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Similar to the worldwide ISO, at the European level, Brussels-based CEN (the European Committee for Standardization) is the solely recognized organization for the planning drafting and adoption of European Standards in all major areas of business except electro-technology and telecommunications. Concretely, on July, 2013, was published the UNE-CEN/TS 16555-1:2013, the European Standard for Innovation Management. Thus, innovation, both as a field of study and as a practical discipline, has gained considerable traction over the past 15 years. In fact, as organizations become broader and more complex, the need for a systematic approach to new product, service or business development techniques strengthens accordingly. This idea can be extended to university research groups in which innovation is a crucial point: especially for the doctorates formation.

The UNE-CEN/TS 16555-1:2013 technical specification is focussed on establishing and maintaining an innovation management system (IMS). It is applicable to all public and private organisations regardless of sector, type or size. This document provides guidance on: understanding the context of the organisation; establishing the leadership and commitment of top management; planning for innovation success; identifying and fostering innovation enablers/driving factors; developing the innovation management process; evaluating and improving the performance of the innovation management system; and understanding and using innovation management techniques.

By using this document, organisations can increase their awareness of the value of an IMS, establish such a system, expand their capacity for innovation, and ultimately generate more value for the organisation and its interested parties. Since the innovation management system outlined in this document follows the PDCA structure (plan-do-check-act), so it can be integrated within other standardised business management systems existing in the organisations.

In this context, EIDOS, a Materials Science research group (UPV/EHU, University of the Basque Country), has been building its own management style inspired by the EFQM model. In fact, we have identified the formation of the doctorates as a key process, and the innovation management as an auxiliary process related to it. Thus, this work presents the design of the procedure related to the latter process in accordance with the EFQM spirit of excellence within the UNE-CEN/TS 16555-1:2013 European standard.