News

EMPIR Capacity Building project improves measurement of humidity in Europe

Pharmaceutical factory worker

First project to be led by the NMI from Bosnia and Herzegovina

EMPIR Capacity Building projects aim to support the participating organisations to develop their metrological research expertise, and are one of the EURAMET tools that enable the integration of new areas of Europe into a metrology landscape that is coherent, efficient and sustainable.

Completed EMPIR project ‘Expansion of European research capabilities in humidity measurement’ (15RPT03, HUMEA) extended the measurement and research capabilities of the participating institutes in the field of humidity measurements. The extent of the improvements was based upon stakeholder needs, with the effort optimised to avoid duplication of resources.

Humidity is one of the most important properties affecting everyday processes from indoor ventilation to the storage of food products and pharmaceuticals. As a result, the ability to accurately measure humidity is vital to increasing efficiency, competitiveness and providing quality assurance across a huge variety of European industries.

Project achievements include:

Identified existing and future needs in the field of humidity measurement in the participating countries
Improved measurement methods via the development and characterisation of a chamber for the calibration of relative humidity instruments
Intercomparison of humidity measurements between the participating countries
Improved dew point temperature measurements
Individual strategies, including calibration services, for the long-term development of research capabilities in humidity traceability
Stakeholders training course material is available for delivery by partners within each region. This includes presentation slides and exercises to be carried out by course attendees to improve their understanding of humidity measurement. Stakeholders include accredited calibration and test laboratories, industry, research centres, from the meteorological community, pharmaceutical, metal and automotive industries, gas energy industry, laboratories of the Army (Ministry of Defence) and project partners.

This is the first project lead by IMBiH, the NMI in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nedzadeta Hodzic from IMBiH said:

‘The first Research Potential Project to be led at IMBiH has been very well accepted, and it was a great experience being the coordinator and enhancing my personal skills in project management. It serves as a motivation for other researchers from IMBiH to be coordinators of future projects. It is a pleasure to work with experienced scientists and to develop new measurement techniques. I hope my example serves as motivation for other researchers to become project coordinators.’

This EMPIR project is co-funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the EMPIR Participating States.

Want to hear more about EURAMET?