JRC Institute for Reference Materials

and Measurements

European Commission
Joint Research Centre
Geel, Belgium
http://irmm.jrc.ec.europa.eu
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc

Back to the roots 25 March

The Treaties of Rome:
1957
European Economic Community and Euratom
Birth of the Commission
Creation of the JRC

The European Atomic Energy Community Treaty; Article 8:

1) The Commission [] establishes a Joint Nuclear Research
Centre. The Centre ensures that research programmes and
other tasks assigned to it by the Commission are carried out.
2) For geographical or functional reasons, the activities of the
Centre might necessitate separate establishments ...

JRC Institute for Reference

Materials
andMeasurements
Measurements
Central
Bureau for Nuclear
- June 1961
Mission defined in the Treaty of Rome:
A bureau of standards specialising in nuclear measurements
for isotope analysis and absolute measurement of radiation
and neutron absorption
1962 Van de Graaff accelerator installed
1963 first on-site mass spectrometric measurements
1965 LINAC inaugurated
1993 new name:
Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements

The role of JRC Institute for

Reference
Materials and
Measurements
The mission of the IRMM is to promote a common
and reliable European measurement system
in support of EU policies.

IRMM - CONFIDENCE IN MEASUREMENTS

complementary to national activities:

providing quality assurance tools for all

The prime objective of JRCIRMM is

to build confidence in measurements
and

ensuring their comparability.

Method development and validation
Validated data
Reference measurements
Production of reference materials
Inter-laboratory comparisons
Training

Measurements and legislation

millions of measurements are performed every year
to implement European directives and regulations
important risk management decisions are taken
based on those measurements need confidence in
measurements
need for harmonising policy implementation in
EU27+: building consensus

EU and global dimension of harmonisation

Who needs confidence in

measurements?
The risk manager
Making difficult choices on the basis of measurements results:

False + or False -?
Who is right? Are the results comparable and reliable?
Are they obtained with the good technique?

The citizens
Who is checking the safety of our food and our environment?
What is the quality of the controls being made?

The industrial operators

Are we being controlled by competent laboratories?

JRC-IRMM core competences &

research areas
Core competences
Reference materials
Food analysis & bio-analysis
Chemical/isotopic reference
measurements: Metrology in Chemistry
Radionuclide metrology
Neutron physics

Applied in the fields of

Food and feed safety and quality

Environment and health
Biotechnology
Industrial standards
Nuclear safety & safeguards
Nuclear waste treatment

Networking
Strategic partnerships e.g. EFSA, EEA, IFCC, WMO, JIFSAN, NIST, EPA, DoE,
IAEA, ISO, CEN, AOAC, IUPAC, EA
Participation in networks, e.g.

Consultative Committee for the Amount of Substance (CCQM)

Consultative Committee for Ionising Radiation (CCRI)
European National Metrology Institutes (EUROMET)
Joint Committee for Traceability in Laboratory Medicine (JCTLM)
European Network for GMO Laboratories (ENGL)

Projects within EC Framework Programmes, e.g. Networks of Excellence,

STREPs ...
The Community Reference Laboratories (CRLs)
Training: our temporary staff are our future partners

Standard methods of analysis

JRC-IRMM develops and validates analytical methods: consensus
building among EU27+
validated methods are submitted to
Committee for European Standardization (CEN)
Association of Analytical Communities (AOAC)
International
International Standardization Organization (ISO)
Codex Alimentarius

and become standards e.g. in the field of food

allergens, mycotoxins, sweeteners, vegetable fats

Community Reference
Feed
additives
Laboratories
at the JRC-IRMM

Heavy metals in feed and food

Mycotoxins
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Set up EU-wide standards for testing methods
(PAHs)
Organise comparative tests, train analysts from
national laboratories and improve their
performance in measurements
Know international standards and practices
Keep lists of reference substances and their
suppliers
Coordinate a network of national reference
laboratories: Reference Networks in the ERA

Certified reference materials:

standards for measurements
TSE

Food

>650 reference materials

= measurement
standards
>23 000 units
distributed/yr

Clinic
al
GMOs

Microbiology

Engineering
materials

Soil/
sediment
Nuclear

Water/
Air

Searchable reference materials

catalogue on-line:

Demonstrating measurement
capabilities by
JRC-IRMM organises inter-laboratory
inter-laboratory
comparisons
comparisons
Participates in inter-laboratory comparisons to
benchmark its own capabilities vs. those of
national metrology institutes
Improves EU testing laboratories performance
via cooperation with European Accreditation
Provides reference measurements
50
%

Nuclear activities at JRC-IRMM

Reference materials for nuclear safeguards
External quality control for nuclear measurements
Neutron data for:
safety of present and future plants
waste treatment
standards

Radioactivity measurements

inter-laboratory comparisons
certification of reference materials
support to the SI system
reference measurements

Comparison
on uranium
isotope ratio

Accelerator laboratories at JRCIRMM

150 MeV linear electron
accelerator (GELINA)
7 MV van de Graaff accelerator

Neutron data for modelling

nuclear waste transmutation
studies
safe operation of nuclear
power plants; modelling of
ageing reactors
understanding safety issues of
innovative reactor concepts
radiation damage
standards

Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Robust science for policy making