List and description of European Metrology Research Projects · PDF fileList and description of European Metrology Research ... heavy vehicles and aviation. ... • the metrology capacity

SEA-EU-NET 2 Date: January 29st, 2015

D3.3.1 - EU-SEA collaboration in Metrology

EU FP7 Contract Number: 311784

List and description of European Metrology Research Projects

Deliverable Number: D3.3.1 Deliverable Nature: R

Deliverable dissemination level: PU Work Package Number: 3

Work Package Title: EU-SEA Regional Networks in Innovation and Research

Task Number: T3.3

Task Title: EU-SEA collaboration in Metrology

Submission Date: 29.01.2015 Update: Publication Date (Public) 29.01.2015, content public already before

Task Leading Partner: TÜBITAK Contributing Partners: SIRIM

WP3: EU-SEA Regional Networks in Innovation and Research - Dissemination Level: PU

Document Revision History

Version Date Comment Author

First Draft 29 January 2015 Jale Sahin / TÜBITAK

Review V1.01 29 January 2015 Patrick Ziegler / DLR

SEA-EU-NET 2 Date: January 29st, 2015

D3.3.1 - EU-SEA collaboration in Metrology Overview

This comprehensice report lists the calls for proposals of the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) to give an overview on the currently ongoing efforts in this field. The SEA-EU-NET project coordinates information sharing of ongoing activities and possibilities for mutual efforts with the metrology research community in Southeast Asia. All listed opportunities have been disseminated to those colleagues after their publication.

The science of measurement - metrology - is important for scientific research, industry and our everyday lives, as the demand for measurements with high accuracies and low uncertainties continues to increase. It is now recognised that metrology provides fundamental basis not only for the physical sciences and engineering, but also for chemistry, the biological sciences and related areas such the environment, medicine, agriculture and the food. Therefore, Metrology is considered a key contributor for Science & Technology development and has a wide range of applications in Grand Societal Challenges.

The thriving economies in Southeast Asia with their ambitious effort to create an Association of Nations (ASEAN community) in the next year can profit considerably from efforts in the field of standardization.

The European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR) (2014-2020)

The EMPIR will be the successor of the EMRP 2007-2014 and be supported through the mechanism of Article 185 with 500 Million Euro. It will concentrate on the following thematic pillars.

• Advanced Metrology meeting the Grand Challenges Energy, Environment and Health

• Innovation: Industrial implementation of advanced metrology for increased competitiveness

• Exploiting and serving Basic Science related to metrology.

Year Call Selected Research

Topic (SRT) number

Title

2013 EMRP Call 2013 – Energy and Environment

SRT-g01 Metrology infrastructure for alternative liquid fuels


SRT-v07

Metrology for oceanographic observables


SRT-v08 Sensor networks for environmental metrology


SRT-v11

Traceability for mercury measurements


SRT-v12

Metrology for “emerging” pollutants and novel methods in European water policy

2014 EMPIR Call 2014 – Industry and Research Potential

SRT-r03 Absorbed dose in water and air

2014 EMPIR Call 2014 – Industry and Research

SRT-r06 Developing metrology research potential in [country]

2014 EMPIR Call 2014 – Industry and Research Potential

SRT-r08 Matrix reference materials for environmental analysis

WP3: EU-SEA Regional Networks in Innovation and Research - Dissemination Level: PU

EMRP Call 2013 – Energy and Environment Selected Research Topic number: SRT-g01 Version: 1.0

EURAMET, EMRP-MSU National Physical Laboratory Hampton Road, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW, UK

Phone: +44 20 8943 6666 [email protected] www.euramet.org

Title: Metrology infrastructure for alternative liquid fuels Abstract

Limited natural resources, sustainability, and the goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions require a compositional change in liquid fuels. Biofuels are the mid-term alternative for the transport sector due to their high energy density and established infrastructure. The production, trade, transport sectors and use of liquid biofuels requires robust and traceable measurements which are not fully available or not in line with the rapid developments of biofuels industry. The need is to develop robust traceable measurement of 1) origin, identification and biogenic mass fraction, 2) relevant chemical parameters and 3) relevant physical properties for liquid biofuels for light vehicles, heavy vehicles and aviation. These measurements are required to realise and implement a measurement infrastructure assisting the rapidly increased use of biofuels as envisaged by the European Commission.

Conformity with the Work Programme

This Call for JRPs conforms to the EMRP Outline 2008, section on “Grand Challenges” related to Energy and Environment on pages 8/9 and 23/24/25. Keywords

biodiesel, thermodynamical properties, equation of state, on-line sensor; reference material, advanced biofuels, aviation fuel, biofuels, chemical properties, hydrogenated vegetable oil, metrology, reference methods, reference material, origin, well to wheel.

Background to the Metrological Challenges

In order to meet the aims and objectives of Directive 2009/28/EC [1], prescribing an increased use of renewable energy sources targeting an overall fraction of 20 % in 2020, it is necessary to have relevant requirements for biofuels in order to promote production, trade, transport and use. The requirements should be based on achieving the highest possible reduction of fossil CO2 in a well to wheel analysis. An area where a future demand of liquid biofuels can be expected is aviation transport, since alternatives like electric engines are unlikely to work in this application within the foreseeable future. The varying feedstock used for production of biofuels has been shown to have very different impact with regard to fossil CO2 reduction. Thus, there is both a need and a requirement to be able to assess the origin of the fuel, both regarding type of feedstock and where it was grown.

