Aston University report calls for UK fund to help SMEs shape global tech standards

Research covering 19 international standards bodies finds UK strengths in services and telecoms but weaker representation in hardware, semiconductors, and other foundational technologies.

Aston Business School-led research calls for greater UK participation in global standards covering AI, semiconductors, 5G, and 6G

Aston Business School-led research has called for a UK Standards Participation Fund to help smaller technology businesses influence global rules covering artificial intelligence, semiconductors, 5G, 6G, clean energy, and health data.

The report by the Innovation and Research Caucus, compares business participation in international standards development organizations across the United Kingdom, United States, and China.

Professor Cher Li of Aston Business School led the study with Dr Xin Deng at Alliance Manchester Business School and Dr John Moffat at Durham University Business School. The work was supported by an Economic and Social Research Council grant to the Innovation and Research Caucus.

The researchers constructed a dataset covering 17,325 companies across 19 standards organizations between 1997 and 2025. It includes more than 2.6 million firm-year-organization observations and examines areas including telecommunications, semiconductors, web technology, computing infrastructure, health data, and enterprise systems.

The report identifies five priorities for UK policy: protecting participation in 5G and 6G standards, increasing representation in hardware bodies, funding access for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises and scale-ups, supporting emerging standards work, and improving long-term data on participation and business outcomes.

US retains scale as China expands in hardware standards

United States businesses accounted for 81.8 percent of the firms recorded across the three countries, compared with 12.1 percent for the UK and 6.1 percent for China.

The UK recorded 2,093 participating firms and had its highest relative representation in organizations connected with telecommunications services, enterprise architecture, and European telecoms standards.

UK businesses accounted for 22.8 percent of three-country membership in TM Forum, 20.9 percent in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and 17.3 percent in The Open Group.

Participation was lower in standards organizations covering semiconductor memory, computing interconnects, industrial automation, and physical connectivity.

The report found that China had reached similar or higher levels of participation than the UK in several hardware-focused organizations. China recorded 62 companies in JEDEC, which develops semiconductor memory standards, compared with 46 from the UK.

In PCI-SIG, which covers computing interconnects used in areas including AI infrastructure, the figures were 196 for China and 202 for the UK. Wi-Fi Alliance participation stood at 143 Chinese businesses and 145 UK businesses.

China's share of active membership in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which develops mobile communications standards, increased from close to zero in the early 2000s to approximately 35 percent by the 2020s.

The UK's participation across technology-focused standards organizations remained comparatively stable, with a stronger position in ETSI than in hardware bodies.

Professor Li, says: "Standards are often invisible to the public, but they are central to how technologies scale, compete and create economic value. If the UK wants to lead in areas such as AI, semiconductors, clean energy and advanced connectivity, it must treat standards as part of its innovation and industrial strategy, not simply as a technical or regulatory issue."

Participation linked with employment and patent activity

The researchers also examined whether UK business participation in standards organizations was associated with changes in employment, revenue, productivity, and patent activity.

After controlling for fixed differences between firms, participation was associated with an estimated 14 percent increase in employment and a 34 percent increase in patent families.

The model did not find statistically significant effects on revenue, labor productivity, or patent applications across the main 2015 to 2023 sample.

Results using shorter periods and broader sets of standards organizations found larger associations with patent applications and patent families, although those estimates were based on fewer companies and observations.

The researchers found that participating businesses were generally larger, more innovation-focused, and concentrated in technology-intensive industries. They were also more likely to be based around London and southern England.

Businesses receiving Innovate UK grants were 0.43 percentage points more likely to participate in a standards organization after the researchers controlled for other firm characteristics.

The report does not treat membership alone as proof of influence over the final standards produced. It also notes that historical membership records were incomplete for several organizations and that approximately 40 percent of member businesses could be matched with external company data.

Li adds: "The UK has distinctive strengths, particularly in services- and market-oriented standards domains, but international competition is intensifying. A more coordinated approach could help UK businesses influence the rules of future markets and capture greater value from innovation."

Proposed fund would cover membership, travel, and staff costs

The report recommends that Innovate UK establish a dedicated Standards Participation Fund or include ring-fenced support within existing innovation grants.

Eligible costs could include annual organization membership fees, international travel, delegate expenses, and the staff time needed to contribute to working groups.

The proposal is intended primarily for innovative SMEs and scale-ups, which the researchers say face greater barriers than large technology businesses with the resources to maintain teams across several standards organizations.

UK firms were less likely than businesses in the United States and China to participate in more than one organization. The multi-organization participation rate was 14.2 percent for the UK, compared with 15.8 percent in the US and 18.3 percent in China.

The researchers point to public support programs in Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Canada as potential models for co-funding business participation in international standards work.

Separate recommendations call for continued UK support in ETSI and 3GPP as work on 6G develops, and more targeted participation in semiconductor and hardware organizations.

The report also calls for UK Research and Innovation and Innovate UK to identify standards bodies covering AI, clean energy, and health data and support businesses, universities, and research institutions seeking to contribute.

No funding allocation, launch date, or eligibility rules have been announced for the proposed Standards Participation Fund. The report recommends that standards engagement be incorporated into UK innovation and industrial policy as 6G, AI, semiconductor, energy, and health data frameworks continue to develop.