Digital standards

Geneva Science-Policy Interface

The Geneva Science-Policy Interface (GSPI) is an independent platform based at the University of Geneva, dedicated to fostering engagement between the research community and policy professionals from Geneva-based international organisations. Its mission is to promote science-informed solutions to complex global challenges addressed in multilateral spaces. 

The GSPI seeks to increase the capacity of Geneva-based international institutions to tackle complex, multidimensional policy issues through increased access to scientific expertise. It also works to advance the professionalisation and recognition of the science-policy field of practice in Geneva and beyond.

Its activities focus on brokering collaborations, creating learning opportunities and generating new insights into science-policy practices. 

Key programmes include the Impact Collaboration Programme (ICP), an annual call providing new opportunities for science-policy initiatives through small grants, network mobilisation, and expert guidance. 

The GSPI also develops resources and training programmes for scientists, Geneva-based policy professionals, and knowledge brokers seeking to engage more effectively in science-informed policymaking.

Hosted at the University of Geneva, the GSPI is also supported by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and backed by a network of leading research institutions in Switzerland and Europe.

Digital activities

As a bridge between science, policy, and implementation actors, the GSPI addresses a wide range of digital challenges. With data at the core of evidence-based policymaking, many of its activities explore digitalisation and the use of digital tools across key domains such as health, migration, development, and the environment.

Digital policy issues

Artificial intelligence

The MapMaker project, a collaboration between the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zurich), has enabled the development of an online visualisation tool to inform data-driven decision-making on marine biodiversity conservation at the international level.

Digital standards

Together with the Geneva Health Forum (GHF), the GSPI has established a working group including key humanitarian actors to harness knowledge and best practices around the digitisation of clinical guidelines for the management of childhood illness in primary care in low and middle-income countries. In line with the efforts of WHO, and the principles of donor alignment for digital health, the working group has developed recommendations on how digitalisation can improve the management of childhood illness. In September 2021, the results of this work were shared with experts and the public, providing a platform for discussions on the lessons learned and future trends in the field.

Emerging technologies

In 2018, the GSPI organised policy discussions on the use of drones as part of humanitarian action. The conversation centred on the practical use of drones to deliver humanitarian aid and what can be done by stakeholders such as policymakers, the private sector, and NGOs to maximise the opportunities and reduce the risks of such technologies.

At the 2019 Digital Day, together with the University of Geneva, the GSPI organised a discussion exploring what experience and know-how Geneva-based organisations could share to empower and protect users in the context of the digital revolution.

With a number of other partners, the GSPI co-organised a discussion at the 2019 WSIS Forum on aerial data produced by drones and satellites in the context of aid and development. The session explored the interplay between international organisations, NGOs, and scientists and how they can work together to help monitor refugee settlements, provide emergency response in case of natural disasters, and scale agriculture programmes.

Data governance

The REDEHOPE project of the University of Geneva and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has led to the development of an online diagnostic tool to help countries identify and visualise issues in their housing data ecology, and access appropriate datasets to formulate more robust, evidence-based housing policies at the country level.

Sustainable development

In 2020–2021, the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Convention (BRS) secretariat benefited from the support of ETH Zurich to develop an online platform to identify and signal the need for evidence and information to the scientific community in the field of chemical and waste management.

Another project addressed the hurdles facing policy actors in accessing and making sense of data in migration research. The project partners (the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Graduate Institute) developed an interactive digital toolkit for policy officials to support them in leveraging migration research for evidence-based policymaking. The toolkit, based on IOM’s flagship publication, the World Migration Report, was launched in June 2022.

ICP 2021 brought support to the development of interactive analytical tools providing information about all UN sanctions to inform both humanitarian practitioners and sanction policy actors on practical ways to safeguard principled humanitarian action in areas under a sanction regime. This project is a collaboration between the Graduate Institute and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

In 2022, the collaboration between ETH Zurich and IOM sought to bring more effective policy expertise in migration management to address migrants’ needs and increase social cohesion between migrant and local communities. The collaboration developed a toolbox to be used by IOM and its partners to facilitate the use of the Immigration Policy Lab (IPL) Integration Index, a survey tool for governments, nonprofits, and researchers to measure the integration of immigrants around the world.

