National Water Referencie Laboratory

The Water Research Institute (WRI) is a governmental budgetary organization dealing with almost all water management issues. The National Water Reference Laboratory in Slovakia has been established by the Act of Government of Slovakia No.638/1996 as the division of the Water Research Institute in Bratislava. The main objective was to harmonize the standard practice of the European Union and the rules of the OECD with the hydro-analytical practice in the Slovak Republic. The main activities were agreed by the three ministries of the Slovak Republic (Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of the Health) in the year 1997.
The activities are focused to:

• Development, verification, validation and implementation of the analytical methods,
• Quality control/quality assurance and proficiency testing scheme for the Slovak hydro-analytical laboratories,
• Implementation of the EU Directives (e.g. Water Framework Directive). In co-operation with SHMI provides sampling and measurements of the needed data for assessment of ecological and chemical status.
• Participation of experts from NRL in many international working groups (e.g. Slovak National Standards, CEN, ISO, MLIM, Inter-calibration Working Group of EU)
• Participation on the preparation of the Slovak Report for EU
• Trainings for the hydro-analytical experts of Slovakia and other countries
• Co-operation on preparation and distribution certified reference materials for water sector,
• Bilateral and international projects,
• Co-operation with the Slovak National Accreditation Service due to the accreditation of the hydro-analytical laboratories in Slovakia,
• Consultancy and the top audit for the water sector in Slovakia.

The NRL is able to cover the fields of sampling; analyses of physical-chemical parameters, organic and inorganic trace compounds, radiochemical isotopes, hydro-biological, micro-biological, eco-toxicological determinands; analytical quality control/quality assurance; data management and logistics; interpretation of the methods and assessment of the results of measurements.

Presentation of department