The Consultative Committee for Metrology in Chemistry and Biology – CCQM

Reliable, correct results of chemical measurements and analysis, with a measurement uncertainty statement fit for its purpose, are highly important for drawing the right conclusions and making the right decisions. Addressing the complex parameters influencing climate change, the consequences of unsafe food, the costly clinical diagnostics and the health effects of expensive pharmaceuticals, as well as addressing the need for new sustainable energy sources and fair trade, require accurate measurements. In 1993, by decision of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM), being the directive and supervisory body under the inter-governmental treaty, known as the “Metre Convention” and signed in 1875 with the aim of establishing and maintaining a global measurement system, the scientific Consultative Committee for Metrology in Chemistry and Biology (CCQM) was created. The CCQM is charged to establish global comparability of chemical and biological measurements and analysis through metrological traceability to the International System of Units, the SI, and very well defined pure reference materials and (primary) measurement methods and procedures. The article describes in short in which context the CCQM started and developed, how it is currently organized, what it has achieved and which priorities are being set in addressing the most important chemical and biological measurement issues in the near and medium term future.