Many suggestions for improvement were implemented. In addition, the sustainability was discussed. The IG has been instrumental in dissemination of information both about the project and its products to their respective networks (the web portal, fact sheets, policy briefs). In addition to the four IG Workshops the Interfacing Group was kindly asked to continue to promote the SIPE-RTD web portal to their respective networks.
A SIPE Stakeholder Network was initiated. It was aimed at approaching potential candidates from different types of professional organisation, such as universities, international organisations (e.g. EC, EC-JRC, IAEA), national standards organisations (NSBs), national metrological institutes (NMIs), national accreditation bodies, members of relevant professional associations (e.g. EURACHEM, EURAMET, EURONET, EUROLAB), public (monitoring) institutions, SMEs and industries, including laboratories. To potential members to the SN a request was sent out twice, asking them to visit the web portal, evaluate and kindly provide the SIPE team with suggestions for improvement. It was suggested they register as SN Member, but since comments could also be provided directly on the web portal (‘feedback’) after the website became public no new registrations to the SN were received in project period 2. Input in the form of suggestions for improvement (e.g. on the inclusion of CWAs, and on lay-out) were received; useful suggestions were implemented. The low number of registrations to the Stakeholder Network, despite several attempts to attract stakeholder’s interest, was considered disappointing by the SIPE team. Nevertheless, the e-mails sent will undoubtedly have served to advertise and promote the project SIPE and the web portal SIPE-RTD to a truly wide audience of stakeholders.
Dissemination products: During the project four Fact Sheets on the project, three Policy Briefs and a Research flyer were prepared. They were distributed via an extensive list of e-mail contacts, at meetings, through the project website and – after SIPE-RTD had become public- the web portal. The Fact Sheets were each an update of the previous version, so that the most recent status was displayed.
To advertise among the stakeholders and to mobilise them in an early stage, it was decided to publish the Policy Briefs earlier than foreseen, i.e. not at the end of the project for the different groups of stakeholders separately, but to disseminate the first two during the project for all stakeholders together. This also strengthened the interfacing between the two Stakeholder groups.
After an interview of the coordinator a dedicated article was prepared by Insight Publishers for the journal ProjectsMagazine (www.projectsmagazine.com) under the title ‘Encouraging dialogue between standardisation, policy and research stakeholders’. This paper has been widely disseminated, including to all CEN-NSBs.
All dissemination products (Fact Sheets, Policy Briefs etc.) can be downloaded from the two websites developed by the SIPE project:
# the website www.SIPE-RTD.eu was used as project website; it was regularly updated during the project execution;
# the website www.SIPE-RTD.info which is the project product: the SIPE-RTD web portal (up till its public release in May 2014 the draft version of the portal ran on a hidden test site).
A general contact e-mail address was used to obtain further information: info@wise-rtd.org, but in the implementation in the SIPE-RTD Web Portal this was replaced by a web form. A LinkedIn group set up with a link at the home page of SIPE-RTD.
Dissemination was additionally carried out at a number of events over the project duration. This included technical meetings with CEN, and related events, such as Water Innovation 2014 organised by WSSTP, ECTP2014 (European Construction Technology Platform), the EC workshop ‘Let’s support and coordinate systemic eco-innovation’, and the European conference ‘Standards: your innovation bridge’ organised by CEN. At these events policy briefs, fact sheets, etc. were distributed among the participants.
The SIPE final conference (17/06/2014) was organised in Brussels. The programme involved keynote speakers from different stakeholder groups, a presentation of the SIPE-RTD Web Portal, and a panel discussion.
The following project deliverables are publicly accessible on the project web site (www.sipe-rtd.eu) and the SIPE web portal (www.sipe-rtd.info):
D1.3 Overview of implemented projects
D1.4 Overview of implemented standards
D3.1 Project website and fact sheet
D3.4 Interfacing Group and Stakeholder Network activities
D3.5 Gap analyses
D3.6 Policy briefs (3) and fact sheets (3)
Potential Impact:
The expected impact of the project SIPE is the strengthening of ongoing activities of European standardisation systems in the field of environment (focused on air, water, marine, soil and waste technologies). Interoperability of current standards is ensured and facilitated, and the emergence of new standards on key environmental and resource efficient technologies and services is facilitated. Through the linking up of the various ‘Standards’ communities (Standardisation bodies, Research, Policy and Users/SMEs) via the web portal SIPE–RTD radical innovation is ensured and creativity fostered. Policy and Users may indicate needs, RTD can pick up the challenge to carry out pre-normative research, and the Standardisation bodies will use the RTD results to develop and implement Standards. Through the web portal SIPE–RTD dissemination of European standards and their accessibility by policy makers and industry is enhanced. SIPE has significantly lowered the barriers to access Standards related RTD results to enterprises and SMEs. These stakeholders may thus take up RTD results for further implementation into practical applications. Through dissemination and knowledge management the project enhanced their access to scientific knowledge, strengthening their innovation and use capacity while addressing issues of ‘Information Society for all’ policies.
