The annual EURAS Conferences bring together academicas from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, representatives from national and regional standards bodies, and government agencies, and company representatives. The theme of the 25th EURAS conference was "Standardisation and Innovation". Poitive links between standards and innovation have been shown for numerous industry sectors, national economies and society at large. However, if this relationship is not managed well, the opposite effect may well be observed. These links have repeatedly been shown, but there are relatively few studies which provide evidence and theoretical explanations about the casual mechanisms behind these links. There is also a lack of knowledge about the factors that may influence this relationship. Standardisation and innovation have ramifications for a range of stakeholders, including politcy makers, firms, individuals and, indeed, society. Thus, if, how and why individuals groups of stakeholders try to mangae or even influence these processes is, or should be, a matter of board interest (not least against the background of emerging "smart" applications).
