Over three days in April, research experts and standards experts representing many countries, standards industry bodies, and research associations participated in a Working Group session to update and re-shape the main ISO standard for market, opinion and social research, ISO 20252. Those contributing to the process includes many GRBN associations such as AMSRS (Australia), ANEIMO (Spain), CMRA (China), JMRA (Japan), MRIA (Canada) and MRS (UK).  The regional GRBN federations of ARIA and EFAMRO are also involved together with other associations such as ESOMAR, and WAPOR. The aim of the revision is to improve navigability with clearly defined, separate areas to support the various sectors within the market, social, and opinion research industry. The ISO updating process will take at least one more year, and research service suppliers working towards certification to either ISO 20252 or ISO 26362 should continue their efforts. All the current requirements from ISO 20252 and ISO 26362 will be incorporated in the new combined 20252 standard.  There will also be some new additions that reflect the changes in research practices, including leading edge technologies that have emerged since the ISO 20252 standard was last finalised in 2012. By ensuring that existing ISO obligations are being met, research service providers will be much better prepared to adapt their systems to the new requirements once the revised ISO 20252 standard has been finalized. As before, this standard covers topics such as project management requirements, proposals and tenders, and project execution for various methodological components of research such as sampling, fieldwork, observation, self-completion, data management, and processing. The improved and updated standard will be formalized, translated, and made available to the global research industry in all likelihood sometime in 2018. The https://mosrstandards.wordpress.com/, will continue to be used to keep stakeholders updated about the changes to the standards, and all news will be reported by social media. To keep up to date, follow the ISO 20252 associated Twitter account, https://twitter.com/ISO20252.

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