The use of future biofuels can lead to vehicle malfunction such as engine misfiring due to clogged fuel injectors, filter clogging and corrosion at fill stations or corrosion within the vehicle. The standard laboratory methods as well as on-line measurements need to be adapted to all fuel types in order to become useful and reliable. The fuel manufacturers need relevant standards to show that a new fuel will work in an actual engine. The new properties to be tested need traceable and robust methods in order to meet the demand on comparability of measurement. The origin of the fuel will also become increasingly important as HVO is difficult to distinguish from petroleum diesel which invites to misuse to avoid fuel taxation.

Nowadays, many of the methods used by industry and field laboratories to evaluate the quality of biofuels to be put on the market are strongly linked with regional standard methods and parameters are often method-dependent. EMRP JRP ENG09 “Metrology for Biofuels” developed a measurement infrastructure able to provide reliable data and able to be rapidly adapted to the changes in type and bio-origin of biofuels.

Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) are essential tools for the quality assurance of analytical measurements. At present, no CRMs are available on the market for blends of biofuels with conventional

EMRP Call 2013 – Energy and Environment SRT-g01.doc

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fuel, i.e. for fuel as distributed to petrol stations (and sold to the final customer). Those developed in ENG09 need to be combined with other techniques to improve reliability. Scientific and Technological Objectives

Proposers should address the objectives stated below, which are based on the PRT submissions. Proposers may identify amendments to the objectives or choose to address a subset of them in order to maximise the overall impact, or address budgetary or scientific / technical constraints, but the reasons for this should be clearly stated in the JRP-Protocol.

The JRP shall focus on the traceable measurement and characterisation of biofuels.

The specific objectives are

1. To develop robust methods for assessing the origin of biofuel (raw material, production location, biogenic mass fraction in fuel)

2. To support challenging analyses in current (e.g. EN14214) and up-coming biofuel chemical specifications by development of robust traceable methods (e.g. oxidation stability, water content, glycerides, free water, short chain fatty acids, hydroperoxides and major components not yet specified like steryl glycosides)

3. To develop and validate methods (or improve their accuracy) for traceable measurements related to physical and chemical properties of liquid biofuels (e.g. calorific value, vapour pressure, heat capacity, heat of vaporization, speed of sound, surface tension, water separation properties, filtration properties, and deposition properties of biofuel on hot surfaces)

4. To reduce the uncertainty in the determination of the density-temperature relationship and to develop equations of state with improved accuracy

5. To develop methods for monitoring the quality of biofuels, by means of new sensor technology for on-line traceable measurements, of e.g. water content, conductivity, oxidation stability, and hydroperoxide content.

These objectives will require large-scale approaches that are beyond the capabilities of single National Metrology Institutes and Designated Institutes. To enhance the impact of the R&D work, the involvement of the user community such as industry, and standardisation and regulatory bodies, as appropriate, is strongly recommended.

Proposers should establish the current state of the art, and explain how their proposed project goes beyond this. In particular, proposers should outline the achievements of the EMRP project ENG09 and how their proposal will build on those.

EURAMET expects the average size of JRPs in this call to be between 3.0 to 3.5 M€, and defined an upper limit of 5 M€ for any project. The available budget for integral Research Excellence Grants is 30 months of effort.

Potential Impact

Proposals must demonstrate adequate and appropriate participation/links to the “end user” community. This may be through the inclusion of unfunded JRP partners or collaborators, or by including links to industrial/policy advisory committees, standards committees or other bodies. Evidence of support from the “end user” community (eg letters of support) is encouraged.

You should detail how your JRP results are going to: • feed into the development of urgent documentary standards through appropriate standards bodies • transfer knowledge to the biofuels sector.

You should detail other impacts of your proposed JRP as detailed in the document “Guide 4: Writing a Joint Research Project”

You should also detail how your approach to realising the objectives will further the aim of the EMRP to develop a coherent approach at the European level in the field of metrology and includes the best available contributions from across the metrology community. Specifically the opportunities for:

EMRP Call 2013 – Energy and Environment SRT-g01.doc

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• improvement of the efficiency of use of available resources to better meet metrological needs and to assure the traceability of national standards

• the metrology capacity of Member States and countries associated with the Seventh Framework Programme whose metrology programmes are at an early stage of development to be increased

• outside researchers & research organisations other than NMIs and DIs to be involved in the work

Time-scale

The project should be of up to 3 years duration.

Additional information

The references were provided by PRT submitters; proposers should therefore establish the relevance of any references.

[1] Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and amending and subsequently repealing directives 2001/77/EC and 2003/30/EC.

EMRP Call 2013 – Energy and Environment Selected Research Topic number: SRT-v07 Version: 1.0



Title: Metrology for oceanographic observables Abstract

The ocean is a key factor in climate change as it acts as the main global storage and transport system for heat and gases. Seawater is the largest buffer for anthropogenic CO2: causing ocean acidification and damage to the marine ecosystem. High quality data on thermodynamic and chemical properties of seawater is required to understand fully relevant oceanic parameters which in turn allow accurate modelling and assessment of climate change. This must be underpinned by advanced metrology for relevant ocean variables, including salinity-density-refractive index and pressure-speed of sound relationships, and pH affected chemical equilibria in the carbonate system. New calibration procedures and guidelines for in-field sensors will also be required.