After the project SIPE has been completed, SIPE-RTD offers the benefits of Standards related RTD evidence and knowledge that traditionally only reached research organisations, enhancing the diffusion of RTD results with high EU value through its knowledge base, which will strengthen the translational collaboration, promote innovation and facilitate the integration of RTD – Enterprises value chains at a European level.
This was achieved by:
# The delivery of an operational Web Portal (SIPE–RTD Web Portal, www.SIPE-RTD.info) and a user friendly input system with an embedded environmental S&T oriented categorisation scheme of keywords for the Standards and the Policy sectors;
# Information on Standards and Standards related S&T research throughout Europe, centralised in a Knowledge Base (Web Portal), and made available for further consultation to all stakeholders in the EU and beyond;
# Stimulating through the Web Portal exchange of relevant Standards ideas/needs/results within the community of researchers as well as within and between the communities of other (Standards) stakeholders, being (in the environmental areas of air, water, marine, soil and waste technologies) the Policy, Standardisation bodies, and Users/enterprises/SMEs communities, leading to research uptake, application and implementation;
# Broad publicity to stakeholders of the existence of the above to Standards S&T communities and associations.
In the end, the development (RTD) and implementation (Standardisation bodies) of new Standards, that answer to the needs from policy (Directives) and end users (laboratories, enterprises, SMEs) will lead to a better environmental quality and have a positive impact on economic growth and social welfare.
List of Websites:
The public website of the project SIPE is: www.sipe-rtd.eu
whereas the website of the project result, the SIPE-RTD web portal, is www.SIPE-RTD.info.
Dr. Guido Vaes, project coordinator
HydroScan N.V. Diestsesteenweg 104 A, B – 3010 Kessel-Lo, Belgium
T: +32 16 240 501 - E: guido.vaes@hydroscan.be - U: www.hydroscan.be
Dr. Kees J.M. Kramer, scientific coordinator
Mermayde, Zakedijkje 60, 1862 HC Bergen, Netherlands
T: +31 72 581 8182 – E: kees.kramer@mermayde.nl – U: www.mermayde.nl
The Challenge: Interpretation of the EU Legislation differs from State to State and harmonisation by standardisation is required. The four standardisation communities, i.e. research, standardisation, policy and end-users, lack efficient communication and dissemination lines. This results in lost opportunities for effective translation of research outputs to Standards and their use for policy development and implementation. The challenge of SIPE was to facilitate better communication and information sharing among these four communities.
Project Objectives: Creating a platform to bring together researchers, European Standardisation bodies, policy and other relevant organisations and professional associations to analyse the current barriers and to identify the relevant standardisation needs in the field of environment, as well as the contribution of standards for a more efficient use of resources.
Methodology: Development of a structure of inter-linking information that best describes the complex world of Standards and Standards research; this structure includes the focus areas of environmental Standards in the sectors air, water, marine, soil and waste technologies.
Implementation of the SIPE-RTD web portal. This is an information ‘switch-board’ based on concepts of intelligent keyword linking and serves as a virtual structure of Communities of researchers, standardisation bodies, policy and enterprises/SMEs.
Collection of information on EC funded research projects and research results that address Standards innovation with a focus on those projects that address directly or indirectly the environmental sectors mentioned. In addition, collection of meta data on European Standards and European Policies in these sectors, and to upload relevant information to the web portal.
Enhancement of bi-directional communication by proactive interaction with stakeholders, including testing of the developments through an Interfacing Group and a Stakeholder Network.
Achieved Results: The SIPE-RTD Web Portal was developed and implemented (online May 2014: www.SIPE-RTD.info). It included an embedded environmental science & technology oriented categorisation scheme of keywords that was optimized based on internal Gap Analyses.
A user friendly input system is included in the Web Portal in order to receive additional contributions on relevant research projects and research results in support of Standardisation.
