Eurachem Laboratory Accreditation Training Workshop

Following a number of successful training events, most recently on experiences and challenges of implementing the revised accreditation standards ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 15189, the Pancyprian Union of Chemists (PUC) and the Eurachem Education & Training Working Group (ETWG) are planning the 6th two-day workshop on quality assurance in Nicosia on 11-12 March 2026. The programme will include presentations on topics such as the validation process, practical approaches to evaluating precision and bias, planning proficiency testing participation (including selection of schemes and frequency of participation), interpretation of PT scores and investigating poor PT performance,  interpretation of control charts including extended rules, and using validation, IQC and proficiency test data to estimate measurement uncertainty.

The scope of the training is to:

• Present and discuss critical issues on establishing and ensuring method performance to meet
  the requirments of analytical and medical laboratories addressed in ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and
  ISO 15189:2022, respectively;
• Discuss the essentials of method validation, internal quality control and proficiency testing;
• Perform practical exercises on method validation and measurement uncertainty evaluation.

How to meet the task

This task will be addressed through presentations by experienced trainers, exercises and group
work. It is expected that on completion of the training, the participants will have a good understanding of the critical issues relating to establishing and ensuring method performance that are addressed in both accreditation standards, and will acquire a clear picture of the work to be done in their organisations. The training will be delivered by tutors that have been actively involved for many years in Eurachem activities including its Working Groups and the Executive
Committee. The event will include presentations and practical workshop sessions. 
 

Registration

👉Register here for the training workshop

Registration Fees

• Until 21 February 2026: €270
• After 21 February 2026: €320

The fee for both days of the training are set at €270 (until 21 February 2026).
It covers the training material, coffee breaks and meals as well as dinner for the first
day. In case that more than one participant from the same laboratory/ organisation
is attending, the fee will be €240 for each additional participant. 

After 21 February 2026, the fee will be €320 and €280 for each participant
respectively

Participants are invited…

to submit posters and share their practical experience of quality assurance and accreditation in
short presentations. It is preferable that this is notified to the organisers before the end of the
year while abstracts have to be submitted by 21 February 2026 to [email protected].

Who can participate?

The training is oriented to:

• Personnel of accredited analytical and medical laboratories as well as those preparing for their
  accreditation;
• Lead assessors/assessors/technical experts;
• Personnel of competent authorities;
• Consultants.
• Colleagues from neighbouring countries and Europe are welcome!

Certificates of participation will be issued to participants who attend fully. 

Agenda

Day 1 – Wednesday 11 March 2026 

08:30 - 09:00 Registration and refreshments 

09:00 - 09:30 Introductory session

• Welcome address by Eurachem Chair (Eugenia Eftimie Totu) and the Pancyprian Union of Chemists (PUC) (Leontios Philotheou)
• Introduction to Education & Training Working Group activities (Vicki Barwick)
• Introduction to the Division of Quality Assurance of PUC (Kyriacos Tsimillis/Despina Charalambous)
• Presentation of the tutors and the participants
• Introduction – Scope and expectations of the training 

09:30 - 10:15 Introduction to QA – how MV, IQC and PT fit together to ensure quality of data, requirements of accreditation standards ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 15189 – The contribution of Eurachem (an introduction)

• Kyriacos Tsimillis/Despina Charalambous

10:15 - 11:00 Overview of validation process and planning validation

• Vicki Barwick

11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break 

11:30 - 12:15 Practical approaches to evaluating precision

• Helen Cantwell

12:15 - 13:00 Practical approaches to evaluating bias

• Vicki Barwick 

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch 

14:00 - 15:00 Exercise 1 – Evaluating precision and bias data

• Marios Kostakis/Vicki Barwick

15:00 - 15:45 Evaluating capability of detection 

• Marios Kostakis

15:45 - 16:15 Coffee break 

16:15 - 17:00 Extent of validation – a risk-based approach

• Helen Cantwell

17:00 End of Day 1

20:00 Dinner

Day 2 – Thursday 12 March 2026 

09:00 - 10:30 Internal quality control using control charts – Introduction, setting up charts, rules for out-of-control, type of charts, selection of control samples

