Bassersdorf, Switzerland
March 11, 2021

Registration for the ISTA Online Workshop on Quality Assurance and ISTA Accreditation for Early Beginners is now open.

Please click HERE to register

Date: April 13-15, 2021

Lecturers:

• Dr. Joël Léchappé, ISTA Honorary Life Member and ISTA Technical Auditor
• Dr. Florina Palada, ISTA Head of Accreditation and Technical Department and System auditor

Aim of the workshop:

• This workshop aims at presenting and discussing basic principles of quality management.
• The workshop focuses on the needs of seed testing laboratories that wish to comply with the ISTA Accreditation Standard.
• The workshop prepares beginners for building a QA system and attaining ISTA Accreditation.
• Advanced participants can refresh their knowledge to maintain accreditation.

Workshop content:

• Accreditation for seed testing will be presented as part of the International Seed Testing Association activities and services provided to laboratories that need to reach uniformity and reliability in seed quality testing.
• The workshop will describe the ISTA Standard for Accreditation and the ISTA Rules for Seed Testing, the two pillars of the QA system for seed testing laboratories.

Lectures and exercises will be provided on:

• The main QA system topics to help laboratories to define their scope of application for accreditation, built the skeleton of the QA documentation, and to control the documentation.
• The technical QA principles based on the requirements of the ISTA Rules and Handbooks for the management of equipment and material for seed testing. Examples are taken on temperature control, weight measurement, and germination substrates.
• Exercises, like a quiz, and group work to guide laboratories moving from theory to practice.

Workshop Organizer

ISTA Secretariat
Andreea-Nicoleta Militaru
Contact: andreea.militaru@ista.ch

Preliminary Programme

The system part covers:

• ISTA Accreditation Standard for Seed Testing and Seed Sampling
• Application for accreditation
• ISTA crop groups
• How to build a quality documentation
• Document control
• Corrective actions and non-conformities
• How to perform an internal audit

The technical part covers:

• ISTA Rules overview
• Introduction to management of equipment and seed testing material
• Examples of QA on calibration and control of measuring equipment (temperature and weight)

Examples of QA on validation and control of testing material (Germination substrate checks)

Please click HERE to register

Website: http://www.seedtest.org

Published: March 11, 2021