A vast number of relevant European Policies (191), European Standards (1110) and EC funded research projects (710) and results (910) for the environmental sectors air, water, marine, soil and waste were collected and their metadata were uploaded to the SIPE-RTD Web Portal.
A Stakeholder Network and Interfacing Group were set-up; their members were actively involved in development and testing of SIPE-RTD. At the project website all interested Stakeholders may find dissemination materials such as project fact sheets (4), policy briefs (3) and poster presentation: www.sipe-rtd.eu.
Ongoing Impact: Stimulation through SIPE-RTD of exchange of Standards’ ideas / needs / results within the community of researchers as well as within and between the communities of other stakeholders (Policy makers / implementers, Standardisation bodies and enterprises / SMEs), leading to research uptake, application and implementation.
Stimulation of the development (RTD) and implementation (Standardisation bodies) of new Standards that answer to the needs from policy and other end users (laboratories, enterprises, SMEs) will lead to a better environmental quality, having a positive impact on economic growth and social welfare.
Project Partners: HydroScan (BE), Mermayde (NL), WISE-RTD Association (BE), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (BE), IVL Svenska Miljoeinstitutet AB (SE) and Quality Consult (IT).
Project Context and Objectives:
Context:
The ‘Environment’ is of vital importance for any citizen in Europe, and beyond, now and in the future. Part of the policy instruments to protect the environment is – in Europe – via the EC Directives, and their implementation in national legislation. In Directives is laid down the measures that need to be taken to e.g. control the quality status of the different environmental compartments (air, water, marine, soil and waste).
To ensure that all 27 EU Member States have the same interpretation of the Directives and their national implementation, harmonisation is required. Standardisation plays an important role in strengthening innovation in the area of environment. Many Standards have been developed, usually by Standardization Bodies like for example the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN).
Standards are not developed from scratch. Often fundamental and applied research is required to find out what methods and methodologies form the best (analytical) option to be transformed into a generally accepted Standard. The European Community has funded fundamental and applied research for decades aiming at a sustainable management and development of the environment, e.g. via a series of Framework Programmes (FP).
Then there is the user of standards, such as the analysts in the laboratory who need to be adequately informed about the existence of Standards that apply to their applications.
We thus distinguish four communities: research, standardisation, policy and end-users. There is a challenge to link these four communities, to bridge the gap of poor communication and dissemination. Improved bi-directional dissemination/communication between the four stakeholder communities forms the basis for a win-win situation for all, thus having a positive impact on economic growth and social welfare. The project SIPE aimed to systematically link these communities by creating a web based information portal, the ‘Standards Information Portal for Europe”, in short SIPE-RTD.
Objectives
The specific objectives of the SIPE Project were to:
# Collect and upload information on research projects and project results funded by the European Union that are in support of the development and implementation of Standards in the environmental sectors of air, water, soil, marine and waste technologies;
# Collect and upload information on (European) Standards related to these environmental sectors;
# Screen and upload environmental European policies and legislation (e.g. Directives) for tasks that relate to the above mentioned environmental sectors, and that (may) link to the development and implementation of Standards;
# In close cooperation with the Standards sectors (via an Interfacing Group and Stakeholder network) develop and implement the Standards Information Portal for Europe (SIPE–RTD) and its input facility in support of environmental policies and legislation, the Standards and Standards research communities, active in the areas mentioned, and all stakeholders/users, including SMEs;
# Bridge the gap in dissemination/communication between the four communities that operate in the field of standards development/implementation (Standardisation bodies, Policy, Research and Users/SMEs/associations);
# Using SIPE–RTD, provide gap analyses matching policies-Standards, Standards-RTD and Standards-Users, leading to detailed recommendations towards a better uptake of environmental European funded RTD project results in support of Standards with tangible impact on economic growth;
# Develop and implement dissemination/communication tools that support the implementation of the project and the newly developed portal.
Project Results:
In order to reach the project objectives next to the coordination and management three major activities (Work Packages) were defined, each with a number of sub-tasks: WP1: Collection and input of information; WP2: Development of structure and ICT; WP3: Stakeholder involvement, dissemination.
The collection and input of information related to three different information issues: Research, Standards, and Policies.
Research: the main aim of this task was to collate (research framework programme, FP) research projects that relate(d) to the environmental compartments water & marine, air, soil & sediment, waste & sludge, and that (may) be in support of the development and/or implementation of (European) Standards. Information was initially collated using the EU CORDIS database (http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/home_en.html) but in addition project websites were identified usually using Google. Especially for the more recent projects (FP7, sometimes FP6) such websites could be detected; quite a number had existed but had at the date of collection expired. On project websites usually relevant research results could be found. On CORDIS usually the information was limited to those present at the start of the project. Here only for more recent (FP6) projects final reports were identified.
