Finally this kick-off workshop, which was originally planned to be hosted by the National Metrology Institute (NMI) of Albania (DPM) in late June in Tirana, was held as a virtual training event and a consecutive planning workshop.
The first two days of this workshop consisted of a training on the requirements of ISO 17043, with a focus on practical experiences and knowledge sharing on the implementation of interlaboratory comparisons (ILC) for calibration laboratories and inspection bodies active in the area of legal metrology. Besides having participants from the WB6 countries, this training was also opened to participants from other EURAMET NMIs. 15 additional participants from 6 countries joined this training and shared their experiences with more than 20 participants from the WB6 region. The key resource person for this activity was Dr. Olaf Schnelle-Werner from ZMK Wolfen (https://zmk-wolfen.de/en/qi-services/comparison-measurements/), an accredited calibration laboratory and ILC-provider from Germany. Each country provided a short overview on the situation in the respective country as regards availability of ILCs, lessons learned, and challenges encountered. The NMIS of Serbia (DMDM) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (IMBIH), that have already considerable experience with conducting ILCs, gave a deeper inside into their activities. Those contributions from the participants enhanced the discussions with the PTB expert and between experts and colleagues from different countries.
On the third day of the workshop, WB6 participants identified and planned future ILCs to be conducted by the remaining 4 NMIs of the region, that have less experience in this field. The whole cycle of those ILCs from preparation to data evaluation and final reporting of results will be coached by the PTB expert, in order to enable colleagues gain confidence in this new task. Once the ILCs have been conducted at national level, it will be seen in how far they can also be extended to participants in the neighboring countries. An evaluation workshop at the end of the project shall once again bring together all participants for the exchange of information and experience gained within this new task.