• Michael Koch

10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break 

11:00 - 11:45 Planning PT participation - selection of schemes and frequency of participation

• Brian Brookman

11:45 - 12:15 Statistics for PT

• Vicki Barwick

12:15 - 13:00 Interpretation of PT scores and investigating poor PT performance

• Brian Brookman

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 15:00 Estimating measurement uncertainties from validation and QC data according to ISO 11352 and Eurachem guidance

• Michael Koch

15:00 - 15:30 Exercise 2 – Evaluating measurement uncertainty (free Excel sheets for estimating measurement uncertainties according to ISO 11352 will be provided)

• Michael Koch

15:30 - 16:00 Coffee break 

16:00 - 16:45 Flash poster presentations 

16:45 - 17:00 Concluding remarks and presentation of certificates 

17:00 Close of course

Trainers:

Vicki Barwick 

• After studying chemistry at the University of Nottingham, Vicki joined LGC in 1990 as an analytical chemist. She then worked on projects funded by the UK government’s Valid Analytical Measurement (VAM) programme, focusing on the development of approaches to evaluating measurement uncertainty in chemical analysis. This work led to the development of training courses on uncertainty evaluation and wider quality assurance issues. Vicki is currently the Head of Commercial Training in the UK National Measurement Laboratory hosted at LGC and has over 25 years’ experience in the development and delivery of training courses in the area of analytical quality assurance. She has produced a wide range of training materials and is co-author of the books ‘Quality assurance in analytical chemistry’ and ‘Practical statistics for the analytical scientist’. She is a Past-Chair of the Eurachem network and Chair of the Eurachem Education and Training Working Group. 

Brian Brookman 

• Brian Brookman, formerly the Chief Scientific Officer for LGC’s global PT business, and now working as an independent consultant on proficiency testing, has over forty-five years’ experience in analytical science, the past thirty years in the field of analytical quality, particularly concerned with proficiency testing. He has been involved, around the world, in various training and consultative projects concerned with developing proficiency testing and the accreditation of PT providers. Brian is very active at the national, European and international level with respect to the development and harmonisation of good practice in proficiency testing. He is currently Chair of the ILAC Accreditation Issues Committee 17043 Working Group, Chair of the Eurachem Proficiency Testing Working Group, Chair of the EA-Eurolab-Eurachem (EEE) Joint Working Group on Proficiency Testing in Accreditation and Chair of the UK Working Group on Proficiency Testing. He was an ILAC liaison at the ISO/CASCO Working Group that revised ISO/IEC 17043.

Helen Cantwell 

• Dr Helen Cantwell has a degree in analytical science and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Dublin City University. She has over 25 years experience in an accredited, regulatory laboratory where she worked in the areas of food and feed safety and Quality Management. She currently works as a Principal Chemist in the State Laboratory in Ireland where she has oversight of work in the areas of food and feed safety, human toxicology and Quality Management. Helen’s participation in Eurachem began in 2016. She is currently Vice-Chair of Eurachem, Vice-Chair of Eurachem Ireland, Chair of the Eurachem Method Validation Working Group and one of the Irish National Representatives to the Eurachem General Assembly. 

Despina Charalambous 

• Dr Despina Charalambous studied Chemistry at the University of Cyprus and she continued her studies with MSc Molecular Medicine at Imperial College London. She was accepted at the University of Cyprus at the Department of Biological Sciences for her PhD in Molecular Biology. She worked as a Lab Manager in private accredited laboratories in Nicosia. Since 2013, Dr Charalambous is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacy at Frederick University. She teaches the undergraduate courses of General Biology, Food Chemistry and Nutritional Analysis, Molecular Biology and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology as well as the lab courses General Biology, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Pharmacognosy, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Biochemistry. Dr Charalambous’s research interests focuses on neurodegenerative diseases and the role of pharmaceutical agents in the progress of the diseases, including natural products. She is a member of the Pancyprian Union of Chemists and the Society of Biological Sciences. Since 2016, she is an external collaborator of CYS (Lead Assessor for ISO 15189:2022 and ISO/IEC 17025:2017). 