In 2024-2025, the GSPI is supporting a new project titled ‘Shaping environmental policy in the pan-European region applying foresight methodologies’, which aims to increase the anticipatory capacity of UNECE and its member states to build coherence among future policies and help set priorities for the environmental policies in the pan-European region.

Human rights principles

The GSPI has supported the collaboration between the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and OHCHR’s B-Tech project. Some of the new fast-evolving technologies, such as cloud computing, AI, facial recognition technologies, and the internet of things (IoT), can have profoundly disruptive effects on sociopolitical systems and pose significant human rights challenges. This initiative provided authoritative guidance and resources for implementing the UNGPs in the technology space and placing international human rights law (IHRL) at the centre of regulatory and policy frameworks. Aimed at policymakers, the technology sector, and all those working on AI regulation, the policy research carried out in this project (see the resulting Working Paper, 2021) brought fresh insights into how current initiatives on the regulation of AI technologies could incorporate the protection and respect for human rights. The paper also called on states to adopt a ‘smart mix’ of mandatory and voluntary measures to support their implementation, and how this applies to the AI sector.

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European Organization for Nuclear Research

CERN is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading laboratories for particle physics. At CERN, physicists and engineers probe the fundamental structure of matter that makes up our universe. To do this, they use the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments – particle accelerators and detectors. Technologies developed at CERN go on to have a significant impact through their applications in wider society.

Digital activities

CERN has had an important role in the history of computing and networks. The World Wide Web (WWW) was invented at CERN by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The web was originally conceived and developed to meet the demand for automated information-sharing between scientists at universities and institutes around the world.

Grid computing, the precursor of modern cloud computing, was also developed at CERN with partners across a worldwide community and with funding from the European Commission. Today, the Organisation carries out pioneering activities in the areas of cybersecurity, big data processing, long-term data preservation, deep learning (DL) and artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum technologies.

Digital policy issues

Artificial intelligence

AI-related projects are developed and referred to as part of the CERN openlab activities.

Through CERN openlab, European Commission-funded projects and collaborations with other international organisations, CERN collaborates with leading information and communications technology (ICT) companies and research institutes. The R&D projects carried out through different public-private partnerships address topics related to ultra-fast data acquisition, accelerated computing platforms, data storage architectures, computer provisioning and management, networks and communication, deep learning and data analytics, and quantum technologies. CERN researchers use Machine Learning techniques as part of their efforts to maximise the discovery potential and optimise resource usage. ML and DL are used, for instance, to improve the performance of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments in areas such as particle detection and managing computing resources. Going one step further, at the intersection of AI and quantum computing, the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative is exploring the feasibility of using quantum algorithms to track the particles produced by collisions in the LHC, and is working on developing quantum algorithms to help optimise how data is distributed for storage in the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). The CERN Quantum Technology Initiative (QTI) activities, launched in 2020 to shape CERN’s role in the next quantum revolution. In 2024, CERN launched the Open Quantum Institute, a three-year pilot programme that will help unleash the full power of quantum computing for the benefit of all.

  • CERN openlab: a public-private partnership in which CERN collaborates with ICT companies and other research organisations to accelerate the development of cutting-edge solutions for the research community, including ML.
  • CERN QTI: a comprehensive R&D, academic, and knowledge-sharing initiative to exploit the quantum advantage for high-energy physics and beyond. Given CERN’s increasing ITC and computing demands, as well as the significant national and international interests in quantum-technology activities, it aims to provide dedicated mechanisms for the exchange of both knowledge and innovation.
  • CERN OQI: Following a successful one-year incubation period led by the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA), the three-year CERN-based pilot was launched in March 2024. Proposed, designed, and incubated through GESDA, in collaboration with some 180 experts from all over the world, the OQI is a multilateral science diplomacy initiative, uniting academia, technology companies, the private sector, the diplomatic community, philanthropy organisations, and global citizens in a joint effort towards more open and inclusive quantum computing. By facilitating equal access to cutting-edge nascent technologies and serving as the societal arm of QTI, the OQI seeks to accelerate the potential of quantum computing for all society and to support the development of concrete quantum solutions aimed at achieving the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Next Generation Triggers: The Next Generation Triggers project, or NextGen, started in January 2024 as a collaboration between CERN (the Experimental Physics, Theoretical Physics and Information Technology Departments) and the ATLAS and CMS experiments. The key objective of the five-year NextGen project is to get more physics information out of the HL-LHC data. The hope is to uncover as-yet-unseen phenomena by more efficiently selecting interesting physics events while rejecting background noise. Scientists will make use of neural network optimisation, quantum-inspired algorithms, high-performance computing and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) techniques to improve the theoretical modelling and optimise their tools in the search for ultra-rare events.

