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Other Critical and Emerging Technologies
Overview of initiative
Breakthroughs in critical and emerging technologies (CET) can transform Australia's economy and society by boosting productivity, creating jobs and keeping Australians safe. This initiative is driving Government and industry engagement to coordinate an Australian standards position in key technological areas including artificial intelligence, digital twin, 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), smart cities and quantum, among others.
Challenges
Our CET initiative seeks to address the speed-to-market challenge involved in standardisation by ensuring guidance keeps pace with rapid technological development. Additionally, it seeks to create a unified Australian position on CET to ensure Australian interests are represented in international standards setting.
Why is this important?
It is essential to harness the potential of CET to improve Australia’s competitiveness and economic growth. Standardisation is key to opening new markets for emerging technologies, ensuring interoperability and facilitating international trade, as well as managing associated security risks.
Other Critical and Emerging Technologies
Smart Cities
Smart Cities are digitally-connected, data-driven cities that harness technology to make them more sustainable, liveable and efficient. As more cities become ‘smart’, standards are playing a key role in ensuring the safety and interoperability of smart cities systems, as well as providing metrics for smart cities and guidance on implementation.
Standards Australia’s Smart Cities Advisory Group has recently published a position paper titled ‘Smart Cities: An Essential Enabler for Australia’s Future’. This paper explores the role of smart technologies and data in addressing critical challenges at the city level, including the energy transition to renewables, security of critical systems and emerging technologies.
Through their discussions, the Advisory Group acknowledged the need for a harmonised approach, built on collaboration, to tackle these issues and create cities that are more liveable, sustainable and secure for all. Recommendations were put forth for Standards Australia, government and industry to work collaboratively in developing smarter cities for all.
Key topics explored throughout the report include:
- Sustainable development
- Circular economy
- Security and resilience
- Regional cities
- Ageing societies
Data & Digital Standards
Standards Australia has developed the Data and Digital Standards Landscape to map standards across seven key technological areas, including: data management, artificial intelligence, smart cities, internet of things, digital twin, cyber security and cloud computing.
Standards in these emerging technology areas are enabling interoperability and security, playing a key role in Australia’s digital future.
This report provides an overview of international and Australian standards published over the last five years and highlights the ongoing work of the relevant international committees at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and their respective national mirror committees in Australia.
The report explores emerging areas and opportunities for each technological area and makes recommendations on how Standards Australia, industry and the Australia Government can best work together to ensure data and digital standards keep pace with rapid technological development and reflect Australian interests.
Data and Digital Dashboard
The Data and Digital Dashboard provides live data on eight data and digital technology areas, including international and Australian standards and the international and Australian committees that develop and adopt these standards.
These technology areas include: Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Smart Cities, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Data, Cybersecurity & Quantum.
To access the Dashboard, click here.
Metaverse
Created in close consultation with government and industry, AS 5402:2025 Children's Safety in the Metaverse was published today following an extensive public review process. The Metaverse, an innovative complex virtual environment that’s emerging as the next online frontier, is fraught with risks to children including online bullying, grooming, and identity theft. The new standard provides a framework for advancing children’s safety in the Metaverse with a focus on privacy and accessibility.
To drive change, the new standard provides guidance to business and industry to make empowerment and safety the top priority. It sets out layers of protection and reporting that these parties should consider seriously and highlights the need for collaboration between Metaverse platform developers, policymakers, and families to create safer online environments for children.
Read more about the Children's Safety in the Metaverse
Neurotechnology
Neurotechnology is the next frontier of computer interface; enabling us to directly control machines with our minds. Using brain imagery technology already established in the medical sector, we are learning about how our brains function and how to harness these signals to control computers. The technology is rapidly developing and being commercialised in prosthetics enabling wider use cases to explored exploiting the Brain Computer Interface (BCI). Standards Australia are closely monitoring the ISO development of international standards in this sector.
Upcoming CET work
We are always on the look out for the next wave of technology trends to start work on. We are current scoping work in: Autonomy, Synthetic Biology, Nano-Technology, Critical Minerals and 6G. If you would like to partner on this please reach out to the SI team.
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