ISTA Online Workshop on Quality Assurance and ISTA Accreditation for Early Beginners

Aim of the Workshop

This workshop aims at presenting and discussing basic principles of quality management. It focuses on the needs of seed testing laboratories that wish to comply with the ISTA Accreditation Standard. It prepares beginners for building a QA system and attaining ISTA Accreditation. Advanced participants may find refreshments helpful for maintaining 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, establish the structure 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. 

The language will be English. Workshop will take place Online

Preliminary Programme

System Part:

• ISTA Accreditation Standard for Seed Testing and Seed Sampling  

• Application for accreditation and ISTA crop groups  

• How to build a quality documentation 

• Document control 

• Corrective actions and non-conformities  

• Main principles of the internal audit 

• How to understand the Proficiency Test (PT) results 

Technical Part:  

• ISTA Rules overview 

• Introduction to management of equipment and seed testing material 

• Examples of QA on measuring equipment, Temperature, Weight measurement and control  

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

The number of participants is for a minimum of 10 and restricted to a maximum of 20 participants.

If you would like to attend the workshop please fill in the registration form. An invoice will be sent to you, which has to be paid before the participation confirmation will be generated.

Registration deadline is 1 November 2024

Please note:
For cancellations made before 1 November 2024 registration fees are refundable minus a 50 EUR administration fee
For cancellations made after 1 November 2024 registration fees are non-refundable