Cloud computing

Within its work, CERN refers to ‘cloud computing’ as ‘distributed computing.

The scale and complexity of data from the LHC, the world’s largest particle accelerator, is unprecedented. This data needs to be stored, easily retrieved, and analysed by physicists worldwide. This requires massive storage facilities, global networking, immense computing power, and funding. CERN initially did not have the computing or financial resources to crunch all of the data on-site, so in 2002 it turned to grid computing to share the burden with computer centres around the world. The WLCG builds on the ideas of grid technology initially proposed by Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman in 1999. The WLCG relies on a distributed computing infrastructure, as data from the collisions of protons or heavy ions is distributed via the internet for processing at data centres worldwide. The approach of using virtual machines was a precursor to the same paradigm used today in cloud computing. Today, CERN is developing new grid and cloud technologies in particular for large-scale AI deployment. It is expected that CERN’s further developments in the field of data processing will continue to influence digital technologies.

CERN has two data centres – one in Meyrin and a second one in Prévessin. The average amount of collision data recorded on disk by the LHC experiments is currently a little under 3 petabytes (PB) per day, which is almost equal to what was recorded in one month during Run 1. 

All data produced at CERN still passes through the Meyrin Data Centre, which is the only facility connected to all experimental sites via ultra-fast optical fibre networks. 

The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) consists of around 170 centres distributed across 40 countries. IN 2025, the WLCG celebrates its first 20 years.

Telecommunication infrastructure

Within its work, CERN refers to ‘telecommunication infrastructure’ as ‘network infrastructure’.

In the 1970s, CERN developed CERNET, a lab-wide network to access mainframe computers in its data centre. This pioneering network eventually led to CERN becoming an early European adopter of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) for use in connecting systems on site. In 1989, CERN opened its first external TCP/IP connections and by 1990, CERN had become the largest internet site in Europe and was ready to host the first WWW server. Nowadays, in addition to the WLCG and its distributed computing infrastructure, CERN is also the host of the CERN Internet eXchange Point (CIXP), which optimises CERN’s internet connectivity and is also open to interested internet service providers (ISPs).

Through the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative, CERN is actively working to deliver more precise frequency signals from national metrology institutes to CERN experiments and beyond, and to improve the reliability of future quantum networks.

Digital standards

Within its work, CERN addresses ‘web standards’ as ‘open science’.

Ever since releasing the World Wide Web software under an open-source model in 1994, CERN has been a pioneer in the open-source field, supporting open-source hardware (with the CERN Open Hardware Licence), open access (with the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics SCOAP3) and open data (with the CERN Open Data Portal). Several CERN technologies are being developed with open science in mind, such as Indico, InvenioRDM, REANA, and Zenodo. Open-source software, such as CERNBox, CERN Tape Archive (CTA), EOS, File Transfer Service (FTS), GeantIV, ROOT, RUCIO, and Service for Web-Based Analysis (SWAN), has been developed to handle, distribute, and analyse the huge volumes of data generated by the LHC experiments and are also made available to the wider society.

Digital tools

Data governance

Within its work, CERN refers to ‘data governance’ as ‘data preservation’.

CERN manages vast amounts of data; not only scientific data, but also data in more common formats such as webpages, images and videos, documents, and more. For instance, the CERN Data Centre processes on average one petabyte (one million gigabytes) of data per day. As such, the organisation notes that it faces the challenge of preserving its digital memory. CERN also points to the fact that many of the tools that are used to preserve data generated by the LHC and other scientific projects are also suitable for preserving other types of data and are made available to wider society.

The CERN Open Data Policy for scientific experiments at the LHC is essential to make scientific research more reproducible, accessible, and collaborative. It reflects the values enshrined in the CERN Convention for more than 60 years and reaffirmed in the European Strategy for Particle Physics (2020), aiming at empowering the LHC experiments to adopt a consistent approach towards openness and preservation of experimental data (applying FAIR standards to better share and reuse data).

EOSC Future is an EU-funded project contributing to the establishment of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) to provide a Web of FAIR Data and Services for science in Europe. The implementation of EOSC is based on the long-term process of alignment and coordination pursued by the Commission since 2015.

CERN joined the recently formed EOSC Association in 2020. The EOSC Association is the legal entity established to govern EOSC and has since grown to more than 250 members and observers.

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European Broadcasting Union

The EBU is the world’s leading alliance of public service media. It has 113 member organisations in 56 countries and an additional 31 associates in Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the Americas. EBU members operate nearly 2,000 television, radio, and online channels and services, and offer a wealth of content across other platforms.

Together they reach an audience of more than one billion people around the world, broadcasting in more than 160 languages. The EBU operates the Eurovision and Euroradio services.

Digital policy issues

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a prime strategic priority for public service media (PSM) and for the EBU, which acts as a centre of PSM knowledge, collaboration, and best practice in AI.

European public broadcasters are leveraging AI to enhance content delivery, distribution, and audience engagement. Automated translation, synthetic voices, and personal recommendations allow PSM to innovate and continue to provide audiences with high-quality, diverse content. 

While generative AI is transforming media production and user experience, it also presents big challenges. Its development is dominated by a few tech giants that control vast datasets and infrastructure, stoking concerns about fair innovation, content exploitation, misinformation, and the trustworthiness of media.

To ensure a reliable media ecosystem in the AI age, the EBU is brokering collaboration between media organisations, regulators, Big Tech and Big AI. The aim is to foster technical innovation, secure sustainable investment in journalism and media literacy, while safeguarding democratic values and, above all, public trust.

The EBU has identified three areas of strategic concern:

Data use and fair relationships

Media organisations must retain control over whether and how their content is used to train AI models. This includes negotiating conditions, ensuring transparency in AI providers’ use of media content, and receiving due remuneration. Current AI training practices often lack transparency, and the EBU wants media rights holders to determine the use of their data.

Source attribution and display

Trustworthy media sources should be clearly credited when their content informs AI-generated outputs. Generative AI systems should link back to original media content, enabling users to identify and select credible sources. Guidelines for the presentation and attribution of media sources need to be developed in collaboration with media companies.

Prominence and verification

To counter the spread of disinformation, it is essential to prioritise trustworthy, diverse media. Collaboration among AI providers, media, and online platforms is necessary to create reliable verification tools, such as C2PA, ensure the visibility of credible content, and remove illegal or misleading material.

Highlight initiatives

Among its numerous AI workstreams, the EBU has: 

  • Opened the School of AI to provide bespoke learning and development on AI for EBU members and other media professionals. 
  • Published its News Report 2024, titled ‘Trusted Journalism in the Age of Generative AI’, to illustrate the opportunities and risks of generative AI for journalism and media.
  • Launched the EBU AI Sandbox to facilitate the development and evaluation of customised AI solutions based on open source models.
  • Published an online casebook of creative uses of AI in media, which is still growing. 

The EBU stands ready to facilitate constructive dialogue to shape responsible, transparent, and fair AI practices for public service media.

Telecommunication infrastructure

EBU members use various types of network infrastructure for the production and distribution of PSM content and services to the entire population. In addition to traditional broadcasting networks – terrestrial, cable, or satellite – media service providers use fixed and wireless IP networks. EBU’s activities aim to ensure that these networks are capable of meeting the requirements of PSM organisations and their audiences in a technically and economically viable way. This includes technical developments and standardisation in collaboration with industry partners, as well as engagement with regulators and policymakers to ensure a suitable regulatory framework for PSM content and services.

The current focus is on a multi-layer distribution infrastructure that is both cost-effective and resilient, including in times of crisis. This includes distribution over IP and internet platforms, the use of wireless mobile technologies, as well as the integration of satellite and terrestrial broadcast networks, also with a view to their respective spectrum needs. 

Following the start of the war in Ukraine and the 2021 flooding in Europe, the EBU issued a recommendation to recall the crucial importance of PSM’s delivery to citizens – for this, no single resilient network will suffice.

The governance of the EBU’s technical work is described here: https://tech.ebu.ch/about. A summary of the Technical Committee’s high-level goals is available here: https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/workplan/EBU_TC_Strategic_Priorities_2022-2025.pdf

Further information about the EBU’s technical work, including the scope of different working groups, can be found at https://tech.ebu.ch/home/.

