ENAC has signed an agreement with the Conference of Spanish University Rectors (Conferencia de Rectores de las Universidades Españolas) with the aim of collaborating with RedOTRI, the network of Research Results Transfer Offices (Oficinas de Transferencia de Resultados de Investigación, OTRI), whose mission within the Conference is to promote the development and consolidation of knowledge transfer.

“At ENAC, we act at the heart of the economy, participating to help the continuous improvement of conformity assessment activities and, therefore, the market. So, we consider it necessary to establish synergies with RedOTRI members, to enhance and spread the knowledge of accreditation and the value of accredited services to scientific and academic organizations. Accredited bodies have demonstrated the necessary technical competence to carry out these activities, and, moreover, to promote the transfer of expert knowledge in our country", explains Beatriz Rivera, general manager of ENAC.

In this sense, accreditation has a dynamic potential for innovation and knowledge that is the very basis of its activity, as top-level technical experts belonging to institutions, research centres and universities participate in the assessment processes. Therefore, interaction is encouraged between large research centres and assessment bodies operating in the market, such as laboratories, diagnostic services or inspection or certification bodies, enabling assessors to access a source of invaluable and inaccessible technical information, especially for SMEs, thus making it possible to raise their technical level.

Additionally, the fact that these experts participate in audits enables them to understand the conditions and technical restrictions in which laboratories or other assessors must work, which can be valuable information for professionals working in research centres, in particular, if they work in areas of applied research.

Therefore, the agreement's terms include ENAC explaining about the accreditation process at information days aimed at both interested experts collaborating with ENAC as auditors, and RedOTRI laboratories interested in applying for ENAC accreditation.

ENAC has a network of nearly 900 top-level auditors, experts in different fields, who are a reference in the assessed activity, have the required competence in each field and combine their professional careers with being an ENAC assessor. Currently, there are more than 60 available offers to collaborate as experts, which can be found in the following link or by consulting our external collaborators section for more information. Likewise, available ENAC information sessions on the accreditation processes can be consulted at the following link.

Those interested in further information can also contact ENAC by emailing cae@enac.es.