The National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia (NATA) is the recognised national

accreditation Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

authority for analytical laboratories and testing service providers in Australia. It is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organisation, governed by a

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit orga ...

that has representation from NATA members, industry, government and professional bodies. NATA was established in 1947 in response to a call for the formation of a national testing services body to ensure the

munition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other wea ...

s which the government was manufacturing during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

met a sufficiently high standard. In 1988, NATA's role as an accreditation body was recognised by the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Governmen ...

in a Memorandum of Understanding which was renewed in 2014. Its head office is situated in Rhodes, New South Wales and it has offices in four other capital cities of Australia. It employs 180 staff and over three thousand volunteer technical experts who assist NATA in the assessment of facilities and on its various technical committees.

Scope

NATA provides accreditation services to inspection bodies and producers of certified reference materials. It offers both "traditional" testing programs and "specialised" programs in areas such as medical and veterinary testing,

forensic science Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal ...

medical imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to re ...

, reference material production and proficiency testing. NATA monitors members' compliance with the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate ...

Principles of

Good Laboratory Practice In the experimental (non-clinical) research arena, good laboratory practice or GLP is a quality system of management controls for research laboratories and organizations to ensure the uniformity, consistency, reliability, reproducibility, quality ...

(GLP). NATA accreditation formally recognises facilities that meet the competency requirements to produce reliable technical results for a particular test method. Service providers are accredited to perform particular tests within their accreditation scope, and are permitted to endorse their test reports with NATA's logo when providing accredited services in compliance with NATA rules.

International activities

NATA represents Australia in a number of high-level International fora related to laboratory, inspection body, reference material producer and proficiency testing service provider accreditation practices and policies. NATA represents Australia through: *the establishment of mutual recognition arrangements with other accreditation bodies *holding Designating Authority status for laboratory and inspection body recognition from the

Commonwealth Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...

*the provision of input to a number of international committees, and to the development of the standards

ISO/IEC 17025 ISO/IEC 17025 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories is the main ISO/IEC standard used by testing and calibration laboratories. In most countries, ISO/IEC 17025 is the standard for which most labs must h ...

(for testing and

calibration In measurement technology and metrology, calibration is the comparison of measurement values delivered by a device under test with those of a calibration standard of known accuracy. Such a standard could be another measurement device of kno ...

laboratories), ISO 15189 (for medical laboratories) and ISO 17011 (for accreditation bodies).

References

External links

NATA - About UsNATA Accredited CalibrationMembers of the Australian Technical Infrastructure Alliance
Authority Standards organisations in Australia Accreditation organizations {{Australia-org-stub