Digital standards

Since its inception in 1950, the EBU has been mandated by its members to contribute to standardisation work in all technological fields related to media. This work ranges from TV and radio production equipment to the new broadcasting standards for transmission. This mandate has been naturally extended over the years to the field of mobile technologies, as well as online production and distribution.

The EBU hosts the digital video broadcasting (DVB) project, which has developed digital TV standards such as DVB-T/T2 and DVB-S/S2 which are the backbone of digital TV broadcasting around the world. DVB is currently working on an IP-based distribution system and DVB-I, a new open standard for content distribution over the internet. This work is closely aligned with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

The EBU is an active member of a number of other standards and industry organisations that are developing specifications relevant to media content production and distribution, including major standards developing organisations (SDOs) (e.g. the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), 3GPP, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), but also those with a more focused scope (e.g. Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), or the Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA) and many others. In all these organisations, the EBU’s main objective is to ensure that specifications are capable of meeting the requirements of EBU members and their audiences.

In 2019, the EBU also launched the 5G Media Action Group (5G-MAG), an independent nonprofit cross-industry association that provides a framework for collaboration between media and information and communications technology (ICT) stakeholders on a market-driven implementation of 5G technologies in content creation, production, distribution, and consumption.

Network neutrality

The EBU’s work in the field of net neutrality focuses on assisting its members in coordinating their positions on broadband network neutrality. To this end, it provides expertise and facilitates initiatives and the drafting of documents concerning net neutrality at the EU level. The EBU also encourages its members to exchange experiences from the national level. Net neutrality is addressed as part of the EBU’s Legal and Policy Distribution Group. Net neutrality is seen as a key principle for public service broadcasters to support and advocate for, as it ensures their services are equally accessible to all internet users.

Cybercrime and network security

The EBU runs a Strategic Programme on Media Cyber Security, providing a platform for its members to exchange information on security incidents and emerging cyber threats to media, and to act collectively where necessary to address them. A dedicated working group is focused on defining information security best practices for broadcast companies – it maintains a recommendation providing guidance on cybersecurity safeguards that media organisations and media vendors should apply when planning, designing, or sourcing their media technology products and services. 

The EBU organises an annual Media Cybersecurity Seminar, which brings together manufacturers, service providers, and media companies to discuss security issues in the media domain.

In 2025, EBU also launched the Security4Media association to facilitate cybersecurity testing of equipment and drive the implementation of technologies that address issues of cybersecurity, as well as trust in media.

Convergence and OTT

In an environment increasingly characterised by digital convergence, the EBU is working on identifying viable investment solutions for over-the-top (OTT) services. The organisation has a Digital Media Steering Committee, focused on ‘defining the role of public service media in the digital era, with a special focus on how to interact with big digital companies’. It also develops concepts for convergent distribution architectures that integrate the complementary advantages of existing infrastructures, including a project in partnership with the European Space Agency. 

In addition, there is an intersectoral group composed of EBU members and staff that exchange best practices for relations between internet platforms and broadcasters. During the COVID-19 crisis, a coordinated effort by the technical distribution experts of the EBU and its members monitored the state of the global broadband network to help avoid surcharges due to the increased consumption of on-demand programmes. The EBU has a dedicated expert group on Broadband Distribution services.

This work goes hand in hand with that developed by the Legal and Policy Department – among others with the Content, Platform, Distribution, and Intellectual Property Expert Groups, all key in the establishment of EU rules enabling the proper availability of PSM services to people across the EU and beyond.

Capacity development

The EBU is dedicated to empowering its members to navigate the complexities and opportunities of the digital era. Through its Digital Transformation Services, the EBU provides a range of tailored support designed to help public service media organisations embrace change effectively.

A key offering is the Transformation Peer Review, a comprehensive assessment that evaluates members’ current strategies and identifies opportunities for growth, helping them develop actionable roadmaps for digital transformation. Additionally, the EBU offers agile consultancy programmes that provide targeted interventions to address specific challenges, ensuring members can make rapid and meaningful progress.

To further support strategic development, the EBU also facilitates intensive strategy sprints; collaborative sessions that enable organisations to co-create initiatives that drive transformation. Members also have access to the Digital Transformation Initiative Playbook, a structured guide that outlines a clear methodology for planning, executing, and scaling digital transformation efforts.