A second source of EU funded research consisted of JRC Actions (research carried out by the EU Joint Research Centres), and only partly visible under the FPs. Although the JRC Actions website (http://projects.jrc.ec.europa.eu/jpb_public/mainMenu.html) contains updated information including a description of results, no project websites were identified (none set up) and no links to research results could be extracted.
The third source of information consisted of European Mandates, i.e. funding provided by the European Commission to the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), in the form of, earmarked for standards development/implementation in support of European policy were identified (http://www.cenelec.eu/). Few appeared to be relevant for the environmental compartments considered in SIPE.
Finally, few projects conducted outside the Framework Programmes were of interest to SIPE. These include for example the European Territorial Cooperation programmes (Cross-border Co-operation, Interregional co-operation, Transnational co-operation), and International Cooperation programmes. Guidance Documents, from EU or other organisations relevant for SIPE were harvested, as considered strengthening the communication and dissemination function of the portal. These include regional (marine) Conventions, or organisations representing professional network organisation (mainly focussing on quality of (analytical) information (OSPAR, HELCOM, BONUS, EURACHEM, ...). A special category of guidance documents collated formed the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) Guidance documents, which are policy guidance documents supporting the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD).
For all projects, mandates and JRC actions the research results and guidance documents were assessed for relevance to Standards (development, implementation). In principle the following full set of information was sought: whether a project/result focussed on either/or the compartments water & marine, air, soil & sediment, waste & sludge, project acronym, title, abstract, additional keywords, funding, contract code, start/end dates, Project URL, Cordis (permanent link) URL, coordinator name & e-mail address. Additionally project flyer/Policy Brief/Brochure were collected, as were the project logo and/or a typical project figure. A Weight Factor (ranging 1=low to 4=high impact on Standards) was attributed. For research results and guidance documents authors and year of publication were added (if present). Care was taken to redraft the abstract to a shorter (~15 lines) text in laymen’s English. For part of the FP6 and FP7 projects project links (URL) could be identified. For all FP projects a permanent link to Cordis was included, for JRC Actions this was a link to the JRC website.
An important aspect of SIPE-RTD is that the portal acts as a ‘switch-board’ to information; SIPE-RTD is not a repository of research results (reports, publications). Instead, SIPE-RTD directs to the results using hyper links (URL).
An input template was developed in MS-Excel which was used for the automated transfer of information. The uploading of information was done in several batched throughout the project. As a result, at the end of the project in total information on 711 individual projects and information on 910 research results and guidance documents was contained in the SIPE-RTD web portal. For each of the environmental compartments considered the numbers of projects/results were: Water & Marine: 440/274; Air: 168/308, Soil & Sediment: 240/360; Waste & Sludge: 223/209 (projects/results could cover more than one compartment).
Standards: European Standards, governed by the European Committee for Standardization, CEN, include standards that relate to the environmental compartments water/marine, air, soil/sediment and/or waste/sludge. Standards were harvested from the CEN database. The methods involved free searching for these compartments, and by identifying those CEN Technical Committees that represented one or more of these compartments. Upon suggestion from the Stakeholder Network in addition to the Standards also relevant CEN Workshop Agreements (CWAs) were included in the list. CWAs are agreements developed and approved in a CEN Workshop.
A template (in MS Excel) was developed and used for bulk transfer. The following information was obtained, for each compartment: CEN Technical Committee involved, CEN Work item (WI) number, CEN European Standard reference number that relates to published Standards (usually starting with EN, European Norm), or to Standards under Development (starting with prEN or FprEN, indicating preliminary Standard and final text of a prEN, respectively), title of the Standard. To each Standard a ‘weight factor’ was applied by the WP1 team. This weight factor identifies the relevance of the Standard for the environmental compartments studied. On a scale 1 to 4 the 1 indicates highly relevant, 2 reasonably relevant, 3 minor relevance and 4 no relevance. A weight factor 4 is given to Standards that although the compartment is mentioned (such as Marine) they do not relate to the marine environment but to e.g. marine transport.
CEN (CCMC Environmental Helpdesk) cooperated in supplying the requested information on the selected Standards in electronic format (template). Information was transferred in several batches. Once the file was received, it was evaluated for consistency. To the Standards the compartment(s) concerned were identified and a weight factor attributed. The information was uploaded to the portal.
