Press release

International Stakeholders of the Quality Infrastructure (QI) met in Berlin

Successful conclusion of the 2nd hybrid QI-Digital Forum: About 500 participants and speakers from 8 nations came together on 10 and 11 October 2023 under the motto "Digital Certificates, Standards, Product Passports & Co. - Together for the Quality of the Future".

The organisers of the second QI-Digital Forum in Berlin were the central players of the German quality infrastructure (QI), BAM, DAkkS, DIN, DKE and PTB, and the QI-Digital initiative formed by them. The initiative is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK). Its Parliamentary State Secretary, Dr. Franziska Brantner, Member of the German Bundestag, underlined the importance of a sustainable quality infrastructure in her welcoming address: "We must accelerate our innovation processes in order to develop new digital products and services. Here, of course, the state also has a duty with its own services. And we must ensure that their quality is assured so that the economy and consumers trust these products and services. Both are of central importance for our economy and the many innovative companies in Germany. The QI-Digital initiative and the forum are dedicated to the important question of how our quality infrastructure with its areas of metrology, standardisation, accreditation, conformity assessment and market surveillance can be effectively transferred to the digital world and further developed. The work also offers important contributions to the establishment of a circular economy."

The programme of the QI Digital Forum

Over the course of two days, top-class speakers from the industry such as Dr. Wolfgang Weber, Chairman of the Board, German Electrical and Digital Manufacturers' Association (ZVEI), but also international representatives such as Tiago Munk, General Coordinator for Quality Infrastructure, Ministry for Development, Industry, Trade and Services (MDIC), Brazil or Lin Feng, Deputy Director-General, China Certification & Accreditation Institute, China, as well as Dr. Martin Milton, International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), France, and political representatives such as Maik Außendorf, Member of the German Bundestag (BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN), Dr. Holger Becker, Member of the German Bundestag (SPD) and Dr. Markus Reichel, Member of the German Bundestag (CDU/CSU) discussed the urgent issues surrounding the digitalisation of QI. During the panel discussion on the main stage, Wolfgang Weber emphasised: "The economy needs a global digital quality infrastructure that is connectable to entrepreneurial processes. The digital product passport DPP 4.0, for example, can thus become an important means of green and digital transformation."

More than 30 exhibitors showed their innovation-driving work on modern QI and corresponding tools on the premises of the host German Institute for Standardisation (DIN). Internationally acclaimed pilot projects such as the eAttestation, a combination of the works trains of the Digital Calibration Certificate (DCC) with the Digital Accreditation Symbol, or the preliminary work on a data infrastructure for quality data (Quality-X) show the ambition of the German community. A highlight of the event was the premiere of the demonstrator for the BMWK-funded "Battery Pass Project - from the mine to the recycler".

Quality infrastructure: a hidden champion?

But what the final discussion on the second day of the event in particular showed was that QI remains a hidden champion in Germany. "Perhaps precisely because it - still - works so well", as was assumed in the circles of the discussion participants. This is apparently also the view of the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), which once again put Germany in the top position in its Quality Infrastructure 4 Sustainable Development Index (QI4SD) 2022. However, analogue competence does not automatically lead to digital competence, according to the predominant assessment in the discussion rounds. After all, the digital transformation of the QI has only just begun and other nations are now moving in this direction with the full strategic support of their governments. Those who decisively shape the emerging structures of digital QI at the international level are shaping an essential basis for future global paperless trade.

Quality Infrastructure: A "Hidden Enabler" of the Digital and Green Transformation

Presentations, exhibitions, and workshops unanimously showed that modern QI is the basis for secure and comparable data, which will be necessary in the future for both digital (Industry 4.0) and green transformation (including for sustainability assessments of products and services) across the entire supply chain.

As QI is anchored in the legal structures of almost all countries and economic areas of the world, without it many political projects would come to nothing. It is the basis for the conformity of products and processes with laws and regulations. This is also why it is part of trade agreements, the development of international cooperation and a central topic of the WTO, UN, etc., as the presentation by Alejandro Rivera (UNIDO) impressively demonstrated. In this sense, as an international construct, it is a relevant lever (hidden enabler) to enable the global green and digital transformation in the first place and to shape it in such a way that the German and European economy can benefit from it.

Impressions of the action on the main stage of the event can be found here:

Video Day 1 / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPoyNwj5zHs

Video Day 2 / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GuAdkOa7d4