 

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Ecma International

Ecma International is a global standards development organisation dedicated to the standardisation of information and communication systems. Established in 1961, Ecma has been a pioneer in providing a framework for the collaboration of standardisation and open source. The work is driven by Ecma members to address market requirements, providing a healthy competitive environment where competition is based on the differentiation of products and services and where vendors and users can rely on the interoperability of technical solutions.

Areas of work include the development and publication of standards and technical reports for information and communications technology (ICT) and consumer electronics (CE), with a broad scope of standardisation topics including hardware, software, communications, consumer electronics, the internet of things (IoT), programming languages, media storage, and environmental subjects. Ecma’s pragmatic, flexible, member-driven model is effective in enabling technical committees to form and iterate rapidly on internationally recognised open standards.

Digital activities

For over 60 years, Ecma has actively contributed to worldwide standardisation in information technology and telecommunications. More than 420 Ecma standards and 110 technical reports have been published, covering areas such as data presentation and communication, data interchange and archiving, access systems and interconnection and multimedia, programming languages, and software engineering and interfaces, two-thirds of which have also been adopted as international standards and/or technical reports.

One of the first programming languages developed by Ecma, FORTRAN, was approved in 1965. ECMAScript® (JavaScript), with several billion implementations, is one of the most used standards worldwide.

Digital policy issues

Digital standards

A large part of Ecma’s activity is dedicated to defining standards and technical reports for ICTs (hardware, software, communications, media storage, etc.). This work is carried out through technical committees and task groups focusing on issues such as information storage, multimedia coding and communications, programming languages, open XML formats, and product-related environmental attributes. Our members are committed to Ecma’s success and progress and follow best practices and efficient processes for the development and approval of standards, making Ecma a respected and trusted industry association. Ecma has close working relations – such as liaisons, cooperation agreements, and memberships – with European and international standardisation bodies as well as with some forums and consortia. Our long-established relationships with other standardisation organisations are well maintained and enable us to publish our specifications as international standards. A list of Ecma standards is noted below.

Telecommunications infrastructure

Network security

Sustainable development/Digital and environment

Programming languages such as ECMAScript (JavaScript) and C#

Software engineering and interfaces

Data-related standards

Technical committees (TCs) and task groups (TGs), covering issues such as access systems and information exchange between systems (TC51), information storage (TC31),

product-related environmental attributes (TC38), ECMAScript® language (TC39), office open XML formats (TC45), and ECMAScript® modules for embedded systems (TC53). Additional technical committees include acoustics (TC26), software and system transparency (TC54), web-interoperable server runtimes (TC55), and communication with artificial intelligence (AI) agents (TC56).

In addition, ECMA-425 was published in December 2024, specifying a statistical background correction for information technology and telecommunications equipment noise measurements.

Future of standards

The participation in Ecma of many leading global companies ensures not only the acceptance of Ecma standards in European and international standardisation but also their worldwide implementation.

Ecma’s goal in the next decade is to continue to play a key role in the extraordinary development of IT, telecommunications, and consumer electronics by disseminating new technologies and delivering first-class standards to our members, partners, and the standard-user community. Ecma aims to continue to bring in major contributions, move technology from members to mature standards, and collaborate with the world’s major standards development organisations (SDOs).

In December 2024, Ecma established Technical Committee TC55, tasked with defining, refining, and standardising a ‘minimum common API’ surface, along with a verifiable definition of compliance with that API. This is intended to improve interoperability across multiple ECMAScript environments, expanding beyond web browsers, specifically web servers. In addition, Ecma established TC56, a natural language interaction protocol for communication with AI agents. The scope is to specify a common protocol, framework and interfaces for interactions between AI agents using natural language while supporting multiple modalities.

Digital tools

Conferencing technologies

Ecma maintains a pragmatic approach to meeting participation. Our General Assembly typically takes place as a physical meeting to allow in-person discussions and interaction among members. For members who cannot participate in person, remote attendance is possible with videoconferencing and other digital tools.

Ecma’s technical committees hold either physical, hybrid, or virtual meetings depending on their specific needs.

Ecma meetings are typically held outside of Ecma’s HQ. As a general principle, members are encouraged to host meetings.  Invitations are by a technical committee member who host the meeting at a facility of their choice.

For meetings, consensus building, and voting, Ecma focuses on being efficient and effective. The meeting place and mode are decided upon by the committee.

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