News

Less waste, better results and increased efficiency. Why EURAMET is a key player in global standardisation.

Each year on 14 October, World Standards Day celebrates the collaborative efforts of the thousands of experts worldwide who develop the voluntary technical agreements that are published as International Standards. The theme of 2017 is Standards make cities smarter and focuses on the fact that international standards support the development of tailor-made solutions that can be adapted to the particular circumstances of any city.

The day aims to raise awareness among regulators, industry and consumers as to the importance of written standards in the global economy and how standards are developed.

EURAMET is actively contributing to standardisation: Over the years, EURAMET has united experts from metrology, industry and standardisation communities. The European Metrology Research Programmes EMRP and EMPIR have several case studies and projects linked to standardisation, many of which address the needs of standardisation groups for traceable measurements to support standardisation work or to develop new standardisation documents.

To support the development of the standardisation activities in EMRP and EMPIR joint research projects, Eveline Domini, standardisation manager at the French National Metrology Institute (LNE), also works as a consultant for EURAMET: “One way to foster our contribution to standardisation is the cooperation between EURAMET and CEN-CENELEC, the European Committee for Standardisation and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation.”

In 2014 both organisations launched the STAIR EMPIR platform to facilitate collaboration and exchange information between the standardisation and metrology communities. Each year there is an EMPIR normative call along with a STAIR EMPIR workshop. The latest STAIR EMPIR meeting on 10 October brought together representatives from standardisation and metrologists to prepare their input to the 2018 EMPIR Call.

To demonstrate EURAMET’s role in global standardisation, here are a selection of EURAMET’s normative EMPIR research projects and EMRP projects that have had an input on standards, along with some case studies showing the early impact on standardisation from the expertise of European metrology institutes:

• Metrology for sustainable hydrogen energy applications (15NRM03)
• Standard tests and requirements for measurements in smart grids (15NRM04)
• Towards an ISO standard for magnetic nanoparticles (16NRM04)
• Towards a documentary standard for an ionisation vacuum gauge (16NRM05)
• Improvement of emissivity measurements on reflective insulation materials (16NRM06)
• Validating quicker methods for measuring energy absorption from mobile phones (16NRM07)
  
  
• Metrology for extracellular vesicles (HLT02)
• Metrology for ultrasound therapy (HLT03)
• Metrology for infection control (HLT08)
• Metrology for improved MRI Safety (HLT06)

• New standard for safer greener roads (ENG05)
• Supporting biofuel-ready vehicles (ENG09)
• Improving the quality of indoor air (ENV01)
• Understanding ocean acidity (ENV05)
• New standard for nano-testing (IND11)
• Plastic deformation testing (IND05)