On October 24 and 25, as part of the annual meeting of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF) accreditation organizations in Bangkok, Thailand, the second General Assembly of Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated was held, the new organization that will take over the activities that had so far been carried out by ILAC and IAF in their respective fields.

ILAC and IAF are the organizations that, since 1977 (in the case of ILAC) and 1993 (in the IAF’s case), have brought together accreditation bodies worldwide. Within them, accreditation criteria and good practices for operating laboratories, inspection bodies, intercomparison program providers, and producers of reference materials, biobanks in the case of ILAC, and certification and inspection/validation bodies in the case of IAF were established. They also set up and managed the mutual recognition agreements that currently operate in each of these activities, which have helped conformity certificates being accepted across different economies, benefiting more than 120 countries worldwide.

The existence of two separate organizations was the result of historical evolution without a technical justification. In almost all countries, accreditation bodies operate across all activities in all areas of work, and in different regions of the world, and there are single associations that group them together, as is the case with European Accreditation (EA) in Europe.

For that reason, in October 2019, IAF and ILAC made the strategic decision to merge, after which, in October 2024, the new organization was legally established. Finally, in 2025, the first members of Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated were admitted - 156 accreditation bodies, including ENAC, and other stakeholders - as well as ILAC and IAF transferring the trademarks, operational procedures, and management of the multilateral agreements. The new organization is fully operational from January 1, 2026.

In the same session, there was the election of the president and vice president, which went, respectively, to Brahim Houla (GAC, accreditation body of the Gulf countries) and Emanuele Riva (ACCREDIA, Italy).

The creation of the new organization has no impact on the accredited conformity assessment bodies, which will be able to continue using the ILAC and IAF marks until a new mark is designed and registered, when ENAC will promptly communicate it.