Objective
Objectives
The project will supply on INTERNET an information system on national PTS available up to a maximum of 620 PTS in the European countries. Further a draft list of minimum quality criteria valid for organisers of PTS will be worked out in order to support the acceptance process of the results obtained in such PTS pointing out the competence of the participating laboratories.
State of progress
The questionnaire for PT-providers was elaborated and distributed to all national PT-providers identified. Thereupon the partners have gathered and checked the filled questionnaires. These days the partners are entering their PT-data of the filled questionnaires into the data bank EURING by Internet. EURING is a specifically software tool for the data entry of PTS, which was developed by BAM and allows each European partner to enter his PT-data into a data bank at the BAM. These PT-data will be word-wide available by the "European Proficiency Testing Information System" (EPTIS) on Internet at the beginning of December 1999. The necessary software tool is going to be developed by BAM these days.
Background
Proficiency Testing is the assessment of the technical competence of the laboratories by the use of their results produced in interlaboratory comparisons. If this assessment is made in a continuing manner by using regularly organised interlaboratory comparisons, then we speak of proficiency testing schemes (PTS). PTS are operated mainly in the field of analytical chemistry, in particular environmental testing and food testing, but also in several fields of physical and technological testing. They are designed, operated and evaluated by private organisers or by governmental institutes. The project should remedy the lack of information about the contents and modalities of national PTS available in Europe for testing laboratories. As accreditors and/or authorities use the results of laboratories in PTS in their assessment in a different way from country to country, an overview on the state-of-practice in Europe in the organisation of PTS supplied by the project would help to improve the quality criteria of the providers and consequently the confidence in the evaluation procedures of the laboratories' results i.e. the acceptance of testing results across the boarders. Further a stronger use of national PTS linked to each other could represent a cost effective solution to establish comparability of testing results throughout Europe without having to set up expensive European schemes.
Workprogramme
The duration of the project will be 24 months (1998-10-01 to 2000-09-30). The work dedicated to this project is subdivided into 4 work packages (WP):
WP1: Collection of national PT-schemes data based on a uniform questionnaire
WP2: Design and development of a European information system consisting of national data linked by Internet; input of the collected data into the national parts and establishment of the necessary links
WP3: Draft of minimum qualifying criteria for PT-schemes and of a concept for interlinkages of national PT-schemes
WP4: Analysis of data, finalisation and completion of Project Report.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
12205 BERLIN
Germany