TÜBİTAK UME hosted the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Metrology Committee of the Standards and Metrology Institute of Islamic Countries (SMIIC) on January 18, 2016.
The meeting was attended by 30 representatives from OIC member countries Albania, Azerbaijan, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Gambia, Guinea, Iran, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Niger, Senegal, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. The agenda of the meeting focused on activities concerning securing financial support for metrology development initiatives, training, production of certified reference materials for halal products.
In addition to discussions on cooperation in training initiatives for developing the metrology infrastructures of member countries and financial instruments that could be deployed to fund metrology capacity building projects, delegates also exchanged ideas on cooperation to establish traceability chains among member countries and on steps to be taken to achieve international recognition for their institutions, as well as specific activities to be organized in the year 2016.
Presentations were made by invited speakers Dr. Sabri Er, Technical Cooperation Programme Coordinator at the Islamic Development Bank on IDB financing instruments to fund technical development projects and Prof. Dr. Eren San from the Gebze Technical University on their newly opened graduate program in metrology, to whose development TÜBİTAK UME has contributed.
SMIIC, founded in 2010 within the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), aims to facilitate the elimination of technical barriers to trade among member countries through cooperative initiatives to harmonize and develop their national quality infrastructures.