By the end of the project the following list identifies the Standards for which information is present in the SIPE-RTD web portal by environmental compartment: Water & Marine: 698; Air: 102; Soil & Sediment: 360; Waste & Sludge: 152; Total: 1110 (Standards can be relevant for several compartments).
Policies: All relevant EU Policies related to the 4 environmental compartments Water & Marine, Air, Waste & Sludge and Soil & Sediment were collected and processed in order to link them with the categorisation system that is embedded in SIPE-RTD. This comprised not only the main Directives, but also other Policies like Communications, Regulations, Decisions, etc. to complete the policy picture. In a separate process the respective Annexes were included as well (that often were available in pdf format only).
The Policies were split into individual articles and annexes in order to avoid that too many related information would appear per Directive and to be able to link the content on a deep level. This resulted in a 2-level system of Policy documents (parent level) and underlying articles/annexes (children’s level). Processing of the policies was carried out in order to have an optimal linking within the categorisation system, and to ensure that repealed Policies were linked to newer versions.
In order to lower possible language barriers, links to the EU policies repository (EUR-LEX website: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/) were included for all available languages and Policies. As this website revised its structure during the SIPE implementation, all links were updated. All information related to policies (for the compartments mentioned) were uploaded to the SIPE-RTD web portal.
By the end of the SIPE project the number of Policies/Articles-Annexes for each of the considered environmental compartments was: Water & Marine: 80/1849; Air: 59/1254; Soil & Sediment: 14/465; Waste & Sludge: 80/1389; Total: 191/3433 (some Policies are relevant for more than one environmental compartment).
Development of structure and ICT
The SIPE-RTD portal was set up based upon the categorisation scheme of keywords, leading to the different user entries at the different search levels, and algorithms.
The ICT structure of the SIPE-RTD web portal (www.SIPE-RTD.info) was developed and implemented during the project. Its outlook and user functionalities and its input system were discussed, implemented, tested and optimised in an iterative process.
For the ICT programming it was decided to use DRUPAL, an open source content management platform. Drupal is a framework for building dynamic web sites offering a broad range of features and services, including user administration, publishing workflow, discussion capabilities, news aggregation, metadata functionalities using controlled vocabularies and XML publishing for content sharing purposes. The version DRUPAL6 was used because of the use of the ‘Alchemy’ API (Application Programming Interface). This interface enables automated keyword generation based on content. Alchemy API is an (open source) software package (www.alchemyapi.com) providing a series of algorithms for analysing collections of words, and e.g. ‘tagging’ with the most important words and phrases. By using the free version of the ALCHEMY API, keywords for up to 400 items can be generated per day.
By using Alchemy API, a powerful NLP (Natural Language Processing) system was used to read and understand the information that has been entered in the Web Portal. Alchemy API is a cloud-based text mining platform providing semantic tagging to developers.
In order to obtain an initial list of relevant keywords, all items contained in the Web Portal were analysed using the Alchemy API. This algorithm already takes into account an exclusion list of standard words that are certainly not relevant (the, or, and, a, of, …). The analysis led to a ranking of keywords for Policies, Research projects & results and Standards for the 4 compartments. These rankings of keywords display the frequency that a keyword appears in the Web Portal. The higher in the ranking the more ‘important’ the keyword is. As result, thousands of keywords were collated and ranked.
Many words (or word combinations) are too generic or too general in the context of the Web Portal. Therefore the next step was to create a specific exclusion list of keywords. In order to create a top ranking of meaningful keywords for each specific item, all items in the Web Portal were analysed again, taking into account this specific exclusion list. The resulting top ranking of keywords for each specific item is the final keyword fingerprint that is further used to relate the item to other items.
Based upon all these keyword fingerprints for each item, a global keyword (top) ranking was made. Again, the highest ranking will contain the most relevant information. In order to deal with possible synonyms or similar words (e.g. singular versus plural) that occur and that would confuse the proper selection of keywords, a list of synonyms/plurals was set up. When present they will be merged into one keyword.
Based on all (key)words from the different types of information (Policies, Standards and Research projects & results) the categorisation system was developed.
At the highest level, the four main compartments were used as user entries, i.e. Water & Marine, Air, Waste & Sludge and Soil & Sediment. Furthermore, the categorisation system was based on cloud tagging, using partly existing open source technologies and extended with methodologies defined by the project beneficiaries. Once set up, these developments made an easier categorisation system to maintain, which supports the sustainability of the SIPE-RTD web portal. The algorithms (for processing of the keywords as well as linking and scoring them) and corresponding keyword lists (exclusion list, plurals and synonyms list) were constantly optimised. After implementation of these lists and the removal of keywords with a low frequency, a remaining set of about 1,500 keywords forms the kernel of the inter-linking system.
