# Presentation: 798313

## NIST Standards-Related Programs

**Mary Saunders**
**Chief, Standards Services Division**
**Technology Services**
**National Institute of Standards and Technology**
**mary.saunders@nist.gov**

## Overview

- NIST
- Provides technical underpinning for documentary standards
- In support of global trade
- In support of the commercial measurement system
- Provides policy leadership for standards activities
- With the private sector
- For government agencies
- Promotes global acceptance of standards
- Promotes efficiency in standards and conformity assessment programs

## NIST provides sound technical underpinning for documentary standards ...

- By participating as measurement experts in the development of test methods; product, system, and process specifications; etc.
- By participating in data collection efforts in support of the development of test methods
- By providing measurement standards needed to calibrate instruments used in test methods
- E.g., ASTM standards reference ~800 NIST Standard Reference Materials

## NIST Participation in Documentary Standards Activities

- 401 staff members, more than 25% of the technical staff, participate in ANSI and 97 voluntary standards organizations:
**ASTM International - 149**
**International Organization for Standardization - 63**
**IEEE – 42**
**ANSI - 39**
**ASME International - 32 **
**International Electrotechnical Commission – 16**
**IETF - 12**
**ASHRAE  - 11**
**SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute) - 11**
- NIST staff hold 988 committee memberships; 157 are leadership positions

## NIST Support for U.S. Commercial Measurement System

- Develop standards and test procedures for weights and measures** **
**Harmonized national and international standards**
**Input to National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM); International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML)**
- Technical guidance to industry, retailers, and regulatory officials
**Training for weights and measures officials in device inspection, pre-packaged goods, laboratory metrology, price scanner inspections, and weights and measures administration**
**Laboratory metrology training and support**
**Mass metrology laboratory training facility**

## International Legal Metrology

- Represent the U.S., on behalf of State Department, as Technical Representative to the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML)
**Secretariat of 15 OIML Technical Committees and Subcommittees**
**Led development of the OIML Mutual Acceptance Arrangement for Type Evaluation**
- Participate in the Asia-Pacific Legal Metrology Forum (APLMF) and the Sistema Interamericana Metrologia (SIM)

## NIST Standards Policy Leadership

- Congress has directed NIST to coordinate with Federal agencies to:
**use voluntary consensus standards to the extent practicable**
**report development of agency-unique standards**
**participate in the development of voluntary consensus standards relevant to their needs**
**reduce overlap and duplication, and increase efficiency, of conformity assessment activities**
- NIST staff serve on standards-related policy committees
**ANSI, ASTM and IEEE Boards of Directors  **
**ASME:  Council on Codes and Standards**
**ISO:  Vice President for Policy**
- NIST staff co-chair ANSI standards panels – for homeland security and nanotechnology

## National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act: NIST Goals for 2011

**Every relevant department, agency, and independent commission has a strategic management standards policy and implementation plan in place to ensure that standards are integral to its decision-making process. **
** **
**Agencies increase their participation in voluntary consensus standards development efforts and, as a result, increase their effectiveness in meeting national goals.**
**Each agency actively coordinates activities related to evaluating conformance to regulatory requirements to eliminate overlap and duplication and to minimize bureaucratic burdens on the private sector.**
**State and local needs benefit from – and are integrated into the practices of the federal agencies so that the development of voluntary consensus standards better address their technology needs.**

## NIST Role in Promoting Global Acceptance of Standards

- NIST
- Partners with other government agencies, industry, ANSI and its members to conduct workshops for foreign officials
- Chairs standing standards dialogues with key foreign counterparts
- Serves as technical liaison for Department of Commerce standards experts stationed in U.S. Embassies and Missions
- Expanded network of foreign officials knowledgeable about the U.S. system; wider use and acceptance of globally recognized standards by foreign governments

## Education about Standardization

**Is important to NIST:**
**For our own staff, so that they can be more informed participants in the standards process**
**For NIST and other agency staff, so that they can be more informed users of standards**
**For our programs targeted at foreign government officials**
**For our customers, both public and private sector**