Eurachem Working Groups

Qualitative Analysis Working Group

Introduction

At the Eurachem/CITAC workshop Measurement uncertainty and traceability: meeting the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025  in Lucerne, June 2002, a workshop session was held on the topic of uncertainty in qualitative analysis and testing. That workshop recommended the formation of a new Eurachem working group to provide guidance on the topic, based on the discussion paper presented at that meeting. The following constitutes the Terms of Reference for the working group.

Terms of reference

Name

The group shall be known as the Qualitative Analysis Working Group.

Aims

The working group shall:
- Prepare guidance on the assessment and expression of uncertainty in qualitative analysis and testing.
- Arrange for appropriate publication and promotion of the above guidance.

Operation

The working group shall operate as a working group of Eurachem. The chair shall report to the Eurachem executive and the guidance shall be subject to the approval of the Eurachem General Assembly.
The working group shall cooperate with and invite participation from CITAC and from other organisations as appropriate, subject to approval by the Eurachem executive.

Membership

1. Members of the working group may be:
a) nominated by national Eurachem organisations.
b) appointed by participating organisations including CITAC.
2. Organisations wishing to be aware of the work but not to participate directly may, subject to approval by the Eurachem Executive, participate as Observers by nomination of a contact for correspondence.

Copyright

Copyright in any guidance produced shall be held jointly and severally by the contributors who shall permit publication, reproduction or quotation of the guidance in whole or in part by any member of Eurachem or CITAC and by other organisations at the discretion of the Eurachem Executive.

 

Members*

  • R Bettencourt da Silva (PT) (Chair)
  • S Ellison (UK) (Secretary)
  • A Botha (CITAC)
  • H Emons (EU)
  • D Ivanova (BG)
  • R Kaus (DE)
  • I Kuselman (CITAC) (Observer)
  • S Lardy-Fontan (FR)
  • O Levbarg (UA)
  • I Leito (EE)
  • K Matveinen (FI)
  • O Pellegrino (PT)
  • P Pereira (PT)
  • P Saunders (IE)
  • M Sega (IT)
  • E Theodorsson (SE)
  • A Togola (FR)
  • E Totu (RO)
  • W Wegscheider (AT)

 * Current members; last updated August 2022

Guidance documents

The working group published the Eurachem Guide "Assessment of performance and uncertainty in qualitative chemical analysis" in 2021.

Work programme

The Eurachem working group started working on uncertainty issues in qualitative analysis in response to early concerns about the implementation of measurement uncertainty under ISO 17025 accreditation. Eurachem published a policy paper on the subject in 2000 [1]. At the Eurachem/CITAC workshop Measurement uncertainty and traceability: meeting the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025  in Lucerne, June 2002, a workshop session was held on the topic. That workshop recommended the formation of a new Eurachem Qualitative Analysis Working Group  to provide guidance on the topic, based on a discussion paper presented at that meeting. The group met first in May 2003, and works in cooperation with CITAC. It is currently working on the topic of the assessment and expression of uncertainty in qualitative analysis and testing. The aim is to provide guidance on issues such as:

  • The effort required to obtain sufficiently reliable false response rates (the most common basis for assessing the reliability of qualitative tests);
  • methods of determining false response rates, including experimental methods, methods based on databases, and prediction of false response rates from the performance of quantitative methods used in the testing process;
  • practical methods of expressing the performance of methods, including guidance on the wide range of different terminology in use.


[1] Ellison SLR, Accred. Qual. Assur. 2000, 5, 346-348

Past activities

 

Details
Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 April 2024 22:09