The categorisation system proved instrumental for the selection of a top ten list of sub-entries for each of the four environmental compartments (i.e. user entry level 2). This was not only based on how many times a keyword appeared, but also if it has links to information in the different types of information (Standards, Policies, Research). Furthermore, the categorisation system was used to develop secondary user entries in the form of word clouds on all search levels.
For each of these items the keyword fingerprints were created by the algorithms mentioned above. Matching fingerprints of keywords identify related results. These related results, from either Policy, Standards or Research, are presented. Their ranking is based on a prioritisation algorithm that takes into account the weight of the item and the correspondence between the keyword fingerprints. At all levels (search mode and related results) there are easy ways to narrow down (and expand, e.g. cross-thematic over the environmental compartments) the selection of results using the word clouds.
At the SIPE-RTD web portal extensive hyper-linking was implemented. For European Standards links are defined to the CEN website (https://www.cen.eu/) and to the corresponding pages at the websites of all European National Standardisation Bodies (NSBs). For Policies, links are included to the relevant pages at the Eur-lex website (http://eur-lex.europa.eu); consolidated policy versions have been included for all available languages at Eur-lex. For Research links are included to project websites (if present) and to the permanent links at Cordis (http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/home_en.html). Research results, often consisting of reports/documents were not uploaded, but hyperlinks (URL) were included in the SIPE Portal. The portal texts have been kept in English only, but the contents on Policies and Standards are in principle linked to versions in all languages available.
The SIPE-RTD portal was populated with a huge content of different nature (information on research projects and results, policies and standards). This content was uploaded to the portal. A document repository was set up for smaller documents and pictures (e.g. flyers, fact sheets, brochures …). A list of substances, identified from the research, standards and policies included in the portal was implemented. The substances are linked through a synonyms list that leads to the same search results whether one searches for the full compound name, the abbreviation, the CAS number or the EINECS number. The substances list includes all relevant elements.
A Search result (being a Research item, a Policy item or a Standards item) and obtained via a Guided search, a Free search or through the Word clouds of keywords will result in more detailed information, depending on the nature of the item. Always there are hyper-links included for more detailed information, such as for projects to the Cordis website/project website and to research results, for policies to the ‘parent’ level (e.g. the full directive), for standards to CEN as well as to the NSBs. Each Result will be accompanied by three sets of ‘Related Results’, for the three types of items: Standards, Research, Policy. Next to the type of information, the number of items is displayed. The ranking of the items is based on relevance (how well do keywords of the items match) and the weight factor of the items. In order to better visualise the related results, a ‘full view’ link is available. There are options to narrow down, or widen the search.
In order to ensure harmonisation and consistency in the SIPE-RTD portal, the uploaded information was checked by making bulk downloads and performing integrity checks on the information in spreadsheets as part of the quality control. These checks were carried out on the different types of information (Policies, Standards and Research), as well as on the keyword lists and the interactions between all of them. Furthermore, in order to verify the proper working of SIPE-RTD, testing of the portal was carried out on searches by the specialists aiming to find expected results.
Under the menu ‘How it works’ information is given on the usage of the portal. One finds there an extended e-flyer to guide the user, and an interactive presentation.
An easy to use interface has been developed and implemented in the web portal for the uploading of research information (SIPIS, Standards information portal input system). Under the button ‘Contribute’ project coordinators can, after registration, upload information on research projects and their research results. The input is facilitated by a 6-step procedure. After submission of the input the information can be viewed for approval/editing. In order to achieve maximum involvement of the researchers, individual e-mails have been sent to FP6 and FP7 project coordinators of the projects contained in the SIPE-RTD Web Portal to check the information present, and to update or add information.
The SIPE-RTD web portal has a feedback button where any user can give feedback using a dedicated feedback form. Other dissemination features in SIPE-RTD are the ‘mail a friend’ option, which allows disseminating information on search items to be communicated by e-mail to potentially interested people. A LinkedIn group set up with a link at the home page of SIPE-RTD. All dissemination material is available on the SIPE-RTD Web Portal under ‘About SIPE’.
