2. Quality assurance for chemical analysis

2.1 A necessary collaboration

The best way to make progress in a particular area of analytical science is to collaborate with colleagues working in related fields. By exchanging knowledge, many difficulties encountered can be solved and improvements achieved. The dissemination of information through literature, seminars or international conferences, and the exchange of ideas at meetings, are important but insufficient to significantly improve the state of the art in a given analytical sector. As a result, in parallel with the "classical" transfer of knowledge, many analysts have started to exchange samples, standards and reference materials to test their techniques. This approach has been systematically structured by bodies such as the BCR (Bureau Communautaire de Référence, European...