Management office and Clinical Research Support Unit (USIC) successfully pass ISO 9001 audit

The management office and the Clinical Research Support Unit (USIC) of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Lleida (IRBLleida) have successfully passed the ISO 9001 Quality Management System audit, reaffirming the commitment to offer a quality service seeking continuous improvement. The IRBLleida Biobank was the first technical scientific service certified by ISO 9001 since 2012 and from this year the management office and the USIC have been included. The IRBLleida is committed to extending the certification to other departments and services as a sign of transparency and quality. ISO 9001 is the most widely recognised quality management standard in the world. It belongs to the ISO 9000 family of quality management system standards and helps organisations to meet the expectations and needs of their customers.

Also as a result of IRBLleida's desire for excellence, seven scientific-technical services at IRBLleida (Biobank and USIC -which have passed the ISO 9001 audit-, Cytometry, CREBA, Immunohistochemistry and histological support, Lipidomics and the Biostatistics Unit) form part of the CERCAGINYS platform, a platform for access to scientific and technical infrastructures promoted by I-CERCA that brings together the research centres of Catalonia. The aim of this platform is to facilitate access by the business sector to the services of highly qualified technical personnel.

CERCAGINYS is the access platform to the scientific and technical infrastructures of the 41 I-CERCA centres. The website includes 196 platforms classified by category and quality accreditation. The initiative aims to optimise access to these facilities for the entire scientific and technological community. In addition to the portal, the project develops an operating protocol that includes CERCA rates, allocates a large part of the budget to the repair and maintenance of equipment and offers specific training in quality management, accreditations, open data management and OpenData.