Why Collaboration is at the Heart of Connected Technology

In an era defined by global supply chains and connected commerce, the infrastructure underpinning these systems cannot be built by one single organization – or even one single type of organization. Harmonising the countless stakeholders involved, in a way that encourages technological innovation, adoption, and interoperability, requires true collaboration.

The RAIN Alliance is a consortium of more than 200 member companies united by a shared vision to create a smarter and more sustainable world by connecting trillions of everyday items across their entire lifecycle, simply and inexpensively using RAIN technology. Spanning retail, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, aviation, logistics and countless more industries, our community thrives on the belief that the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts.

For over a decade, our mission has been to simplify, standardize, and accelerate the adoption of RAIN technology through global collaboration and innovation. But to truly achieve the level of connectivity we believe is possible, we as an association must practice the same spirit of inter-organisational collaboration that we encourage of our members. We must lead by example; forging partnerships with standards bodies, regulators, legislators, academia, and the broader technical community that help turn our vision of a seamlessly connected world into reality. These are not isolated initiatives, they are expressions of our guiding principle: built on collaboration, driven by purpose.

Opening New Markets: Advancing Sustainability Through Collaboration

Sustainability is a global issue, and one that no single organisation, or sector, can tackle alone. It requires close cross sector cooperation, which makes it the perfect embodiment of the collaborative approach that defines RAIN Alliance’s with fellow industry partners.

One of the most prominent examples of this is our promotion of RAIN technology as a product agnostic data carrier for the Digital Product Passport (DPP). As a formal liaison to CEN/CENELEC’s Joint Technical Committee (JTC) 24, RAIN Alliance is helping to define the technical foundations for the DPP framework throughout the European Union. Meanwhile, our in-house DPP Working Group is producing position papers, lobbying regulators, and engaging policymakers to champion the proven capabilities of RAIN RFID, providing valuable assets to support JTC 24 in creating a strong solution for a futureproof circular economy.

We’ve also worked alongside NFC Forum to offer guidance to the European Union on its upcoming Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. Our joint paper, demonstrates the value of RAIN (passive) RFID in enabling traceability and circularity across textiles, logistics, retail, food, and packaging. Our joint voice encourages the revised WEEE Directive to explicitly exclude passive digital identifiers; a move that would align it with the vision for a circular economy rather than create additional barriers.

Our joint work with GS1 provides a similarly compelling story. GS1 standards combine linear and 2D barcodes with RAIN tags and other business-to-business standards to enable e-commerce and data synchronisation. Both associations recognise the critical role that standardized product identification, data exchange and RAIN-enabled digitalization will play in enabling industry compliance and eventual widespread adoption, combining the benefits of RAIN technology with GS1 standards to encode unique identifiers as de-facto reference solutions to provide a foundational and accessible protocol for seamless item-level DPP compliance.

By contributing to CEN/CENELEC’s JTC24, working alongside our colleagues at NFC Forum and GS1, as well as our long standing collaboration with AIM Global, we are advancing global standards that will ensure RAIN technology continues to operate reliably, globally for sustainability use cases and beyond.

Defending Current Markets: Protecting the Spectrum That Underpins RAIN RFID

Collaboration is not only about building new opportunities, it is equally vital when defending the foundations on which our industry is built. When a geolocation company called NextNav petitioned the FCC to reconfigure the 902–928 MHz band and secure a nationwide 5G terrestrial licence, it raised significant concerns for the approximately 80 billion RAIN RFID tags deployed in the US, as well as countless other unlicensed devices supporting IoT, smart infrastructure, tolling, and security systems across the country.

RAIN Alliance responded swiftly and through a broad coalition. Working initially with AIM Global and subsequently four fellow Part 15 technology alliances — the LoRa, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, and Wi-SUN Alliances — we mounted a sustained, evidence-based campaign to protect this critical shared spectrum. Together, we engaged legal and technical experts, filed extensive commentary with the FCC, commissioned independent interference studies, met directly with FCC Commissioners and Bureau staff, and mobilised our members, and their end users, to make the industry’s voice heard in Washington.

That effort has made a meaningful impact on the public record. The House Appropriations Committee recently cleared a bill that would prevent FCC funds from being used to implement the proposed plan — a positive development for the many industries that depend on this shared spectrum. Most recently, we joined forces with AIM Global and GS1 US to issue a joint statement in response to NextNav’s latest testing activity, demonstrating that the coalition remains united and engaged. While this matter is not yet fully resolved, it is a strong demonstration of what sustained, cross-industry collaboration can achieve in service of protecting critical infrastructure.

Supporting the Next Generation of Innovation: Partnering with Academia

As well as supporting industry implementations across existing and emerging use cases, we also partner with the next generation of innovators: the university students and researchers who want to work at the intersection of business, engineering, and digital transformation.

The RAIN Alliance University Collaboration Program connects students directly with leading experts at the forefront of RAIN technology. This industry-designed program offers students from world leading Universities across Asia, Europe and North America the certified skills, technical credentials and market awareness to make a real world impact from the day they join the workforce.

RAIN Alliance has also partnered with leading academic institutions to advance RAIN technology, including mentoring students at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School as they explored market opportunities for RAIN-enabled smartphones. We also supported the Axia Institute at Michigan State University on its RAIN RFID tagged item assessments, testing, compliance, and technical implementations, including its Pharma End-to-End RFID Pilot Phase 2.

Collaborating with the innovative minds in academia helps reinforce the strong progress made in industry and bring both new minds and new innovations to the RAIN RFID community.

Building Together, Moving Further

Whether opening up new market opportunities through sustainability standards, defending the spectrum on which millions of deployed devices depend, or nurturing the next wave of innovators, RAIN Alliance’s strength has always come from collaboration — with our members, with fellow industry alliances, with regulators, and with academia.

By building cross-sector relationships, we have been able to accelerate the adoption of RAIN RFID solutions across the next era of retail, supply chain, and consumer experiences. The more stakeholders that contribute, the more innovative, resilient, and capable our industry becomes — better equipped to deliver the interconnected ecosystems that underpin a truly connected world. These are not isolated achievements. They are proof of what a community built on collaboration and driven by purpose can accomplish — and a preview of what comes next.