The project “Enhancement of TÜRKAKs Capacity in Accreditation of Conformity Assessment Bodies (CAB)” was recently awarded to a consortium composed of Quality Institute (QI) as leader, AETS, WYG International (WYG Turkey) and UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service Ltd). The project’s overarching goal is to enhance Turkey’s quality infrastructure in the field of accreditation services. It is expected that this objective will further increase the technical capacity of the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TURKAK) in line with new developments in the field of accreditation in both the European Union (EU) and the international arena.
The project mainly revolves around the provision of technical assistance to TURKAK for the purpose of enhancing the capacity of its accreditation operations on the international stage, as well as in the area of the harmonised European legislation, with a view to improve product safety and free movement. The project-specific activities will focus on increasing the skills and knowledge of TURKAK’s permanent staff, composed of contracted assessors and technical experts employed in accreditation activities.
The project will draw on experience and lessons from EU Member States, and will take a horizontal approach, addressing key areas for gathering relevant competency within TURKAK in terms of the accreditation of notified bodies sector by sector.
The assignment will focus on the two underlying expected outputs below, in order to achieve the overall objective of the project:
- Maintain and increase the technical capacity of TURKAK’s human resources and quality system in the accreditation of CAB which operate according to European legislation and/or international legislation in fields already accredited by TURKAK, such as accreditation of notified bodies for products including lifts, pressure equipment, machinery, appliances using gaseous fuels, construction products and also accreditation of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) and Proficiency Testing Providers (PTP). In the context of this output, the consortium will compile and draft a need analysis report (NAR) with a road map, including a schedule. Furthermore, this will involve the development of TURKAK’s technical capacity in the area of human resources and quality system in the new fields which are to be accredited in order to facilitate trade and free movement of goods and services. The new fields being proposed are the European Harmonised Legislation for products, Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR) and Monitoring and Reporting Regulation (MRR) for greenhouse gas emission verifiers, as well as any other major international field of work (such as accreditation of Energy Management System Certification Bodies).
- Increase the awareness of accreditation of parties that take part in quality infrastructure, using accredited conformity assessment services (manufacturers, distributors, chambers of commerce, etc.), end users, consumer associations, public authorities, university engineering faculties.