ISO/TC 279

ISO 56000 series —
Innovation management
Formation	2013
Type	Standards organization
Purpose	Development of worldwide
Region served	Worldwide
Parent organization	International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Website	https://www.iso.org/committee/4587737.html

ISO/TC 279 is a technical committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Its purpose is to develop, maintain and promote standards in the field of innovation management.

The first plenary meeting of ISO/TC 279 was held in Paris on 4 to 5 December 2013, under the leadership of its first chairperson and founder, Alice de Casanove of Airbus Defence and Space, (mandate 2013-2021). ISO/TC279 oversees the ISO 56000 series (temporarily numbered ISO 50500 series).

Scope and mission

The scope of ISO/TC 279's work is to standardize terminology, tools, methods, and interactions between relevant parties to enable innovation in established organizations.

Each published standard within the ISO 56000 series should remove lack of harmonization in the field of innovation management and allow the professionalisation of this function. Some of the standards developed in the 56000 series are strictly informational, best practice, they cannot be used as a certification basis. For innovating organizations, this series of standards can facilitate more successful collaboration, develop higher capability to innovate and bring visibility to the innovation function. The family of standards is designed to support innovation in organisations whatever origin, type (public private), size (large, medium) etc. are. Nevertheless ISO 56002 on Innovation Management System does not address specific innovation management systems such as temporary organisations (for example: startup, consortium...) however, parts can be applicable to all types of organizations.

The expected benefits of ISO 56000 series are listed below:

Market Benefits

Provide guidance on how an organization can fulfil unmet customer needs
Increase business opportunities and open new markets
Lead to the consequent reduction in trade barriers
Reduce time to market
Enhance the competitiveness of various organizations
Answer to the need of both developed and emerging countries

Cultural Benefits

Develop open‐mindedness to accept new business models and methods
Promote the growth of an innovation culture with a global objective
Facilitate the implementation of partnerships
Improve collaboration and communication on a global scale
Implement social responsibility in the organization's innovation process

Organisational Benefits

Save cost and reduce risk when innovating and collaborating across borders due to the development of standard tools
Increase the organization's ability to take decisions: test and try, fail fast, capability to take reasonable risks, facing challenges and world changes...
Improve the efficiency and the performance of the organizations to produce innovation
Improve results of innovation process and contributes to monitor the return of investments made in innovation
Share a globally accepted ‘common language’ for innovation management
Evaluate the progress of the organisation and identify and share good practices in innovation management

Members

ISO membership of TC 279 is open to any national standardization body. A member can be either participating (P) or observing (O), with the difference mainly being the ability to vote on proposed standards. There are 50 countries that are active participants of TC 279, and 19 observing countries. The secretariat is managed by AFNOR, located in Paris and the current chairperson is Johan Claire (mandate 2022-2024).

Other organizations can participate as Liaison Members, some of which are internal to ISO/IEC and some of which are external. The external organizations that are in liaison with TC 279 are: OECD, WIPO, WTO, CERN, World Bank, and UNIDO.

Structure

Work on the development of standards is undertaken by working groups (WGs), each of which deals with a particular field.

Working Group	Title	status
ISO/TC 279 / WG 1	Innovation Management system	active
ISO/TC 279 / WG 2	Terminology	active
ISO/TC 279 / WG 3	Tools and methods	active
ISO/TC 279 / WG 4	Assessment	withdrawn

Standards

ISO reference	Title	Date of Publication
ISO 56000	Innovation management -- Fundamentals and vocabulary	2019
ISO 56001	Innovation management -- Innovation management system -- Requirements	not published
ISO 56002	Innovation management -- Innovation management system -- Guidance	July 2019
ISO 56003	Innovation management - Tools and methods for innovation partnership -- Guidance	Feb 2019
ISO TR 56004	Innovation management -- Assessment -- Guidance	Feb 2019
ISO 56005	Innovation management -- Intellectual property management -- Guidance	Nov 2020
ISO 56006	Innovation management -- Strategic intelligence management -- Guidance	Nov 2021
ISO 56007	Innovation management -- Managing ideas and opportunities -- Guidance	under development to be published in 2024
ISO 56008	Innovation management -- Innovation Operation Measurements -- Guidance	not published
ISO 56010	Innovation management -- Practical Examples and Case Studies -- Guidance	not published

References

External links