Standards Development

Scope

This standard specifies the requirements for the innovation management professionals for 3 different proficiency level, i.e. Innovation Technician, Innovation Specialist and Innovation Manager. These requirements are specified in consistency with the tasks and specific activities and the identification of their contents, in terms of knowledge and skill, as to establish the level of autonomy and responsibility, in accordance with the European Qualification Framework (EQF). The requirements are also expressed in such a way to facilitate the related conformity assessment processes, making them homogeneous and transparent, as far as possible.

Purpose

Innovation is one of the key element of socio-economic growth and organizational success. It is increasingly perceived as an inherent part of sound management and governance, a pillar for the evolution of the concept of quality (e.g., according to the improvementlearning-innovation perspective, specified in EN ISO 9004:2018), an enabling factor for sustainable development.

Innovation is a pervasive concept, as it applies (e.g. according to EN ISO 56000:2021 definition) beyond products, services and processes, encompassing a whatever "entity" such as a technique, method or model. A concept which is unequivocally linked to the creation of value, including its intangible and ethical.

For all the above-mentioned reasons, innovation management is one of the emerging management disciplines, with a specific standardization offering coming from both CEN and ISO, i.e. CEN/TS 16555 and ISO 56000 series, developed by Technical Committee CEN/TC 389 and ISO/TC 279, respectively. More precisely, about ten normative documents currently cover the main topics related to innovation management, namely: terminology and fundamentals (ISO 56000:2020), main processes and tools and methods (EN ISO 56003:2021, CEN ISO/TR 56004:2020, EN ISO 56005:2021, CEN/TS 16555-2:2014, CEN/TS 16555-3:2014, CEN/TS 16555-4:2014, CEN/TS 16555-6:2014) and - above all - the innovation management system (EN ISO 56002:2021). Other documents are expected to be published in the next two years.

This proposal aims to make this offering even more complete, adding the dimension of the professionals involved in innovation management, the persons who are supposed to implement those processes, tools and methods and systems within their organizations and related value chains and ecosystems

The proposed European standard is intended to be fully EQF-compliant (i.e. Council Recommendation of 22 May 2017, 2017/C 189/03), adopting the so-called life-long learning approach and the descriptors of knowledge, skills, responsibility and autonomy. It is also based on the in-depth knowledge regarding the standardization of professions developed in Italy, which started with the development of CEN Guide 14:2010 and which have produced more than one hundred documents (i.e. Italian National standards and pre-normative documents) on the so-called non-regulated professions, including UNI 11814:2021, Non-regulated professions - Innovation management professionals - Knowledge, skill, autonomy and responsibility requirements, which will be adopted as input for the project (see document attached containing and extract of this standard). It is also important to note that the proposed document will be developed ensuring full consistency with all relevant CEN and ISO normative documents on innovation management and management systems in general, thus merging the system, process and person standardization perspectives, related technicalities and certification opportunities.

Note: in case the WI is based on documents from other organizations than ISO/IEC, please specify it here