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Project European Analytical Quality Control in support of the Water Framework Directive via the Water Information System for Europe

The implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires the design of monitoring programmes for all Member States. The effectiveness of this implementation will highly depend on the ability of Member States' laboratories to measure chemical, biological and ecological changes of the quality of Community waters. As such data are the basis for regulatory decisions and measures required to achieve WFD environmental objectives, appropriate analytical quality assurance and control (QA/QC) has to be established across all EU monitoring laboratories this means to demonstrate data comparability and equivalence of measurement procedures among the participating laboratories in all member states.

EAQC – WISE is a Specific Targeted Research Project of the 6th European Union Framework Programme and Priority 8, which promotes activities in support of the development and implementation of EU policies.
The projects aims at producing a blue print of an efficient and potentially sustainable QC system for WFD implementation.

The EAQC-WISE project belongs to the the 6th Framework Programme and Priority 8, which promotes activities in support of the development and implementation of EU policies.

The EAQC WISE project began the 1st december 2005 and will last 3 years. This project involves 17 partners from 10 countries (7 EU Member States and 3 New EU Member States), as a variety of different types of organisation in terms of complementarity, research institutes, universities, consultant and private companies.

Project number 022603
Subject(s) METHTODOLOGY - STATISTICS - DECISION AID , POLICY-WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT , PREVENTION AND NUISANCES POLLUTION , WATER QUALITY
Acronym EAQC-WISE
Geographical coverage France, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Denmark, Slovakia, Italy, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland
Budget (in €) 0
Programme FP6
Web site http://www.eaqc-wise.net
Objectives

The objectives of EAQC-WISE are:
- to study existing QC tools and systems and scientific outputs suitable to set up a QC system to support the WFD implementation and future EU soil monitoring,
- to undertake research surveys to identify QC gaps, notably for pre-normative research on difficult parameters and sampling operations with emphasis on priority substances and pollutants of Annex VIII, biological and ecological parameters in water, biota and soil,
- to recommend key steps of a QC system that would provide confidence in the whole analytical process, from sampling to reporting, for chemical and biological parameters from monitoring at river basin scale as well as at European scale,
- to exemplify the feasibility of the proposed system through a series of case studies and if necessary through additional demonstrator experiments, such as a sequence of pan-European comparison for sampling and trace analysis of selected components integrated with detailed scientific evaluations and training components,
-to carry out an impact assessment of such a QC system ensuring data comparability at European level.

Objectives description:

  • In the short-term objective (within the first 6 months of the project)
    To study different structures & existing QA/QC system at national and EU level
    To identify gaps and needs for additional research and standardisation
  • In the medium-term (2006-2007)
    To develop activities to fill in the gaps identified above
    To derive a recommended approach of a QA/QC system that is likely to work at Member State, at river basin and at European scale
    To assess the impact of such a recommended AQC system.
    To check the applicability and validity by means of case studies
    To derive a communication system to efficiently link scientific and policy-making communities
    To derive a sustainable dissemination mechanism of reliable training appropriate to laboratories engaged in the analysis of matrices associated with WFD implementation
  • In the long term (beyond 2008)
    The establishment of a quality control system, which would coordinate tailor-made proficiency testing activities, reference material production, research and training at the EU level in support of water and soil policies, with regular exchanges of good practices. 

    • Results
    The main output will be a blue print of an efficient and potentially sustainable QC system for WFD implementation.
    Period [01/12/2005 - 31/12/2008]

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