When people hear the word standards, they often think of plugs, connectors, protocols, or machines that need to work together. But standards do much more than enable interoperability between physical systems. They can also help shape less visible, yet deeply important, properties of digital systems—among them privacy and data protection, both closely connected to fundamental rights and European values.
This webinar offers an accessible introduction to the landscape of standards in privacy and data protection for undergraduate and graduate students from different backgrounds. It will begin with the basics of standardization through the "five W's" of standards: what standards are, why they matter to professionals and organizations, who develops them, how they are developed and applied, and where they are used in information and communication technologies. From there, the talk will explore how law and technical standards interact, including the different ways EU legislation can rely on, encourage, or mandate standardization.
The session also connects legal ideas to technical realities. What does the GDPR have to do with database design, software architecture, or cloud deployment models? How can broad legal principles be translated into concrete technical properties? To answer these questions, the talk will present how existing privacy standards support the design, development, and assessment of software systems.
Finally, it looks ahead to generative AI, where privacy standardization is becoming an especially active and challenging field. In a world where values must be engineered as well as defended, standards are part of the bridge.
Digitalisation and sustainability are transforming industries and societies at an unprecedented pace. Yet many promising innovations struggle to scale, while others rapidly become part of everyday life.
Why do some transitions succeed while others fail to scale? What allows new technologies to move from niche experiments to widespread adoption? And what role do standards play in shaping these dynamics?
This webinar explores these questions through the lens of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) and examines how standardisation contributes to the emergence and shaping of new socio-technical systems. Combining conceptual insights with selected examples, the session offers a fresh perspective on how digital and sustainability transitions can unfold in practice.
When? 28 April 2026, 11:00 - 12:00 CEST
Target Audience
This webinar is open to anyone interested in digital or sustainability transitions and/or standardization, including students, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers. No prior knowledge is required.
Why Attend?
Gain a new perspective on how large-scale transformations unfold and why standardization and standards play a more central role than often assumed.
Agenda
- Introduction - Maria Giuffrida (Trust- IT Services)
- The Multi-Level Perspective as an analytical lens
- The role of standards and standardization in shaping transitions
- Illustrative insights and discussion
- Q&A session
Did you miss the session? Click below and rewatch the recording now!
Looking for the slides? Please note that due to copyright restrictions, the slides used during the live session cannot be published publicly. If you attended the webinar and would like a copy of the presentation, please request it by contacting us at edu4standards@gmail.com
On February 21, 1015 the EDU4Standards partner, the University of Graz, organised the "Synergies in Teaching on "Standardisation in line with EU values and interests" internal workshop at the University of Graz, with the trainers Prof. Heike Wendt and Hristina Veljanova, MA.
The trainers began with value cards, engaging participants in a playful approach to thinking about values.
This method made it easier to grasp the different levels of values (personal/individual, professional, corporate, EU, and global) and value conflicts, as well as to adopt a values-based perspective on teaching standardisation. During the workshop, participants refined their ‘homework’—a structured description of their own teaching, created and provided by Prof. Heike Wendt—progressively shaping it into an understanding of standardisation as ‘in line with EU values and interests.’ This process involved individual, pair, and group work, followed by plenary discussions. Numerous examples, questions, and suggestions emerged, all of which have been compiled on the SharePoint platform EDU4Standards.eu.
Overall, participants gained a deeper understanding of how to effectively utilise the EDU4Standards.eu ILO/ITCoS, and new materials were developed.
The workshop is also presented on the internal HFDT- website@uni Graz, that refers to the EDU4Standards.eu website.
HFDT-E4S-Graz Workshop – 29 November 2024, 12:00–17:00
On 29 November 2024, the E4S team of the University of Graz organised an internal workshop as part of the Edu4Standards.eu project at the University of Graz, Austria. The aim was to discuss, together with the internal Advisory Board (HFDT-E4S-AB), the integration of Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) on “standardisation in line with EU values and interests” into the Innovative Teaching Concept on Standardisation (ITCoS).
Key Discussions & Outcomes:
The ILOs were refined and finalised following the September 2024 workshop, with key presentations in Berlin and the submission of the deliverable on 30 September 2024.
Debate focused on aligning ILOs with EQF and ISCED frameworks, with recommendations to extend ITCoS beyond ISCED towards lifelong learning and trajectory-based learning paths.
A multi-level approach (e.g., a pyramid model) was suggested for integrating materials and methods.
The importance of addressing the “WHY” behind standardisation education was emphasised.
Next Steps:
ITCoS pilots will begin in 2025 across six or seven settings, incorporating:
Expert guest lectures
Short instructional videos
Strategic use of standardisation within companies based on EU values and interests
Further research and funding applications (e.g., ERASMUS) will be pursued to ensure long-term development.
Participants:
Organised by the E4S team at the University of Graz, the workshop gathered members of the Advisory Board (HFDT-E4S-AB), standardisation experts, industry representatives, civil society members, and scholars from various disciplines.
A huge thank you to all participants for their invaluable contributions and insights!
On 6 September 2024, the University of Graz will organise a one-day workshop in Graz, Austria. The aim of the workshop is to discuss the final draft of the value-based intended learning outcomes (ILOs) for standardisation education developed in WP2 T2.1 Define the intended learning outcomes (ILOs) for the education of standardisation.
The workshop will consist of four parts. In the first part, the preliminary results of the ILOs framework will be presented by the University of Graz team, followed by a discussion with the workshop participants. The second part will consist of an online session, where online participants can also join the discussion and share their opinions. In the third part, the participants will try out the ILOs in practice. Based on the presented ILOs framework, they will be asked to develop a curriculum for a specific field/ study programme and study level and discuss the challenges and feasibility of the process. The last part will focus on how the presented ILOs will be integrated into the ITCoS (Innovative Teaching Concept of Standardisation) as part of the upcoming steps of the Edu4Standards project.
The workshop, which is intended to be an internal event, is open to Edu4Standards partners as well as members of the interdisciplinary research network HFDT (Human Factor in Digital Transformation) at the University of Graz.
The workshop will be held partly in German and partly in English.
