Quality Assurance



Roles & Responsibilities


QA work package team

The Quality Assurance work package is run by a small team of individuals from CEFAS in the United Kingdom.

This group includes Keith Cooper (WP Leader) and Hubert Rees.

Hubert Rees was previously chair of the ICES/OSPAR Steering Group on Quality Assurance of Biological Measurements in the Northeast Atlantic (SGQAE). Keith Cooper is currently a member of the ICES/OSPAR Steering Group on Quality Assurance of Biological Measurements (STGQAB) and the National Marine Biological Analytical Quality Control Scheme (NMBAQC/BEQUALM).

Our responsibility is to oversee the implementation of the approach set out under the Work Package Aims.


QA Steering Group

Much of the work of the QA team will be concerned in making QA information easily accessible to the network, primarily through these webpages. However, we also intend to respond to specific QA issues raised by network participants. These issues may be in relation to their own in-house procedures or in relation to specific projects carried out in collaboration with other MarBEF participants.

Whilst we recognise that many issues are likely to be generic in nature and can be answered by the QA team, others may fall outside our area of expertise. We therefore aim to create a network of individuals within the MarBEF community who would be prepared to advise on specific QA issues related to their area of expertise. Together with the QA team, these individuals would form a MarBEF QA Steering Group. We also welcome and encourage participation from others within the network with a specific interest in QA matters in general.

Steering group members are sought with expertise in all fields relevant to MarBEF, e.g.:

  • Data management
  • Genomics
  • Proteomics
  • Microbiology
  • Phytoplankton
  • Zooplankton
  • Fish
  • Macrobenthos
  • Socio economics

Any QA issue should be sent to the QA work package leader (see Contact us).

Where appropriate, additional advice will be sought from outside organisations with responsibility for QA (e.g. ICES/OSPAR/HELCOM STGQAB).

We will share your concerns and the resulting advice with the wider MarBEF community through the Advice on Quality Issues section of this website.


Responsibilities of all MarBEF participants

MarBEF participants are encouraged to use these web-pages to assess their own QA procedures and to consider quality issues in relation to work carried out in collaboration with other MarBEF partners.

We also encourage all MarBEF participants to adhere to the proposed MarBEF QA Framework.

Web site hosted and maintained by Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)page last modified: 2006-04-26 10:35:48 GMT+1