This Call for JRPs conforms to the EMRP Outline 2008, section on “Grand Challenges” related to Energy and Environment on pages 23 and 24. Keywords

Seawater, Salinity, Density, Refractive Index, Speed of Sound, pH, CO2 Content, Dissolved Oxygen, Nutrients, On-line Sensors, Oceanic Parameters, Temperature, Ocean Acidity


The Earth's climate is changing in ways that affect our weather, oceans, ecosystems, and society. Climate change and ocean acidification are threatening food security and biodiversity. Ocean and climate are closely related, the condition of one strongly affecting the other. Moreover, ocean salinity changes are a sensitive proxy for a number of climate change processes such as precipitation, evaporation, river run-off and ice melt. Reliable data on the properties and status of the Earth’s oceans is therefore a key factor in the modelling of climate change, the global water cycle, the propagation of ocean acidification and deoxygenation to the ocean interior and assessments for the future of aquaculture and fisheries. The need for improved monitoring of the marine environment and sound databases for the modelling of global change processes is highlighted in various documents. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC [1] directly addresses the necessity of achieving a healthy marine environment and of having profound measuring systems to monitor the ocean’s status.

The thermodynamic parameters salinity-density-refractive index and pressure-speed of sound are key parameters for the monitoring and modelling of the ocean currents, its heat uptake, and increases in sea level. In the current EMRP JRP-ENV05 “Metrology for ocean salinity and acidity” basic relationships are being measured by methods traceable to the SI. But there is still a lack of traceability for measurement devices in the field, especially for most on-line measuring devices. Calibration and handling procedures at all measurement stages are required, including the on-line measuring devices used in field. This includes guidelines and recommendations for measuring procedures and reference materials.

Carbonate system variables (e.g. total alkalinity (TA), total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), carbon dioxide fugacity (fCO2), and pH) are linked via equilibrium thermodynamics. Thus, these parameters can be either measured directly or calculated by means of other parameters. Differences between measured and calculated parameters may be significant when compared to current uncertainties of analytical measurements. Several reasons have been identified for the lack of reliability of the thermodynamic constants:

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• pH has multiple definitions which can result in multiple values for acid-dissociation constants.

• Different measurement methods are used, which lack metrological traceability. Discrepancies in measurement results and hence comparability problems are a common consequence.

• Dissociation constants reliable for artificial seawater are not appropriate for real seawater.

Scientific and Technological Objectives


The JRP shall focus on the traceable measurement and characterisation of thermodynamic and chemical properties of seawater.


1. To develop a metrological platform for field measurements of the following thermodynamic parameters: salinity, density, refractive index and speed of sound measurements, and that allows for the derivation of relationships for salinity-density-refractive index and speed of sound-pressure with reduced uncertainties.

2. To develop a metrological platform for chemical parameters that provides a robust basis for study of the carbonate system and its pH dependency in the marine environment. This should lead to a quantification of equilibrium thermodynamics and dissociation constants of carbonic acid in seawater.

3. To develop standards and simplified calibration methods for sum parameters such as dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), dissolved oxygen (DO) and alkaline macro nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as traceable calibration methods and uncertainty estimation for measuring macro nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus and micro-nutrients like iron.

4. To undertake chemical analysis of the variable seawater constituents (carbonate system and macro nutrients).


Proposers should establish the current state of the art, and explain how their proposed project goes beyond this. In particular, proposers should outline the achievements of the EMRP project ENV05 “Metrology for ocean salinity and acidity” and how their proposal will build on those.

EURAMET expects the average size of JRPs in this call to be between 3.0 to 3.5 M€, and has defined an upper limit of 5 M€ for any project. The available budget for integral Research Excellence Grants is 30 months of effort.

Potential Impact

Proposals must demonstrate adequate and appropriate participation/links to the “end user” community. This may be through the inclusion of unfunded JRP partners or collaborators, or by including links to industrial/policy advisory committees, standards committees or other bodies. Evidence of support from the “end user” community (e.g. letters of support) is encouraged.

You should detail how your JRP results are going to: • underpin and develop European and international regulation or feed into the development of urgent

documentary standards through appropriate standards bodies, respectively. • transfer knowledge to the oceanographic and marine sector.


EMRP Call 2013 – Energy and Environment SRT-v07.docx

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• improvement of the efficiency of use of available resources to better meet metrological needs and to assure the traceability of national standards.

• the metrology capacity of Member States and countries associated with the Seventh Framework Programme whose metrology programmes are at an early stage of development to be increased.

• outside researchers & research organisations other than NMIs and DIs to be involved in the work.

Time-scale




[1] Directive 2008/56/EC: Establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy (Marine Strategy Framework Directive)




Title: Sensor networks for environmental metrology Abstract

The current metrology paradigm of standards, calibration and traceability chains is designed for the measurement of single, discrete quantities, e.g., the length of an artefact. However, much of environmental measurement necessarily involves networks of sensors measuring a number of different quantities at several locations with a range of accuracies. The sensor information must then be combined to make inferences at an arbitrary location or aggregated over a region. It is essential to extend the metrology paradigm to sensor networks for environmental monitoring to validate the new paradigm on existing or planned networks.


This Call for JRPs conforms to the EMRP Outline 2008, section on “Grand Challenges” related to Energy and Environment on pages 8/9 and 23/24/25. Keywords

Sensor networks, uncertainty, traceability, calibration, design of experiment, resilience, information gain, data fusion, data assimilation


EU directives on environment and climate change such as the Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe [1] and the Marine Strategic Framework Directive [2] relate to managing aggregated measurements of environmental variables to bring about improvements over time. No single instrument can deliver data to determine if environmental regulatory limits are being met. Instead, environmental monitoring necessarily involves a network of instruments sampling at discrete locations at discrete times: sensor networks. Independent of the characteristic being measured (for example air pollutant levels, acoustic noise, or sea water salinity), measurements at particular spatial and time locations are used to make inferences at other individual spatial and time locations or are aggregated to make inferences over a region or time period. The quality of the inferences made will depend on how well the network is designed and how the sensor data is used. At the moment, the quality of the inferences is severely limited by the lack of a methodology for uncertainty evaluation applicable to sensor networks.