The Web Portal was fine-tuned based upon the feedback of the Interfacing Group, the Stakeholder Network and internal testing within the project consortium in an iterative way. The first open version was made available on-line mid-May 2014, the final version (within the SIPE project) was implemented by the end August 2014.
Based upon the categorisation system and the interlinking of its items, gaps can be searched for. Specific items might only appear in Directives or Standards, but not in research and vice versa. A tool was built to perform such ‘Gap analyses’. It was run several times during the project to create resulting tables. Through the back office of the SIPE-RTD Web Portal, several queries were developed in order to retrieve answers to the gap analysis questions e.g. on how much information is available in the portal on different topics, Standards, Policies, … and especially how much of this information is interlinked. The final analysis could only be performed at the end of the project when all content had been uploaded to the SIPE-RTD portal. The gap analyses resulted in the conclusion that a lot of items are linked to related information from the three types, while many others lack related items. Because of the huge amount of items of each of the three types of information there is a large variety in degree of relations.
Next to this single moment gap analysis, the SIPE-RTD web portal is, in its concept, a tool that can be used to perform individual gap analyses. The tool has been created such that every user of the portal can perform a gap analysis with respect to her/his interests. For this purpose different user entries were set up to find related information to specific areas of interest.
Stakeholder involvement, dissemination
A Communication and Dissemination strategy was developed and implemented. The project website (http://www.sipe-rtd.eu/) was regularly updated. It contains a public section and a section with restricted access (used as intranet for project partners and the Interfacing Group and Stakeholder Network).
In order to assure that the web portal SIPE-RTD would meet the needs of the targeted end-users, the SIPE Interfacing Group (IG) was initiated. In the end 16 out of the 31 invited institutions accepted the invitation to have a representative in the IG. Four IG workshops were organised over the project duration, which resulted in advice and suggestions for improvement of the web portal. The functioning and lay-out of the portal was discussed in detail from the search function to the outputs, with emphasis on technical detail as well as on user-friendliness. Many suggestions for improvement were implemented. In addition, the sustainability was discussed. The IG has been instrumental in dissemination of information both about the project and its products to their respective networks (the web portal, fact sheets, policy briefs). In addition to the four IG Workshops the Interfacing Group was kindly asked to continue to promote the SIPE-RTD web portal to their respective networks.
A SIPE Stakeholder Network was initiated. It was aimed at approaching potential candidates from different types of professional organisation, such as universities, international organisations (e.g. EC, EC-JRC, IAEA), national standards organisations (NSBs), national metrological institutes (NMIs), national accreditation bodies, members of relevant professional associations (e.g. EURACHEM, EURAMET, EURONET, EUROLAB), public (monitoring) institutions, SMEs and industries, including laboratories. To potential members to the SN a request was sent out twice, asking them to visit the web portal, evaluate and kindly provide the SIPE team with suggestions for improvement. It was suggested they register as SN Member, but since comments could also be provided directly on the web portal (‘feedback’) after the website became public no new registrations to the SN were received in project period 2. Input in the form of suggestions for improvement (e.g. on the inclusion of CWAs, and on lay-out) were received; useful suggestions were implemented. The low number of registrations to the Stakeholder Network, despite several attempts to attract stakeholder’s interest, was considered disappointing by the SIPE team. Nevertheless, the e-mails sent will undoubtedly have served to advertise and promote the project SIPE and the web portal SIPE-RTD to a truly wide audience of stakeholders.
Dissemination products: During the project four Fact Sheets on the project, three Policy Briefs and a Research flyer were prepared. They were distributed via an extensive list of e-mail contacts, at meetings, through the project website and – after SIPE-RTD had become public- the web portal. The Fact Sheets were each an update of the previous version, so that the most recent status was displayed.
To advertise among the stakeholders and to mobilise them in an early stage, it was decided to publish the Policy Briefs earlier than foreseen, i.e. not at the end of the project for the different groups of stakeholders separately, but to disseminate the first two during the project for all stakeholders together. This also strengthened the interfacing between the two Stakeholder groups.
After an interview of the coordinator a dedicated article was prepared by Insight Publishers for the journal ProjectsMagazine (www.projectsmagazine.com) under the title ‘Encouraging dialogue between standardisation, policy and research stakeholders’. This paper has been widely disseminated, including to all CEN-NSBs.
All dissemination products (Fact Sheets, Policy Briefs etc.) can be downloaded from the two websites developed by the SIPE project:
# the website www.SIPE-RTD.eu was used as project website; it was regularly updated during the project execution;
# the website www.SIPE-RTD.info which is the project product: the SIPE-RTD web portal (up till its public release in May 2014 the draft version of the portal ran on a hidden test site).
