News

9 June 2019

ILAC , the international organisation for accreditation bodies, says:
'9 June 2019 marks World Accreditation Day as a global initiative, jointly established by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), to raise awareness of the importance of accreditation.

This year's theme focuses on how accreditation provides added value to supply chains.

Supply chains provide a vital role in delivering products and services for consumers, business and the public sector in a timely, cost-efficient and quality manner.

Accreditation and, with it, other quality infrastructure tools such as standards, metrology and conformity assessment, provide widely accepted tools that help deliver value to the supply chain. These tools help with trust and assurance, enabling confidence in both final products and services and the manner in which they are placed on the market and used.'

Accreditation is the third-party independent evaluation of conformity assessment bodies against recognised standards (ISO 17000 series of standards and guides) to ensure their impartiality and competence. Conformity assessment bodies are organisations that carry out evaluation services such as certification, verification, inspection, testing and calibration.

Metrology and accreditation are closely linked on a regional and international level. EURAMET has a long history of collaboration with the European cooperation for Accreditation (EA). EA is an association of national accreditation bodies in Europe that are officially recognised by their national governments to assess and verify organisations that carry out evaluation services. If a supplier is accredited by one of the members in the EA network, its customers can have confidence in the competence, independence and impartiality of its conformity assessment work.

"Metrology, standardisation, accreditation, conformity assessment, and market surveillance are the key components of the worldwide quality infrastructure system. This system is designed to support and enhance the quality, safety and environmental soundness of goods, services and processes. It ensures the effective operation of domestic markets and enables access to foreign markets. It is a critical element in promoting and sustaining economic development, as well as environmental and social wellbeing. EURAMET is pleased to celebrate World Accreditation Day in partnership with others in the Quality Infrastructure System", says Duncan Jarvis, EURAMET's General Secretary.

EURAMET is proud to support research projects, through the European Metrology Research Programmes, EMRP and EMPIR, that develop measurement capabilities and provide input to international standards across many scientific and technical areas. Projects and metrology networks contributing towards accreditation in supply chains include:

Improved EMC test methods in industrial environments (IND60, EMC)
Metrology for optical and RF communication systems (IND51, MORSE)

Additionally, EURAMET provides numerous calibration guides on a broad range of topics >>

EMRP joint research projects are part of EURAMET's European Metrology Research Programme. The EMRP is jointly funded by the EMRP participating countries within EURAMET and the European Union.

Want to hear more about EURAMET?
<link meta-menu subscribe-to-newsletter _blank external-link-new-window external link in new>Sign up for EURAMET newsletters and other information

Follow us on twitter @EURAMET, or find us on LinkedIn.