Current practice treats the sensors as independent individual instruments, so that calibration strategies, for example, are determined without any reference to other sensors in the network. Many existing environmental JRPs focus on the need to make sure that individual sensor measurement results are traceable to standard units. However, decisions are not made on the basis of a result of a single sensor reading but on the basis of a complex aggregation of the sensor data to estimate key environmental variables. This aggregation is sometimes referred to as the transformation of “data to knowledge”. The value of a sensor network is judged on the value of the knowledge generated from the sensor data. It is important to ensure that traceability and uncertainty can be applied to the knowledge derived from sensor network data.

The recent advances in mathematical and statistical modelling associated with variables subject to spatial and/or temporal correlation, are possible approaches to convert sensor networks into distributed metrology systems in which concepts such as traceability, uncertainty and calibration can be interpreted correctly. Gaussian process models can be used to describe environmental variables that exhibit a spatio-temporal correlation: the values of a variable at nearby locations and times will be similar. This correlation structure is valuable prior information that can reduce uncertainties in the estimates of the variables since the estimate can take into account neighbouring measurements. Sensor data can be assimilated with meteorological models, models of atmospheric chemistry, etc., to provide enhanced estimates that benefit from the model predictions as well as the measured data. Ensemble Kalman filter techniques can be used to implement data

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assimilation in a computationally efficient scheme. These algorithms developed primarily for weather forecasting could be very effective in applying data assimilation methods to environmental monitoring.

Wired and wireless communications allow data arising from a sensor network to be sent to a data centre to be analysed. Statistical/machine learning algorithms and other data fusion algorithms, implemented on a cloud computing platform, can then be applied to provide enhanced model of the system, in particular, separating out the effect of environmental influence factors on sensor performance from the values of the environmental variables under study.



The JRP shall focus on the traceable measurement and characterisation of sensor networks in environmental monitoring.

The specific objectives are:

1. To develop generic tools to support sensor networks in three broad areas

i) mathematical and statistical modelling

ii) (wireless) communications

iii) ICT and informatics

2. To ensure that sensor networks give traceable measurements by extending current metrological practice, in particular, defining the appropriate concepts for;

i) definition of a measurand associated with a network

ii) uncertainty associated with a network

iii) calibration of a network, including in situ calibration

3. To optimise network design and operation to maximise the information gain from sensor networks used in environmental monitoring.

Any proposal against this SRT should contain explicit application of the generic tools and concepts to develop more than one environmental monitoring or energy distribution network, and deliverables demonstrating the benefit gained by that network.


Proposers should establish the current state of the art, and explain how their proposed project goes beyond this. In particular, proposers should outline the achievements of the EMRP project NEW04 ‘Novel mathematical and statistical approaches to uncertainty evaluation’ and how their proposal will build on those.

EURAMET expects the average size of JRPs in this call to be between 3.0 to 3.5 M€, and has defined an upper limit of 5 M€ for any project. Any proposal received for this SRT is expected to be significantly below 3.0 M€. The available budget for integral Research Excellence Grants is 30 months of effort.

Potential Impact

Proposals must demonstrate adequate and appropriate participation/links to the “end user” community. This may be through the inclusion of unfunded JRP-Partners or collaborators, or by including links to industrial/policy advisory committees, standards committees or other bodies. Evidence of support from the “end user” community (eg letters of support) is encouraged.

You should detail how your JRP results are going to: • feed into the development of urgent documentary standards through appropriate standards bodies • transfer knowledge to the environmental sector. • provide a common platform to allow correlations to be established across many environmental

domains


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• will develop, capture and promote best practice in measurement and data analysis in environmental metrology






Time-scale




[1] DIRECTIVE 2008/50/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe

[2] DIRECTIVE 2008/56/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy (Marine Strategy Framework Directive)




Title: Traceability for mercury measurements Abstract

Pollution by mercury is a major global, regional and national challenge as it threatens human health and the environment. The main threat is to pregnant women, babies and marine mammals that eat contaminated fish. In Europe, member states are obliged to terminate existing discharge, emissions and losses of Hg. Mercury is reactive, difficult to store and handle, and extremely difficult to measure as it easily disappears/adsorbs in e.g. sample containers even before the measurement analysis has been carried out. A calibration infrastructure needs to be realised and implemented, a metrological in-line measurement method developed, a speciation analysis performed - including the development and metrological validation of multi-collector ICP-MS methods to determine if isotopic signatures can be assigned to different sources of mercury, an understanding of mercury migration and transformation artefacts (e.g. using historical samples from environmental specimen banks) developed, and traceable measurements for emerging requirements in mercury science provided. This will support the requirements of national and international legislation (e.g. the UNEP Minamata Convention on Mercury), which aims at controlling mercury emissions and releases.


This Call for JRPs conforms to the EMRP Outline 2008, section on “Grand Challenges” related to Energy and Environment on pages 8, 9 and 24. Keywords

Mercury, metals, speciation, emission, fuels, traceability, comparability, isotope ratio measurements, sensors, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), mass independent fractionation, mass dependent fractionation, MC ICP-MS, environmental specimen banks


Due to its toxicity, the use of mercury is being phased out and/or limited to less than 1000 mg/kg in products. Mercury is a global contaminant that enters the environment from natural sources, historical burden in soil and sediments, and from industry. Today the main source is likely from coal-fired power plants, but a scientifically litigable proof is missing. In the UNEP 2013 document “Global Mercury Assessment” the global emissions to air from anthropogenic sources were estimated at 1960 tonnes (2010) with a large uncertainty of 1010 to 4070 tonnes. Mercury is also entering the environment by other means in unknown amounts.

