A Chinese expert led the new international blueprint for brain-computer interfaces

By Inside BCI · Edited by Velco Dar · October 23, 2026

A company designing a brain-computer interface headset, whether in Shenzhen, Berlin or Boston, now has an international reference for describing how the parts of its system fit together and what each part does. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) published it on 3 September as ISO/IEC 27572:2026.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said in mid-October that a Chinese expert had served as project leader, working with experts from countries including Italy, South Korea, the UK, India, the US, Japan, Sweden, Finland, Australia and Germany.

What the standard does

The 18-page standard sets out a reference architecture: a common description of how a brain-computer interface system is made up and what its parts do. It defines the key characteristics of these systems, gives stakeholders a common language, and serves as a technical reference for architects, manufacturers, vendors, service providers, regulators and the public. Like all ISO and IEC standards, it is voluntary, and national standards bodies vote on each one before publication. It gains force only when a regulator, a certification scheme or a customer contract cites it.

It is the subcommittee’s second full international standard. The first, ISO/IEC 8663, a vocabulary for brain-computer interfaces, came out in September 2025. The subcommittee has also issued an informational report on use cases, in May 2025, which is now being revised, and a provisional standard, known as a technical specification, on a data format for brain signals recorded without surgery, in April 2026.

The committee behind it

The standard comes from ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 43, the subcommittee for brain-computer interfaces under JTC 1, the joint ISO and IEC committee for information technology. The Standardization Administration of China (SAC) proposed the subcommittee in 2021. It began work in 2022, with SAC as its secretariat, the national body that administers it. Its chair, as of late 2025, was Yu Yuntao of the China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI). Its scope excludes standards for human implants and medical applications, though its 2025 business plan says it is responsible for the IT standards that enable those applications.

As of September 2025, experts nominated by other countries convened three of its four working groups. Two were nominated by India, including the convenor of the group that produced the reference architecture, and one by South Korea. A Chinese expert convened the fourth, on ethics and trustworthiness. Chinese experts edited or co-edited three of the four publications so far, and an expert nominated by South Korea edited the data-format specification. Of the 14 work items in the subcommittee’s September 2025 business plan, most of them preliminary, experts nominated by China were listed as editors of nine, South Korea four and the UK one. It had 13 voting members, including the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, South Korea, India and Australia.

Why it matters

Standards shape how products are described, tested and compared across markets. The ISO and IEC subcommittee that writes general-purpose brain-computer interface standards has a Chinese chair and secretariat, and Chinese experts were listed as editors of most of its planned work in 2025. Its standards still pass only by vote of national standards bodies.

China is also building standards at home. It issued a national standard with the same title, GB/T 47023-2026, on 28 January 2026, seven months before the international version, and it took effect on 1 August. Draft guidelines that its industry ministry published for comment in August target leading or taking part in at least 10 international standards on brain-computer interfaces by 2028.

The subcommittee’s scope is under review. At the November 2025 plenary meeting of JTC 1 in Chengdu, Japan, the US and the UK asked about it, and the subcommittee’s chair responded. An ad hoc group within the subcommittee, convened by an expert nominated by Germany with a co-convenor nominated by the UK, was already working on a revised scope, and JTC 1 asked the subcommittee to report on its progress in May 2026. The published scope is unchanged.

Where this sits on the four-jurisdiction posture map

Issue 01 of the Dargentic Intelligence Report classified four global regulatory postures on brain-computer interfaces: Rights-First (Chile), Horizontal Regulator (the EU, through the AI Act and GDPR), State-Patchwork (the US) and Industrial Builder (China and South Korea).

Industrial Builder (China and South Korea). China proposed the subcommittee, holds its chair and secretariat, and issued its own reference architecture first. Experts nominated by South Korea were listed as editors of four of the 14 work items in 2025 and convened one working group.

Horizontal Regulator (European Union). Germany was a voting member in 2025, an expert it nominated convenes the scope review, and the subcommittee’s next meeting is provisionally set for Hamburg. On 10 November 2025, DKE, Germany’s electrotechnical standards commission, proposed a European committee on brain-computer interfaces under CEN and CENELEC, Europe’s standards bodies. The proposed committee would work alongside SC 43 to keep brain-computer interface standards consistent with EU law, including the medical device regulation, GDPR and the AI Act, and its draft scope covers reference architectures and safety requirements. CEN and CENELEC’s technical boards were due to vote by 24 February 2026, and no result has been published.

State-Patchwork (United States). The US votes through the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). INCITS, the body that runs US participation in JTC 1, has a brain-computer interface committee whose listed participants are Cognixion, Farance, Futurewei Technologies and Underwriters Laboratories. The US was one of the three members that asked about the subcommittee’s scope in Chengdu.

Rights-First (Chile). Chile was neither a voting nor an observing member as of September 2025.

Not disclosed

China’s regulator did not name the project leader. Nan Li of China is the named project editor, with no institution given. Neither ISO nor China has said whether the international standard draws on China’s national version, or how national bodies voted. CEN and CENELEC have not said whether they will adopt it.

What to watch

Whether a revised scope emerges from JTC 1’s meeting in Malahide, Ireland, on 9 to 13 November 2026, or from the subcommittee’s provisional meeting in Hamburg on 17 to 19 November.

Whether CEN and CENELEC set up a European committee on brain-computer interfaces or adopt ISO/IEC 27572 as a European standard.

Whether the seven Chinese-edited items in the 2025 plan that remain unpublished, including work on ethics, security and privacy, and a neural data format, reach publication.

Whether regulators or certification schemes begin to cite ISO/IEC 27572.

Sources

Primary:

Coverage:

Cross-reference to prior InsideBCI coverage:

policy standards ISO IEC ISO-IEC-27572 JTC1-SC43 China SAMR SAC CESI GB-T-47023 DKE CEN-CENELEC Industrial-Builder reference-architecture