Implementation of a quality management system in a public research centre

In recent decades it has become increasingly important for public research centres to attract external clients, including government, private and public bodies and companies. They do this by demonstrating their research excellence. A research centre's ability to provide professional research services can be assessed by competent technical bodies which verify that the research centre's laboratories operate according to certain predetermined criteria or standards. Although there is no set of generally accepted standards, some regional accreditation bodies already offer accreditation assessment for the R&D laboratories which are in their territory. This article analyses the successful application of a quality management system (QMS) in a public research centre employing 57 people including researchers, technicians and administrative staff. This system is based on the scheme of regional accreditation of industrial research laboratories which was inspired by ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 17025:2005 and set up by the regional authority. The overall aim of the management system is to monitor all of the industrial research and services which the centre offers to external users, such as government, private and public bodies and companies, and to guarantee that final products, usually technical reports and prototypes, respond to their needs. The accreditation applies to all of the activity of the research centre except for basic research. In this article the critical factors influencing the success of the implementation of the management system are outlined together with benefits and opportunities. Weak points and problems are analysed, and the actions which were undertaken in order to prevent and manage problems are described.