PTB is the largest metrology institute in Europe with almost 2000 members of staff. It meets the major metrological challenges of our networked, highly technical world in close cooperation with its European sister institutes, other research establishments, standardization committees and legal metrology bodies. Health care, energy, the environment, safety and mobility are what is important here. In all these fields it is true to say that together we are strong! This applies to joint European metrology research, coordinated by EURAMET e. V. and supported by the European Commission to a substantial extent, as well as to the international harmonization of metrology. PTB is involved in numerous committees dealing with just that, to establish joint standards within Europe, so that cooperation can be based on trust.
Metrology in Europe
Metrology institutes, researchers and companies are linked up successfully with the support of the EU, to pool their resources and to make available the measurement technology that a modern society needs. Find out more about the current metrology research programs EMPIR and EMRP as well as about the previous program iMERA-Plus.
Reliable measurements are essential for the economy and society. To master technological and social challenges, we depend on a highly developed metrological infrastructure. These high demands on the metrological infrastructure make the cooperation of individual countries and their national metrology institutes indispensable. Within Europe, cooperation in metrology is coordinated by the European Association of National Metrology Institutes, in short EURAMET.
WELMEC – harmonized rules for the whole of Europe
The "European cooperation in legal metrology" (WELMEC) has existed since 1990 and is, as such, the oldest regional organization worldwide, in which the national authorities for legal metrology cooperate. All the countries of the EU and EFTA as well as the candidate countries for membership of the EU are now members of WELMEC. It coordinates the national and regional activities in all the technical issues relating to legal metrology. WELMEC aims to harmonize legal metrology in Europe and to strengthen the mutual confidence in this area. This is done through the cooperation of all the interested institutions and the effective exchange of information. PTB staff are represented in virtually all the working groups of WELMEC. Further information can be found in the database on „PTB's committee work“.
The office of WELMEC e. V. is located on the premises of PTB in Braunschweig and can be reached at Opens local program for sending emailsecretary(at)welmec.org
European Accreditation
European accreditation bodies have joined together in the European cooperation for Accreditation . Its main task is to harmonize accreditation criteria also with testing and inspection methods. The goal is the cross-border recognition of calibration certificates, test reports and certificates. The worldwide equivalent of the European co-operation for Accreditation is the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation.