There is increased interest currently in the provision of standard test methods to measure the properties of advanced composites due to the increased maturity of the industry and the imminent arrival of the European Single Market. This paper surveys the overall needs, the relevance of different international and national standards and the current world-wide initiatives. The need to validate new test methods by provision of data measured at several laboratories indicating the precision (i.e., repeatability and reproducibility) of the test method is discussed. Current and planned validation exercises are described, including a UK initiative to validate 10 test methods based on the published CRAG test method report.