Awards

Using standardization in tandem with research, development and innovation projects is celebrated and recognised at a national and EU level. Here are some of the awards available to those who innovate with Standards development.

NSAI Standards Innovation Award

Since 2018, the ‘NSAI Standards Innovation Award’ is presented annually to an NSAI Standards Expert(s) and their organisation for having ‘embedded Standards development into their R&D or innovation processes’, in line with the national research and innovation strategy, ‘Innovation 2020’. The innovation award is presented along with two other long standing NSAI awards (the ‘1997 Award’ and ‘Caighdean Oir‘ award) during the annual ‘NSAI Standards Forum‘ event.  

The newer ‘NSAI Standards Innovation Award’ illustrates how ‘Standards + Innovation’ contributes to success in business or the public sector, to advancing innovations and to turning ideas into national and/or international socio-economic impact, and potentially increased international exports in the case of commercial organisations. In effect, our national innovation award identifies and formally recognises innovative enterprises, organisations (public or private), research & innovation institutions/centres, SMEs and start-ups that have used Standards development to help them to innovate successfully at national, European and/or international levels. 

2024 Winners

Young Researcher Award | Divyanshu Sood, is a reseracher from UCD whose research focuses on refining standards related to building energy efficiency and retrofitting by considering realistic occupancy behaviour and the strong relationship between energy & indoor environmental quality (IEQ).

Winner of Individual Researcher/Innovator Award | HTL Technologies is pioneering the use of 3D printing in house construction, focusing on compliance with industry standards to ensure quality and safety. They utilize the I.S. EN ISO/ASTM 52939:2023 standard, which governs additive construction, to build homes efficiently and sustainably. This approach has enabled them to achieve significant milestones, including the first certified 3D-printed housing project in Ireland.

Past Winners

• 2023: Delaram Golpayegani, PhD researcher at the SFI ADAPT Centre, Trinity College Dublin, was the winner of Individual Researcher/Innovator Award. Dr. Alan McGibney, Group Lead for IoT Systems and User Interaction at the Nimbus Centre, and Dr. Susan Rea, Director of Research at the Nimbus Centre at MTU, were winners of the Project Award. Dylan Doherty, researcher from Dublin City University and part of the Grain-4-Lab Project, was the winner of the Young Researcher Award.
• 2022: Dr. Marcus Keane, & Miguel Blanes Restoy, both from the University of Galway was awarded the NSAI Innovation Award for their work on the GEOFIT Project which is the deployment of novel GEOthermal systems, technologies and tools for energy efficient building retrofitting. David Keeley, Senior Executive (Innovation), Enterprise Ireland, was awarded an NSAI Innovation Award, for his work on using ISO 56000 Innovation Management Series as its framework for improving the innovation capabilities and performance of companies through the use of an Innovation Scorecard.
• 2021: Dr Steven Darby and team from the ‘Centre for Advanced Photonics and Process Analysis’ (CAPPA) in Munster Technological University.  Award for research that informed key new NSAI and European standards for community face coverings in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic.
• 2020: Dr Pamela Hussey & Dr Subhashas Das of the Centre eIntegrated Care in Dublin City University.  Fiona Delaney, founded and CEO of the start-up Origin Chain Networks and editor of ISO Use Case Standards on Blockchain & Distributed Ledger Technologies.
• 2019: Gerald Craddock & James Hubbard, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design at National Disability Authority.  Also Chair & member (respectively) of NSAI's national mirror committee on 'Universal Design'
• 2018: Sean McNulty, Chairman & Director at Dolmen (Design and Innovation consultancy).  Also Chair of NSAI's national mirror committee on ‘Innovation Management’ 

European Standards+Innovation Awards

In 2019, CEN and CENELEC launched the Standards + Innovation Awards to acknowledge the important contribution of research and innovation to standardization and celebrating the contributions of researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs to standardization. Nominations for these awards comes from the CEN and CENELEC national members of the 34 EU Member States, candidate countries and EFTA Members.

An annual award is presented to a European Research / Innovation project (H2020 / Horizon Europe) who successfully contributes to standardization. A second award is given to an individual who successfully introduces her/his research outcome or innovation into standardization, thereby creating impact for her/his work.

You can learn more about the Standards + Innovation Awards, including past Irish nominees and winners, here. 

Past Irish Winners

• Fiona Delaney, Founder and CEO of Origin Chain Networks. Find out more here. 
• Winner Young Research Award | Dr Sweta Malik, Sweta is currently a PhD candidate at Insight Centre for Data Analytics, National University of Ireland, Galway. Her research work focused on Standards, Policy, and Regulatory Frameworks for Efficient local electrical energy markets, with a specific emphasis on standards, find out more about the 2023 winners.

Listen to Dr Sweta Malik as she speaks as part of the HSbooster.eu Training Series on Standardisation in Practice, that aims to make European NSBs' activities closer to researchers. This purpose of this training session is to explain the role of the NSBs based on the case of the national standardisation body of Ireland – NSAI. Furthermore, the winner of the prestigious Young Researcher Award by CEN and CENELEC, Dr Sweta Malik, will present on how to identify gaps in the current standards. 

Watch the HSbooster Training Academy Session 5