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is aiming to develop a global observation system for mercury in support of the goals of GEOSS etc. While the WMO's Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) have established data centres and quality control programs to enhance integration of air quality measurements from different national and regional networks. Similarly, the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry project has strongly endorsed the need for international exchange of calibration standards.

Some NMIs have developed capabilities for the measurement of mercury, but this does not extend to environmental measurement. This capability has been limited to providing non-matrix specific mono-elemental mercury reference materials. Consequently, at the moment it is not possible to defensibly assess mercury at relevant concentrations in European directives (Directive 2004/107/EC, Art. 3; Directive 2010/75/EU), because of a lack of underpinning traceability and validated methodologies for low concentrations and for different mercury species. Also the written standards EN-15852 and EN-15853 and the US EPA’s methods 30A and 30B need a metrological backbone. The Directive 2008/105/EC requires that all Member States monitor the environmental concentrations of Priority Hazardous Substances (PHS) and report to the EC whether national waters meet Environmental Quality Standards (EQS), or not. The EQS


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for mercury will be measured in prey tissue to account for food web magnification. European Member States are legally obliged to progressively reduce discharges, emissions and losses of PHS to zero within 20 years. Mercury levels in water bodies across Europe exceed the EQS and are unlikely to meet targets. A number of mercury-related standardisation mandates have been prepared M/036, M/360 and M/232 [1, 2, 3] to address these issues.

Mercury pollution has traditionally been monitored by measuring the concentrations of Hg species in inorganic and organic matrices. MC-ICPMS now allows small differences in Hg isotope abundances to be measured in environmental abiotic and biotic matrices. Also, the direct identification of different isotopic signatures of different Hg species is now possible within the same sample (these may have a completely different biogeochemistry history). This technique can help to track the transport and fate of mercury in the environment. Various geologic and environmental matrices are being characterised to inventory the isotope signatures of different source materials, and to document the ranges in Hg mass dependent fractionation (MDF) and mass independent fractionation (MIDF) in materials around the globe. Gradients in Hg concentrations and isotope signatures have been shown to be associated with Hg point sources. To improve the utility of isotopic source apportionment the data inventories of Hg MDF and MIDF values need to be expanded and improved for a variety of sample types and locations. Such robust, defensible and traceable measurements of mercury are needed to underpin the global effort to reduce the concentration of mercury in the environment, meet the obligations of legislation and to protect human health.

Highly reliable environmental samples are needed that document different contamination levels and patterns. There are 14 Environmental specimen banks (ESBs) in Europe, which contain cryo-archived samples from marine, limnic and terrestrial environments that provide authentic records of industrial contamination of air, soil and water. The mercury levels recorded in these samples will enable high quality assessment and metrological validation.



The JRP shall focus on the traceable measurement and characterisation of mercury.


1. To realise and implement a calibration infrastructure, built upon traceable primary standards, enabling the defensible and traceable assessment of mercury thresholds specified in European legislation and as part of the global mercury observing system.

2. To develop a metrological in-line measurement method for continuous and semi-continuous Hgo and Hg(II) measurement in (harsh) matrices like stationary source emissions or liquid media, including the use of sensor technology.

3. To perform a speciation analysis of mercury across all environmental compartments (e.g. water, soil, flue gases, biogas, biota and solids), aiming at minimising species interconversion post-sampling. This should include the development and metrological validation of multi-collector ICP-MS methods for measuring mass dependent fractionation and mass independent fractionation of mercury isotopes. It should then be determined if isotopic signatures can be assigned to different sources of mercury.

4. To understand mercury migration and transformation artefacts associated with e.g. changing environmental conditions (i.e. historical samples from environmental specimen banks should be used), in order to develop robust methods for (representative) sampling, filtration, preservation and storage.

5. To provide traceable measurements for emerging requirements in mercury science such as the evaluation of mercury concentrations in indoor air from the use of mercury containing compact fluorescent lamps.



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Proposers should establish the current state of the art, and explain how their proposed project goes beyond this and EMRP JRP ENV02 (PartEmission) ‘Emerging requirements for measuring pollutants from automotive exhaust emissions’ with regards to the measurement of mercury.


Potential Impact


You should detail how your JRP results are going to: • feed into the development of urgent documentary standards through appropriate standards bodies • transfer knowledge to enable the traceable measurement and characterisation of mercury






Time-scale




[1] EC Mandate M/036, Standardisation mandate to CEN for a manual reference method for the calibration of automated measurement systems for total mercury emissions into the air and main performance characteristics of the automated measurement systems.

[2] EC Mandate M/360, Standardisation mandate to CEN for standard measuring methods for the determination of total gaseous mercury in ambient air and the total deposition of mercury.

[3] EC Mandate M/232, Standardisation mandate to CEN for the determination of the total emission of some heavy metals and metalloids to the air.




Title: Metrology for “emerging” pollutants and novel methods in European water policy Abstract

Comparable chemical and biological measurements in Europe are a requirement of the European Commission in the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC, QA/QC Directive 2009/90/EC, Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC and Mandate M/424. However, such measurements can only be achieved with traceable reference measurement standards. In addition, validated field and laboratory methodologies able to provide accurate, representative and comparable measurements are needed to support monitoring and decision making. Further to this, in coastal and marine waters, traditional sampling based on spot samples is ineffective in providing meaningful environmental concentrations. Passive samplers could provide an alternate technique, but the metrological validation of these devices is, as yet, unproven.


