Involvement and use of European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research EMPIR in the Czech Metrology Institute – a positive example of the use of European cooperation

Abstract

The Czech Metrology Institute (CMI) has been the national metrology institute of the Czech Republic since 1993. The significant development of the CMI's fundamental metrology departments and the gradual growth of the CMI's scientific and research capacities are linked to its successful participation in the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) and the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR). In total, 28 countries have participated in the EMPIR Programme, with Switzerland, Norway, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey and the UK in addition to the EU Member States. The necessary organisational and administrative background for the realisation of the EMPIR Programme was provided by EURAMET e.V., a European Regional Metrology Organisation operated as a non-profit association under German law. The most important benefit of the Programme for the CMI and the Czech Republic is the successful implementation of the research results of individual EMPIR projects. Within the framework of this implementation of the EMPIR results in the CMI, 6 new state measurement standards of the Czech Republic have already been established and another 4 are in the stage of preparation for announcement. Furthermore, 23 new or significantly modified measurement methods have been developed based on the results within the CMI and are now provided as a service by the CMI. Finally, participation in the EMPIR projects has been used to train 42 new CMI scientists in various fields of measurement. If to add to this the use of the results of the former EMRP Programme, it can be concluded that the development of metrology at the CMI over the last 10 years has been strongly conditioned by successful participation in European Metrology Programmes and the ability of the CMI to subsequently apply the results of individual projects to its laboratory practice.