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ISA Standards Foundation

Throughout its 55 years of service to industry, ISA has facilitated the development of standards, technical reports and recommended practices in instrumentation, systems, and automation. The ISA Standards Foundation is the avenue for you and your company to support this important contribution to economic development and technology transfer.

Proven value

ISA is well known and respected for its work on standards that range from the basics for describing measurement and control systems - symbols and definitions - to the most sophisticated automated systems. Among our recent committee efforts are enterprise/control system integration (SP95), batch processing systems (SP88), plant floor communications (SP50), electrical safety in hazardous locations (SP12), and safety shutdown applications (SP84). Standards and best practices allow you and your company to save time, cut costs, enhance safety, increase competitiveness, and improve performance and customer service whether you're a supplier who develops and markets products based on ISA standards, or an end-user who puts those standards to work to manage your operations in a safe, productive, and cost-effective manner.

New opportunities and responsibilities

While ISA has made significant contributions, today's evolving industries, global markets, and ever-changing technology leads to the following challenges:

  • To complete ISA standards more quickly using the canvass method and draft for trial use.
  • Keeping existing ISA standards current with new technology.
  • Expanding ISA standards into new areas of technology such as sensors, computer security, and microelectromechanical systems.
  • Developing and promoting ISA standards for business-to-business e-commerce.
  • Fostering use of ISA standards throughout the Americas.
  • Increasing global harmonization of standards.
  • Supporting consortia and industry-specific standards development.

Changing resources

ISA's open participation policy for standards has always encouraged the best and most capable people in the industry to work on standards development. In fact, you or someone else in your company may have participated in bringing some of these standards to life. This volunteer standards support is a hallmark of standards development in the United States. However, the total annual expense for ISA's Standards programs is currently about $560,000, of which only about 42% is recovered from publication and sale of standards.

Special Standards Donation Matching Program

The ISA Executive Board has approved a Standards Donation Matching Program. Your contribution of $25 or more to the Standards Foundation will be matched dollar-for-dollar by ISA. This one-time unique opportunity will double your giving power. Make a contribution today and urge your company to support standards development by giving financial support to the ISA Standards Foundation.