This Call for JRPs conforms to the EMRP Outline 2008, section on “Grand Challenges” related to Energy and Environment on pages 8, 9, 24 and 25. Keywords

Water Framework Directive (WFD); Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD); QA/QC Directive; chemical and biological monitoring; on-line monitoring; coastal and marine waters sampling; metrological traceability; standard operating procedure; reference materials.


The Water Framework Directive (WFD) specifies the ‘need to ensure comparability of assessment approaches and methods within and between marine regions and/or subregions’ and the ‘need to develop technical specifications and standardised methods for monitoring at Community level so as to allow comparability of information’. Similarly, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) aims to achieve good environmental status by 2020. As data measurements are the basis of the overall decision-making process the WFD and MSFD have been linked with complementary directives on Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC). The QA/QC Directive 2009/90/EC states that ‘in order to fulfil validation requirements, all methods of analysis applied by Member States for the purposes of chemical monitoring programmes of water status should meet certain minimum performance criteria, including rules on the uncertainty of measurements and on the limit of quantification of the methods.

In the context of the WFD and MSFD, chemical monitoring relies on the accuracy of successive steps: sampling, sample storage and preservation and pre-treatment, calibration, measurement, analysis of results, uncertainty estimation and final conclusions, and the comparability of results between laboratory and field measurements. However, the recommendations of the Chemical Monitoring and Emerging Pollutant working group E on chemical aspects under the Common Implementation Strategy of the WFD highlight the need for ‘for new analytical and alternative detection methods to increase efficiency and decrease costs of chemical monitoring’; ‘organisation of targeted laboratory inter-comparisons, provision of suitable reference materials and other tools of QC on the basis of the main standards (e.g. ISO 13528:2005) and guidelines and finally ‘comparability of compliance checking in the presence of measurement uncertainty’.


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The JRP shall focus on the traceable measurement, comparability, accuracy and reliability of WFD measurements as described by the QA/QC directive 2009/90/EC.


1. Calibration of passive sampling devices in coastal and marine waters as well as production of SOP for their use. Sample preparation and detection techniques for the analysis of priority substances using multi-residue analysis and multi-technique approaches (e.g. C-MS/MS, LC-MS/MS, ICP-MS) should also be considered.

2. To develop metrological infrastructure for the accurate measurement of WFD priority substances in water and biota. Measurements should be traceable to the SI and include uncertainty analyses and purity assessment of targeted compound, development of reference methods and measurements on whole water samples.

3. Assessment of currently available matrix certified reference material and development of commutable matrix reference materials representative of European surface water species.

4. To develop the metrological system for accurate monitoring at ultra-low trace levels of contamination, beyond those required in the WFD. Focus should be on parameters such as priority pollutants (e.g. PAH, PBDE, metals) and ecological status (e.g. nutrients, turbidity).

5. Development of metrological infrastructure for the accurate and to the SI traceable determination of microbes (including pathogens) and key “stress-related” biomarkers present in an aquatic sample used as an indicator of good water quality. This should include the development of standardised procedures for in vitro microorganism-based assays.


Proposers should establish the current state of the art, and explain how their proposed project goes beyond this and EMRP JRP ENV08 WFD ‘Traceable measurements for monitoring critical pollutants under the European Water Framework Directive (WFD 2000/60/EC)’.


Potential Impact


You should detail how your JRP results are going to: • feed into the development of urgent documentary standards through appropriate standards bodies • transfer knowledge to the environmental sector.





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Time-scale




[1] Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC

[2] QA/QC Directive 2009/90/EC

[3] Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC

[4] Mandate M/424 Mandate for standardization addressed to CEN for the development or improvement of standards in support of the Water Framework Directive

[5] ISO 13528:2005 Statistical methods for use in proficiency testing by interlaboratory comparisons

EMPIR Call 2014 – Industry and Research Potential Selected Research Topic number: SRT-r03 Version: 1.0

EURAMET-MSU National Physical Laboratory Hampton Road, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW, UK


Title: Absorbed dose in water and air Abstract

Radiation dosimetry underpins much of the radiotherapy treatment or diagnostics of patients and the radiological protection of the environment. For example on average in Europe there is one radio diagnostic examination per person and per year. The availability of reliable and traceable measurement facilities for the dissemination of the dosimetric units to the network of secondary standard dosimetry laboratories (SSDLs) is therefore an important factor. Graphite cavity chambers can be used for the measurement of air kerma rates of gamma ray sources for photon energies such as those of 60Co and 137Cs, free air chambers can be used for the measurement air kerma for low or medium X-ray energies and water calorimeters for the measurement of absorbed dose to water.

This topic is focused on enhancing the availability of radiological dosimetry facilities and research capability at NMIs/DIs within countries or regions in Europe where access to these types of facilities is currently limited.

Keywords

Radiation dosimetry, graphite cavity chambers, free air chambers, calorimeters, air kerma, absorbed dose to water, capacity building


The international framework of traceability for radiation dosimetry quantities [1] ensures confidence in the equivalence of patient treatment regimes as required in international clinical trials for radiotherapy but also for fields as diverse as industrial processing, diagnostic medicine and radiation protection. The framework relies on some twenty countries with primary standard dosimetry laboratories (PSDLs) which validate their standards against each other through comparisons organised by the BIPM and then disseminate the SI for air kerma and for absorbed dose to water in terms of the gray (Gy), the special name designated for J/kg. The primary standards are usually free-air ionisation chambers for low and medium energy x-ray beams, cavity ionisation chambers for gamma beams and either graphite or water calorimeters for high-energy photon beams. A network of secondary standard dosimetry laboratories (SSDLs), established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), ensure that standards traceable to the PSDLs (and hence the SI) are disseminated as widely as possible.

