Policy can be a crucial enabler of IRI in STEM. In this episode, Dr. Frauke Frauke Hoss, policy officer at DG GROW working on policy for internal market and industry at the European Commission, explains how this is possible to the host, Dr. Claudia Werker, Delft University of Technology.

Frauke has been working diligently to make products safer for all kinds of users in the past. One important step has been the study on ⁠the inclusiveness of anthropometrics in European harmonised standards⁠. The results of this study show how diverse people in the EU are. And this matters in various ways.

To give an example, the size of people’s ears is important for producing fitting ear plugs. While larger companies might be able to do their own research on this, the cost of such a study might be prohibitively high for small and medium-sized companies. Moreover, anthropometric data is available for U.S. citizens and – in the absence of EU data - was used for designing masks during the Corona pandemic. Yet EU citizens might have different measurements leading to non-fitting products.

So, this matters for meeting consumers’ needs within the EU and competitiveness of EU firms. Please join us for fascinating insights and examples in the world of product standards.