Michael Koch 

• Dr Michael Koch studied chemistry at the University of Stuttgart. He specialized the field of hydrochemistry and environmental analysis and earned his doctorate in engineering at the Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management. From 1987 to 2025, he worked at this institute as a research assistant, initially on several research projects, then as laboratory manager from 1995, and later as head of the Hydrochemistry and Analytical Quality Assurance department and scientific director of the AQS Baden-Württemberg interlaboratory testing system. Since 2025, he is working part-time in the field of training and consulting for analytical laboratories. Dr Koch is a member of several standardization committees, deputy chairman of the Eurolab-D Committee for Chemical Analysis, and German representative and member of the Executive Committee at Eurachem.

Marios Kostakis 

• Dr Marios Kostakis studied Chemistry at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and he continued his studies with MSc Chemical Analysis – Quality Control at Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He received PhD in Chemistry at the same University with title: “Development methods for determination and identification chemical indices for food freshness with mass spectrometry techniques”. Since 2017 he worked as quality assurance manager in Service Laboratory of Chemical Analysis – Quality Control under the supervision of the academic laboratory of Analytical Chemistry. Since 2019, he is a member of Eurachem method validation working group and Joint Task Group on Validation of Measurement Procedures that include sampling. Since 2020, he has worked as a teaching fellow in undergraduate and postgraduate courses such as ISO 17025 quality assurance system, Advanced Analytical Techniques, Instrumental Analysis II (Spectrometry & Chromatography), Food Safety and Quality Control, Practical’s of Analytical Chemistry, and Spectrometry Techniques. He is a member of Association of Greek Chemists and member of its Scientific Committee of Analytical Chemistry. 

Eugenia Eftimie Totu 

• Eugenia Eftimie Totu is a Professor at the Department of Analytical Chemistry and Environment Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnologies, National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (UPB), Romania. She received her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the University of Bucharest, Romania, and she was a Visiting Professor at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Her scientific interests include advanced electrochemical methods, chemical nano/micro-sensors, bio-nanocomposite materials for clinical applications, including tissue regeneration, quality assurance issues related to specific analytic techniques, and validation of new investigation methods of analysis. She published over 100 papers (76 ISI), 12 books, and chapters; she holds two patents for clinical applications. Her activity in Eurachem started as a Romanian National delegate; since 2010, she has been a Eurachem Education and Training Working Group member. In 2010, she was elected a member of the Eurachem Executive Committee. In 2020, she organized, together with the Eurachem-România Association, and UPB, the first Eurachem Week online, followed in July 2020 by the first Eurachem workshop online, “Quality Assurance for Analytical Laboratories in the University Curriculum”, opening in this way the online activities for Eurachem. In May 2022, she was elected Vice-Chair of Eurachem, and in May 2024 she was appointed Eurachem Chair.

Kyriacos Tsimillis 

• Kyriacos holds a BSc and a PhD in Chemistry (University of Athens - 1971, 1977). Postgraduate studies at the Nuclear Research Center “Demokritos” (1972-1975). Lecturer at the Physical Chemistry Department of the University of Athens (1975-1980), he was involved in standardization and certification activities in Cyprus for twenty years followed by twelve years in accreditation until his retirement (December 2013). He was the Coordinator (2005) and as from 2009 the Director of the Cyprus Accreditation Body (CYS-CYSAB). He represented CYS-CYSAB in EA and was a member of peer evaluation teams of EA (2013-2014). Since 1997 he represents the Pancyprian Union of Chemists (PUC) in Eurachem, including a two-year period as its Chair (2008-2010) and for many years as a member of the Executive Committee; he also represented Cyprus in Eurolab and the Euromed Quality Programme. He is the author of research papers and a co-author of books on Quality. He was an invited speaker in seminars, workshops and conferences. He organized a lot of training activities and awareness events. Since 2014 he is a member of the Division of Quality Assurance of the PUC.