An NMI or DI wishing to establish a research capacity in this area would do so through the design, construction and validation of their own ionisation chambers and calorimeters. The design would build on the experience of more developed NMIs, using their expertise to optimise the design for the particular needs of that country. The validation process would involve the establishing NMI participating in comparisons and analysis of uncertainties with others establishing similar facilities and those with long established facilities. The whole process would result in both the development of a facility, the development of the relevant staff and the development of relationships between the establishing NMI and more experienced researchers in the field which would foster further joint research activities beyond the life of the project.

Objectives

Proposers should address the objectives stated below, which are based on the PRT submissions. Proposers may identify amendments to the objectives or choose to address a subset of them in order to maximise the overall impact, or address budgetary or scientific / technical constraints, but the reasons for this should be clearly stated in the proposal.

The JRP shall focus on the development of metrological research capacity in radiation dosimetry.

EMPIR Call 2014 – Industry and Research Potential SRT-r03.docx

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1. To design, construct and validate graphite cavity chambers for those participating NMIs and DIs seeking to establish a research capability in measuring the air kerma for photon energies such as those of 60Co and 137Cs.

2. To design, construct and validate free air chambers for those participating NMIs and DIs seeking to establish a research capability in measuring the air kerma for low or medium X-ray energies.

3. To design, construct and validate calorimeters for those participating NMIs and DIs seeking to establish a research capability in measuring absorbed dose to water for high energy photon beams such as those produced by clinical accelerators.

4. For each participant to develop an individual strategy for the long-term development of their research capability in radiation dosimetry including priorities for collaborations with the research community in their country, the establishment of appropriate quality schemes and accreditation (e.g. participation in key comparisons, the entry of CMCs into the BIPM database, accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025). They should also develop a strategy for offering calibration services from the established facilities to their own country and neighbouring countries. The individual strategies should be discussed within the consortium and with other EURAMET NMIs/DIs, to ensure that a coordinated and optimised approach to the development of traceability in this field is developed for Europe as a whole.

Proposers shall give priority to work that meets documented metrological needs and activities that will lead to an improvement in European metrological capability and infrastructure beyond the lifetime of the project.

Proposers should establish the relevant current capability for research, and explain how their proposed project will develop capability beyond this.

EURAMET has defined an upper limit of 500 k€ for the EU Contribution to any project in this TP, and a minimum of 100 k€.

EURAMET also expects the EU Contribution to the external funded partners to not exceed 10 % of the total EU Contribution to the project. Any deviation from this must be justified.

Potential Impact

Proposals must demonstrate adequate and appropriate participation/links to the “end user” community, describing how the project partners will engage with relevant communities during the project to facilitate knowledge transfer and accelerate the uptake of project outputs. Evidence of support from the “end user” community (e.g. letters of support) is also encouraged.

You should detail how your JRP results are going to: • Address the SRT objectives and deliver solutions to the documented needs, • Provide a lasting improvement in the European metrological capability and infrastructure beyond the

lifetime of the project, • Facilitate improved industrial capability or improved quality of life for European citizens in terms of

personal health or protection of the environment, • Transfer knowledge to the clinical and radiation protection sector and the metrology community.

You should detail other impacts of your proposed JRP as specified in the document “Guide 4: Writing a Joint Research Project”.

You should also detail how your approach to realising the objectives will further the aim of EMPIR to develop a coherent approach at the European level in the field of metrology and include the best available contributions from across the metrology community. Specifically the opportunities for:


• the metrology capacity of EURAMET Member States whose metrology programmes are at an early stage of development to be increased

• organisations other than NMIs and DIs to be involved in the work

Time-scale



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[1] Metrologia 46 (2009) S1- S8




Title: Developing metrology research potential in [country] Abstract

Social advantages and economic competitiveness in modern society are supported by an effective national measurement system which is a generally recognised instrument in providing reliable measurement results traceable to the units of SI. Within Europe there is diversity in the size, capabilities, experience and age of the National Metrology Institutes and associated Designated Institutes.

This SRT focuses on a generic type of project aiming to establish metrology research potential in emerging NMIs or DIs of a specific country and more than one proposal submitted in response to this SRT may be funded.

Keywords

National metrology strategy, metrology research potential, capacity building


In order to respond to an existing capability gap in emerging EURAMET member countries and regions, Research Potential Projects (RPOTs) have been included within EMPIR for the development of the potential for metrology research of the participating organisations, which will subsequently provide input to other aspects of technology transfer, innovation, regulation and all other aspects of research. The overall strategic aim of these metrology capacity-building activities, which may be based on a particular technological area or may address multiple fields, is to achieve a balanced and integrated metrology system in the participating states, enabling them to develop their scientific and technical capabilities in metrology. Proposals should address clearly identified metrological needs, be research-oriented and might include the facilitation or establishment of smart specialisation. Competitive metrology capabilities affect all other aspects of the technical quality infrastructure of the participating NMIs and DIs, therefore directly contributing to increased European economic welfare.

EURAMET has identified the following preconditions and strategic goals associated with this type of project. They reflect the overall objective to develop an efficient, demand-oriented and coherent European landscape of metrology research and service capabilities.

1. Sustainability: existence of a national strategy, a procurement plan for metrology capabilities or recent investments in equipment such as through structural funds or other international funding agencies, demonstrating the long-term commitment of the country to provide the necessary resources.

