Protocol for the maintenance and development of the European Proficiency Testing Information System Click Here

The Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC) constituted an EPTIS database regarding proficiency testing providers (www.eptis.bam.de), with the purpose of facilitating access to information regarding Proficiency Testing.

EPTIS is a database established in 2000 in Europe, which initially brought together proficiency testing providers from 16 countries in the region and currently has a registry of more than 800 programs. Since then, EPTIS coordinators have strived to widen their field of action to include other countries and regions. Said initiative has the support of important international institutions which represent the testing and calibration laboratories, as well as the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and other accreditation cooperations.

Through an IAAC project, financed with resources of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and under the leadership of the IAAC Laboratories Subcommittee, the proficiency testing providers of Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Central America and South America shall be integrated into EPTIS, thus helping laboratories to have access to information regarding the programs available in the region.

The IAAC Regional Coordination for EPTIS is administered by the Scientific and Industrial Metrology Directorate (Dimci) of Inmetro. Said Regional Coordination will be constituted by a Coordinator: M.Sc. Paulo Roberto da Fonseca Santos of Dimci, by a Secretariat, and shall have the support of the National Representatives in each one of the region´s countries, who are responsible for registering the proficiency testing providers in their country.

EPTIS is open to any of the region´s proficiency testing provider who wish to include its programs in the database, as long as the program is operating on a regular basis, or that it has been performed once and it will be repeated in the next two years. The IAAC Regional Coordination for EPTIS began the registration of the region´s providers on January 2, 2006. In order to register its programs, the provider must complete a questionnaire made up of two parts which is available at the EPTIS website (www.eptis.bam.de, in the page "Submit PT scheme". The instructions to complete the questionnaire are available on this website and any questions may be addressed by the National Representative of each country. See the list of National Representatives for EPTIS.