ForeWord The Living Standards Awards presented for the first time and for example the recognition as an Ö Cert high quality provider in education and training were highlights of 2015 The dominating topic however was the new Standardization Act NormG As is well known this Act was pushed through Parliament in a great hurry and will be an issue a relatively hot one for Austrian Stan dards and above all for all those who want to contribute to shaping standards for a longer time The impacts of the Standardization Act are manifold the challenges are great The declaration of Austrian Standards to continue its work as an independent purely Austrian standardization organization even under these difficult framework conditions is not sufficient in itself This is a dramatic rupture The world is not the same as one year ago Still the Standardization Act also resulted in a positive effect Many stakeholders who already considered standardization to be important in the past have reflected on standards even more intensively Awareness of the importance of standards has risen in general However the Standardization Act also resulted in a negative effect The well bal anced financing model including a moderate fee for participation in standardization proved that it functions in 2015 There were more participants than in 2014 and in spite of the discontinuation of grants it was possible to fund the standardiza tion system adequately The Standardization Act makes this well conceived system impossible Austrian Standards can mitigate the impacts of the Standardization Act in the short term In the medium term however the stakeholders will have to take on more responsibility at any rate It will be in their hands to ensure that the opportunities for participation can be maintained and that Austria will be able to play in the international premier league of standardization also in future It is a question of commitment especially of financial commitment whether this can be achieved Up to 1 January 2018 when the Standardization Act takes full effect the roles and responsibilities have to be assigned and clarified It will not be possi ble to sit back and business as usual is not an option In the past Austrian Standards has already demon strated its flexibility addressed challenges by de veloping solutions for its customers and partners and proved that it is able to use its competences in a wide and manifold way To a larger extent than before it is definitely also up to the stakeholders to take specific responsibility not for Austrian Standards but rather for their own economic success and Austria as a sound business location with high grade jobs 3 DDr Elisabeth Stampfl Blaha Managing Director Enjoy reading o Univ Prof DDr Walter Barfuß President

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