2. European dimension: contribution of the project to the European coherence in metrology research and service capabilities, not only including the benefit for the emerging NMIs or DIs but also the impact on countries of similar size or at a similar level of development.

An NMI or DI wishing to establish a research capacity would do so through the design, construction and validation of their facility or techniques. The design would build on the experience of more developed NMIs, using their expertise to optimise the design for the particular needs of that country. The validation process would involve the establishing NMI in comparisons and analysis of uncertainties with others establishing similar facilities/techniques and those with long established facilities/techniques. The whole process would result in both the development of a facility or technique, the development of the relevant staff and the development of relationships between the establishing NMI and more experienced researchers in the field which would foster further joint research activities beyond the life of the project.

This SRT addresses a generic type of project aiming to establish metrology research potential in emerging NMIs or DIs of a specific country. It is thematically open, i.e. it is possible to address one or more thematic areas. Proposals from different countries within Europe are expected in response to this SRT and more than one proposal could be funded.


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Objectives


The JRP shall focus on the development of metrological capacity in the technical field(s) identified as a priority in an individual country.

The specific objectives are:

1. To develop measurement methods in technological fields which are prioritised according to the national strategy for the NMIs and Dis in an individual country, and which make use of existing equipment or equipment that will shortly be available.

2. To intercompare the methods developed in the JRP with existing techniques/methods within the European metrology community.

3. To develop a strategy for the long-term development of research capability in the relevant technical field(s), including priorities for collaborations with the research community in that country, the establishment of appropriate quality schemes and accreditation (e.g. participation in key comparisons, the entry of CMCs into the BIPM database, accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025).

4. To also develop a strategy for offering calibration services from the established facilities to that country and others (smart specialisation). The individual strategy should be discussed within the consortium and with other EURAMET NMIs/DIs, to ensure that a coordinated and optimised approach to the development of traceability in these fields is developed for Europe as a whole.

5. To establish co-operation between NMIs and universities or research organisations to enable efficient use of existing metrology and academic/research competence and limited resources in the development of measurement methods and metrology services.





Potential Impact




personal health or protection of the environment, • Transfer knowledge to the nanotechnology sector and the metrology community.

You should detail other impacts of your proposed JRP as specified in the document “Guide 4: Writing Joint Research Projects”.




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Time-scale





Title: Matrix reference materials for environmental analysis Abstract

Reliable analysis of chemical indicators in water, sediment and soil samples for assessing environmental pollution is a significant challenge for analytical chemistry because of the complexity of the sample matrix and low concentration of pollutants. Target compounds include organics (pesticides, PAHs, PCBs, etc.) and heavy metals (Hg, Cd, Ni, Pb and As). Laboratories performing sampling and tests in this field are regulated by EU directives, and need appropriate matrix certified reference materials (CRMs) to demonstrate traceability, however suitable CRMs are not always readily available locally.

Keywords

Environmental pollution, organics, heavy metals, matrix CRMs, quality control, target parameters


Drinking water, soil used for the cultivation of agricultural products, plant and animal habitats are all at risk from pollution or contamination from, for example, organics or heavy metals. Increased industrialisation, the use of chemicals in agriculture and the consumption of fossil fuels drive a greater need for monitoring environmental pollution. Establishing a quality system for the testing of environmental samples requires appropriate calibrators i.e. matrix CRMs representing typical samples in the geomorphological and anthropological sense. Given the complexity and instability of environmental samples such reference materials can be difficult to obtain and NMIs / DIs need to be able to develop and validate those required in their localities.

An NMI or DI wishing to establish a research capacity in this area would do so through the improvement and validation of their procedures for preparing such samples. These activities would build on the experience of more developed NMIs, using their expertise to optimise the system for the particular needs of that country. The validation process would involve the NMI establishing the capability participating in comparisons and analysis of uncertainties with others establishing similar facilities and those with long established facilities. The whole process would result in both the development of the procedures, the development of the relevant staff and the development of relationships between the establishing NMI and more experienced researchers in the field which would foster further joint research activities beyond the life of the project.

Objectives


The JRP shall focus on the development of metrological research capacity in the preparation of reference materials.


1. For the participating countries wishing to develop research capabilities in heavy metal reference materials, to develop procedures for the preparation of water/waste and soil/sediment water matrix samples containing certified amounts (with stated measurement uncertainty) of relevant heavy metals.

2. For the participating countries wishing to develop research capabilities in organic pollutant reference materials, to develop procedures for the preparation of water/waste and


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soil/sediment water matrix samples containing certified amounts (with stated measurement uncertainty) of relevant organics.

3. For each participant to develop an individual strategy for the long-term development of their research capability in certified reference materials for environmental pollution including priorities for collaborations with the research community in their country, the establishment of appropriate quality schemes and accreditation (e.g. participation in key comparisons, the entry of CMCs into the BIPM database, accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025). They should also develop a strategy for offering services from the established facilities to their own country and neighbouring countries. The individual strategies should be discussed within the consortium and with other EURAMET NMIs/DIs, to ensure that a coordinated and optimised approach to the development of traceability in this field is developed for Europe as a whole.





Potential Impact




personal health or protection of the environment, • Transfer knowledge to the environmental testing sector and the metrology community.

You should detail other impacts of your proposed JRP as specified in the document “Guide 4: Writing Joint Research Projects”.





Time-scale


Documents

List and description of European Metrology Research Projects · PDF fileList and description of European Metrology Research ... heavy vehicles and aviation. ... • the metrology capacity