To develop a culture of sustainability it will be necessary to promote the competencies necessary to develop and maintain it. Promoting and managing individual and collective actions toward sustainable development requires adequate human capital, professionals, policymakers, and other change leaders. With this in mind, our work is grounded in the field of system innovation. System innovation is the result of a transformation process in which actors navigate transitions, develop visions, and adapt them through searching and learning. This means that the appropriate competencies have to be available. This presentation will identify and provide a framework for the competencies people should master to contribute meaningfully to this cultural transformation. Specifically, it it will describe the validation process of the Climate-KIC Professional Competence Framework for system innovation. Climate-KIC is a European knowledge and innovation community, working towards a prosperous, inclusive, climate-resilient society based on a circular, zero-carbon economy.
To identify the key competencies for system innovation, we first identified the three main components: accelerating transitions, promoting innovation, and driving entrepreneurship. Through a wide search and careful study of the relevant literature, the core competencies for each of the aforementioned components were identified and structured in blocks. All of them were mapped, describing the core transferable competencies for each Green Economy transition and the skills/competencies identified were reviewed to examine to what degree they matched the competencies included.
To provide a more definite focus on system innovation, an integrated competence framework was developed which included five blocks of competencies, with four competencies in each block and four performance and four performance indicators for each competency. The description of the research and its outcome will present a unique process for developing individuals who will promote the culture and science of sustainability.