Accreditation in Croatia: What is the position of testing and calibration laboratories from the science and higher education system?

Abstract

With the worldwide increasing number of testing and calibration laboratories accredited according to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard to satisfy requirements of customers, the arising question is how much laboratories in the science and higher education system in Croatia use their potentials to respond to these requirements. All accreditations granted in Croatia were reviewed, and special attention was given to accreditations granted to testing and calibration laboratories in the science and higher education system. Accreditations granted to testing laboratories alone comprise almost 50 % of all granted accreditations in Croatia, making the ISO/IEC 17025 standard the most used standard for accreditation in Croatia. This is additionally supported by accreditations granted to calibration laboratories, the third accreditation scheme in frequency. However, only a smaller portion (approx. 20 %) of these accreditations is granted to laboratories in the science and higher education system. Low portions of scientific and higher education institutions involved in accreditation lead to a conclusion that the main driving force for accreditation of laboratories in Croatia are laboratories associated with industry rather than scientific laboratories, despite their enormous potential in a form or highly skilled personnel and sophisticated equipment.