Standardization innovation has become an important part of the national science and technology development strategy, and the group standard work is an important means to promote the market to play a role in the process of standardization resource allocation, and it is also an important way for the country to reform the standardization work from the supply side. The new Standardization Law, implemented in 2018, gives legal status to group standards.
1. Overview of group standardsSince the issuance of the "Reform Plan for Deepening Standardization Work" in March 2015, the group standard has experienced 8 years of cultivation, growth and vigorous development. According to the data of the National Group Standards Information Platform, since the platform was launched in March 2016, the number of registered social groups and the number of published group standards have increased steadily. In March 2019, 2,199 social organizations were registered, and a total of 7,688 group standards were announcedAccording to the data in March 2023, 7,304 social groups have completed registration, and a total of 54,909 group standards have been announced, with an average annual growth rate of 23 in the past four years5% and 635%。1.1 National policy
In March 2015, the discussion on "cultivating and developing group standards" in the "Deepening the Reform Plan for Standardization Work" issued by the first company established the top-level design of the reform and development practice of group standards in China, put forward the group standard cultivation program for the first time, and put forward overall requirements for the positioning, formulation of the main body, management and organization and implementation of group standards. In June of the same year, the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China launched the first batch of group standard pilot work to explore the path and accumulate experience for the group standardization work mode and method. The new Standardization Law, issued in November 2017, establishes the legal status of group standards, which become an important part of the new standard system, and at the same time determines the relationship between group standards and innovation, as well as the relationship between group standards and other standards. In October 2021, the Communist Party of China issued the "National Standardization Development Outline", emphasizing the need to continuously improve the quality of independent standards formulated by the market, and through the implementation of the group standard training plan, the establishment of the first standard to adopt the mechanism of independent market standards, as well as innovative mechanisms and systems such as the enterprise standard leader system and the standard innovative enterprise system, stimulate the enthusiasm and initiative of market players, and accelerate the formulation of leading and high-quality standards that can meet market demand and innovative development. While supporting the vigorous development of group standards, in order to standardize, guide and supervise the work of group standards, in addition to the requirements in the above documents, the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China and other relevant departments have also issued a series of policies and regulations, such as the "Guiding Opinions on Cultivating and Developing Group Standards" (March 2016), "Group Standards Management Regulations" (December 2017, January 2019), and GB T 20004 "Group Standardization" series of standards. In August 2023, the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China issued the Interim Provisions on Group Standards for the Adoption of Recommended National Standards, which not only puts forward the principle requirements for the group standards to be adopted, such as meeting the needs and scope, the content is advanced and leading, and the implementation effect is good, but also clarifies that social groups should meet the standards of good behavior for group standardization. 1.2 Positioning of group standards
As a member of China's new standard system, the group standard is different from other types of standards in terms of its subject, formation process, nature, scope and positioning, and the group standard is a market standard jointly formulated by social groups and market entities. Compared with the leading standard, the positioning and characteristics of the group standard are reflected in the following two aspects:First, it is guided by market and innovation needs. The demand for group standards in the market and innovation can be divided into two categories: universal and innovative. The universal group standard is similar to the leading standard, which is applicable to most enterprises in the industry, and its purpose is mainly to solve the lack of technical threshold in the industry and promote the healthy development of the industryThe innovative group standard is formulated to enhance the ability of independent innovation and lead the innovation and development of the industry, and the main technical indicators are generally significantly higher than the leading standards, reflecting the advanced level of the industry. The common feature of these two types of group standards is that they are timely and fast to be formulated. The second is the survival of the fittest in market competition. **In the process of formulating and revising the standards that lead the formulation, there is a "coordination" determination, which needs to be coordinated with the existing standards, and there is no competition between the standards. The main body of group standard formulation, relevant stakeholders and the scope of application determine the existence of competition, and there can be standards with similar technical indicators in the same field, which will not negotiate with each other to avoid conflicts before the standard is formulated, but will survive the fittest through market competition during the implementation of the standard. This is precisely the important feature of the group standard – it reflects the latest innovations and fully stimulates the vitality of innovation. 1.3 The Significance of Group Standards
The National Standardization Development Outline has established the reform and innovation goal of "optimizing the dual structure of the first promulgation standards and the market's independent standards, and greatly increasing the proportion of the market's independent standards". According to statistics, as of the end of 2022, the number of various types of standards in China is about: national standard 420,000 items, 7 industry standards for the record80,000 items, 6 local standards20,000 items, self-declaration public group standard 510,000 items and 2.62 million enterprise standards. Judging from the data, there are more than 180,000 leading standards and more than 2.67 million standards independently formulated by the market, but the national policy is still to greatly increase the proportion of standards independently formulated by the market, showing the determination to vigorously develop group standards. In terms of the development goal of "changing from quantity and scale to quality and efficiency", group standards have significant advantages compared with enterprise standards. On the one hand, group standards are formulated and issued by social organizations such as societies, associations, chambers of commerce, federations, and industrial technology alliances established in accordance with the law, and are agreed upon by the members of the association or provided for social resources in accordance with the provisions of the association. Social groups, especially industry associations, play an irreplaceable and important role in safeguarding the common interests of enterprises in the industry, supervising the quality of industry products and services, encouraging fair competition, and promoting the healthy development of the industry. On the other hand, industry associations often have the advantage of integrating upstream and downstream industry-university-research resources more than enterprises. Taking the field of building materials as an example, the transformation of innovative scientific and technological achievements is often trapped in the dilemma that the design is difficult to adopt and the engineering application has no basis to rely on. In short, it is foreseeable that in the future, with the deepening of standardization reform, whether in terms of quantity and scale, function and role, or in terms of promotion and application, competition and innovation, group standards will be comprehensive and multifaceted, and the most valuable mainstream and core standard type.