EN ISO 56002:2021 PDF

Overview - EN ISO 56002:2021 (ISO 56002:2019)

EN ISO 56002:2021 provides guidance for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving an innovation management system. Endorsed by CEN and identical to ISO 56002:2019, the standard is intentionally generic and non‑prescriptive: it does not mandate specific tools, detailed activities or certification requirements. It applies to all established organizations (and can be adapted by start‑ups or temporary organizations) and to all types of innovation - product, service, process, business model or method, from incremental to radical.

Key topics and technical focus

The standard organizes practical guidance around typical management system structure and innovation lifecycle elements. Major topics include:

• Context of the organization: understanding internal/external issues and interested parties to define the system scope.
• Leadership and strategy: leadership commitment, innovation vision, innovation policy and strategy to focus on value realization.
• Planning: risk/opportunity management, innovation objectives, portfolios and organizational structures.
• Support: resources (people, time, finance, infrastructure), competence, awareness, documented information, tools and methods, intellectual property management and strategic intelligence.
• Operation: operational planning, innovation initiatives and end‑to‑end innovation processes (identify opportunities, create concepts, validate, develop and deploy solutions).
• Performance evaluation: monitoring, measurement, internal audit and management review.
• Improvement: corrective action, handling deviations and continual improvement of the innovation management system.

Practical applications

EN ISO 56002:2021 is a practical framework to:

• Build a structured approach to manage innovation activities and portfolios.
• Align innovation strategy with organizational goals and stakeholder expectations.
• Increase transparency and communication about innovation capabilities with customers, partners and policy makers.
• Improve decision making on resource allocation, risk management, IP protection and time to market.
• Support training, consultancy, and assessment of innovation management practices.

Who should use this standard

• Senior leaders and strategy teams designing an innovation policy or system.
• Innovation managers, R&D and product development teams.
• Consultants, trainers and assessors of innovation capability.
• Policy makers designing programs to boost organizational or regional competitiveness.
• Organizations seeking stakeholder confidence in their innovation processes.

Related standards

EN ISO 56002 is part of the broader ISO 56000 family of innovation management guidance (complementary documents address terminology, tools and assessment). It supersedes earlier CEN guidance (CEN/TS 16555‑1).