Accred Qual Assur (2007) 12:317322 DOI 10.

1007/s00769-007-0274-5

PRACTITIONERS REPORT

Experience of implementing ISO 17025 for the accreditation of a university testing laboratory
G. Rauret a M. Llaurado D. Zapata-Garc

Received: 22 June 2006 / Accepted: 7 March 2007 / Published online: 17 April 2007 Springer-Verlag 2007

Abstract The experience of implementing a quality system on ISO 17025, and the accreditation of some tests for a university laboratory, is presented in the example of the Environmental Radiology Laboratory. Such implementation in a university institution is a difcult task, since the setting and environment are both unfavourable. The particularities are the collaboration of many independent units of the university, and the involvement of teachers and young researchers who have to coordinate all these different tasks, which makes the number of people working quite variable. Some specic aspects of the system are discussed. The conclusion is that implementation of a quality system on ISO 17025 and accreditation are completely achievable, and are helpful activities to put university members in touch with the real world and broaden their minds, which in the end has a positive impact on research studies and academic content. Keywords Quality system Environmental radioactivity Accreditation ISO 17025

Nowadays, universities are also being asked to come closer to societys problems and cooperate with private companies and research institutes to nd solutions. The creation of testing laboratories inside universities has been shown to be a helpful tool to full all these different objectives. University testing laboratories have the commitment to offer society their means and knowledge to build solutions to existing problems on the basis of the results they provide. And this cannot be done without conrming the quality of results, for which it is essential to have a quality system (QS) implemented and in many cases to be accredited to ISO 17025 [1]. The Environmental Radiology Laboratory (LRA) of the University of Barcelona (UB) is a testing laboratory created by a research group for the determination of low concentrations of radioactivity. Its main activities are: To perform part of the quality control assays of the Environmental Radiology Monitoring Programs around nuclear power plants. To offer a service of radiological measurement to public and private enterprises. To do research into the improvement of methods for the measurement of radioactivity. To collaborate with other organisations in scientic activities such as the preparation of reference materials and the realisation of environmental studies.

Introduction The role of universities in current society is the production of knowledge through research and its transfer through education and training to create highly qualied professionals able to enter industry to develop their careers.

a M. Llaurado (&) G. Rauret D. Zapata-Garc Laboratori de Radiologia Ambiental, Analytical Chemistry Department, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Barcelona, i Franque s, 1-11 3rd Floor, 08028 Barcelona, Spain C/Mart e-mail: montse.llaurado@ub.edu

The research group started working on quality assurance in 1996. In 1998, it tried to develop a full QS based on the European norm EN 45001 [2], attempting to cover both research and service activities, but errors such as an excess of documents and the lack of registers for all stages of the analytical process meant that total implementation of the system was never achieved. Experience also showed these models could only bring a very general management of

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