The Competence Centre eStandards Project Extended: Future-Proof Businesses Through Digitalisation @ZukunftDigital Since its launch in 2017, the Competence Centre eStandards has directly reached over 14,000 companies as part of its goal to bring digitalisation and standardisation to German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). In the second phase, the project looks to maximise its positive impact by strengthening the work on sustainability and focusing on new thematic priorities: Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain technology, and platform economy. As the first thematic competence centre in Germany, the Competence Centre eStandards (Mittlestand – 4.0 Kompetenzzentrum eStandards) has been a hub for enabling more digital and sustainable business models and production processes at the SME level. During the past three years, the project conducted 40 pilot projects, developed numerous hands-on tools, and offered creative training formats to bring SMEs one step further in the world of sustainable digitalisation. In addition, the Centre held over 850 presentations at external conferences and organised multiple specialised events. In its second phase (2020-2022), a leading objective of the Centre would be to support SMEs as they navigate through the new normal imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, while placing an even stronger emphasis on the topic of sustainability. A strategic aim is to support companies in adapting more sustainable business models that allow them to remain competitive and thrive, including in crisis times. The Competence Centre eStandards is hosted by a consortium of the CSCP and GS1 Germany, HAGENagentur für Wirtschaftsförderung, Stadtentwicklung, Tourismus mbH,Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT) Sankt Augustin, Fraunhofer Centre for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW. The project is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi). For further information, please contact Patrik Eisenhauer.