Innovation policy and skills initiatives in the UK have been significantly shaped by the Innovation Caucus Innovation Skills Framework.
In parallel, ISO 56011, a standard initiated by Celsio's Charlie Tuxworth, who is ISO's global project lead, has progressed through the ISO process and is now a Draft International Standard (DIS) due for release early 2027.
This Insight introduces a commentary paper exploring how the two can work together: Innovation Caucus as a rich, task‑linked skills vocabulary, and ISO 56011 as a standards‑based competence architecture and proficiency structure that can be used to operationalise and extend that skills language in organisations and systems.
The paper discusses:
- Points of convergence between ISO 56011 and Innovation Caucus including a shared view of innovation as system‑wide, multi‑dimensional capability and attention to both innovation execution and the management system that supports it.
- How ISO 56011 can be used to operationalise the Innovation Caucus framework by introducing a standards‑based competence architecture, proficiency levels and explicit links to innovation management systems.
- Implications for research, policy and practice, including how national skills bodies and organisations might reference Innovation Caucus for skills language while using ISO 56011 to structure roles, pathways, assessments and innovation management system expectations.
In short, the commentary argues that ISO 56011 and the Innovation Caucus framework are best read as complementary rather than competing contributions to innovation capability development, and that using them together might offer a coherent route from broad “innovation skills” rhetoric to a coherent, standards‑aligned innovation competence system.
If you’re working with the Innovation Caucus framework, or considering how ISO 56011 could support your innovation capability work, you can download the full paper below or get in touch to explore how this combined approach might apply in your context.