A general contact e-mail address was used to obtain further information: info@wise-rtd.org, but in the implementation in the SIPE-RTD Web Portal this was replaced by a web form. A LinkedIn group set up with a link at the home page of SIPE-RTD.
Dissemination was additionally carried out at a number of events over the project duration. This included technical meetings with CEN, and related events, such as Water Innovation 2014 organised by WSSTP, ECTP2014 (European Construction Technology Platform), the EC workshop ‘Let’s support and coordinate systemic eco-innovation’, and the European conference ‘Standards: your innovation bridge’ organised by CEN. At these events policy briefs, fact sheets, etc. were distributed among the participants.
The SIPE final conference (17/06/2014) was organised in Brussels. The programme involved keynote speakers from different stakeholder groups, a presentation of the SIPE-RTD Web Portal, and a panel discussion.
The following project deliverables are publicly accessible on the project web site (www.sipe-rtd.eu) and the SIPE web portal (www.sipe-rtd.info):
D1.3 Overview of implemented projects
D1.4 Overview of implemented standards
D3.1 Project website and fact sheet
D3.4 Interfacing Group and Stakeholder Network activities
D3.5 Gap analyses
D3.6 Policy briefs (3) and fact sheets (3)
Potential Impact:
The expected impact of the project SIPE is the strengthening of ongoing activities of European standardisation systems in the field of environment (focused on air, water, marine, soil and waste technologies). Interoperability of current standards is ensured and facilitated, and the emergence of new standards on key environmental and resource efficient technologies and services is facilitated. Through the linking up of the various ‘Standards’ communities (Standardisation bodies, Research, Policy and Users/SMEs) via the web portal SIPE–RTD radical innovation is ensured and creativity fostered. Policy and Users may indicate needs, RTD can pick up the challenge to carry out pre-normative research, and the Standardisation bodies will use the RTD results to develop and implement Standards. Through the web portal SIPE–RTD dissemination of European standards and their accessibility by policy makers and industry is enhanced. SIPE has significantly lowered the barriers to access Standards related RTD results to enterprises and SMEs. These stakeholders may thus take up RTD results for further implementation into practical applications. Through dissemination and knowledge management the project enhanced their access to scientific knowledge, strengthening their innovation and use capacity while addressing issues of ‘Information Society for all’ policies.
After the project SIPE has been completed, SIPE-RTD offers the benefits of Standards related RTD evidence and knowledge that traditionally only reached research organisations, enhancing the diffusion of RTD results with high EU value through its knowledge base, which will strengthen the translational collaboration, promote innovation and facilitate the integration of RTD – Enterprises value chains at a European level.
This was achieved by:
# The delivery of an operational Web Portal (SIPE–RTD Web Portal, www.SIPE-RTD.info) and a user friendly input system with an embedded environmental S&T oriented categorisation scheme of keywords for the Standards and the Policy sectors;
# Information on Standards and Standards related S&T research throughout Europe, centralised in a Knowledge Base (Web Portal), and made available for further consultation to all stakeholders in the EU and beyond;
# Stimulating through the Web Portal exchange of relevant Standards ideas/needs/results within the community of researchers as well as within and between the communities of other (Standards) stakeholders, being (in the environmental areas of air, water, marine, soil and waste technologies) the Policy, Standardisation bodies, and Users/enterprises/SMEs communities, leading to research uptake, application and implementation;
# Broad publicity to stakeholders of the existence of the above to Standards S&T communities and associations.
In the end, the development (RTD) and implementation (Standardisation bodies) of new Standards, that answer to the needs from policy (Directives) and end users (laboratories, enterprises, SMEs) will lead to a better environmental quality and have a positive impact on economic growth and social welfare.
List of Websites:
The public website of the project SIPE is: www.sipe-rtd.eu
whereas the website of the project result, the SIPE-RTD web portal, is www.SIPE-RTD.info.
Dr. Guido Vaes, project coordinator
HydroScan N.V. Diestsesteenweg 104 A, B – 3010 Kessel-Lo, Belgium
T: +32 16 240 501 - E: guido.vaes@hydroscan.be - U: www.hydroscan.be
Dr. Kees J.M. Kramer, scientific coordinator
Mermayde, Zakedijkje 60, 1862 HC Bergen, Netherlands
T: +31 72 581 8182 – E: kees.kramer@mermayde.nl – U: www.mermayde.nl