Accreditation: Third-party attestation related to a conformity assessment body (laboratory, inspection body, certification body) conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks e.g. tests, calibrations, measurements, certifications etc.
Notified body: Notification is an act whereby a Member State informs the Commission and the other Member States that a body, which fulfils the relevant requirements, has been designated to carry out conformity assessment according to a directive. Notification of Notified Bodies and their withdrawal are the responsibility of the notifying Member State.
Testing: An examination of one or several characteristics of a product, process or service in accordance with a specified procedure.
Certification: Certification/registration is when a third party gives written assurance that a product (including services), process, personnel, organization or system conforms to specific requirements.
Third party: A body that is independent of both supplier and customer organizations. The supplier is first party and the customer is second party.
Assessment: Measurement, investigation, testing or other determination of one or several characteristics of an object and assessment of the results with specified requirements to determine whether the object conforms to the requirements or not.
Calibration: The process whereby the magnitude of the output of a measuring instrument is related to the magnitude of the input force driving the instrument (i.e. Adjusting a weight scale to zero when there is nothing on it).
Traceability: The property of the result of a measurement or the value of a standard whereby it can be related to stated references, usually national or international standards, through an unbroken chain of comparisons, all has stated uncertainties.
Verification (of a measurering instrument): Action to make a measurement instrument suitable for its intended purpose.
Acronyms, abbreviations, links etc.
EU= European unionen, http://europa.eu.int
EFTA= European Free Trade Association, http://www.efta.int/
WTO= World Trade Organisation, http://www.wto.org
OECD= Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, http://www.oecd.org
EA= European Cooperation for Accreditation, http://www.european-accreditation.org
ILAC= internationally Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, http://www.ilac.org/
IAF= International Accreditation Forum Inc., http://www.iaf.nu/
SWEDAC= Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment, http://www.swedac.se/
Co-operation within testing, certification, research etc.
EUROLAB= European Federation of National Associations of Measurement, Testing and Analytical Laboratories, http://www.eurolab.org
EURACHEM= A Focus for Analytical Chemistry in Europe, http://www.eurachem.com/
CEOC=European Confederation of Organisations for Testing, Inspection, Certification and Prevention, http://www.ceoc.com/
Nordic Innovation/ NORDTEST, http://www.nordicinnovation.net/nordtest.cfm
EGOLF= The European Group of Official Laboratories for Fire Testing, http://www.egolf.org.uk
EARTO= European Organisation of research and Technology Organisations, http://www.earto.eu
EFNDT= European Federation for Non-Destructive Testing, http://www.efndt.org
SWETIC= Swedish Association for Testing, Inspection and Certification, http://www.swetic.org
EFAC= European Federation of Associations of Certification Bodies,
CEN= European Committee for Standardization, http://www.cenorm.be/
ISO= International Organisation for Standardization, http://www.iso.ch/
IEC= International Electrotechnical Commission, http://www.iec.ch/
CENELEC= European Committee for Electrotechnical Standarization, http://www.cenelec.org
ITU= Interntional Telecommunication Union, http://www.itu.ch/
ETSI= European Telecommunication Standards, http://www.etsi.org/
SIS= Swedish Standards Institut, http://www.sis.se
EUROMET= A European Collaboration in measurement standards, http://www.euromet.org
OIML= Organisation Internationale de Métrologie Légale, http://www.oiml.org
BIPM= Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, http://www.bipm.fr
WELMEC= European Cooperation in Legal Metrology, http://www.welmec.org