Keynote Lecturers
Beatriz Almagro
ENAC
Beatriz Almagro
ENAC
Beatriz Almagro has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Alicante since 2008, when she began collaborating with ENAC as an external technical assessor. In 2011, she joined ENAC’s internal staff and started working as a file manager in the food and industrial sectors. She is qualified as a lead assessor in the ISO 17025, ISO 17043 and ISO 17034 standards and is a member of ENAC’s training team.
Marzia Mancin
IZSVE
Marzia Mancin
IZSVE
Marzia Mancin is a Lead Statistician at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVe), where she provides statistical consulting and develops methodologies for national and international projects in the field of food safety and veterinary public health. With over 20 years of experience, she has been deeply involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of proficiency testing (PT) schemes.
Her work focuses on statistical methods for laboratory quality control, and she serves as the statistical lead for both international PT schemes (FAO and WOAH) and national programmes (AQUA). Marzia is a technical expert for ISO/IEC 17043 and ISO 13528 for Accredia, and a member of the ISO/TC 69 Technical Committee and the Eurachem Proficiency Testing Working Group.
She has co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and is actively involved in scientific dissemination and professional training.
Piotr Robouch
European Commission
Piotr Robouch
European CommissionPiotr Robouch is a Senior Scientist at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, with more than two decades of experience in the development, coordination, and evaluation of proficiency testing across multiple sectors, including GMO analysis, food contact materials, feed additives, and food allergens. Contributed to the drafting of previous editions of ISO 17043 and ISO 13528, and has extensive expertise in the statistical interpretation of proficiency testing results. Serves as Vice-Chair of the Eurachem Proficiency Testing Working Group and acts as editor of the Eurachem PT leaflets. An experienced trainer, regularly delivering advanced courses on the statistical evaluation of proficiency testing data.
Gro Gidske
EQALM
Gro Gidske
EQALM
Gro Gidske, PhD, has more than twenty years’ experience with external quality assurance (EQA) for medical laboratories. As Head of EQA Material Production at the Norwegian Organization for Quality Improvement of Laboratory Examinations (Noklus), she plays a central role in the development, management, and accreditation of EQA schemes. She currently serves as President of the European Organisation for External Quality Assurance Providers in Laboratory Medicine (EQALM) and is also a chair and member of several working groups in EQALM. She represents EQALM in the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Committee on the Preanalytical Phase. Gro is actively involved in Noklus’ and EQALM’s work in the 23IND02 COMET project, which aims to improve the availability of commutable Certified Reference Materials and EQA materials for standardisation and post-market surveillance of in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests.
Richard McFarlane
UKAS
Richard McFarlane
UKAS
Richard McFarlane has many years’ experience with accreditation and has spent the last 18 years at UKAS (United Kingdom accreditation service) currently occupying the role of Head of Technical Coordination. He has been involved and led with the production of a number of publications produced by the European cooperation for accreditation related to niche areas to aid accreditation bodies and organisations to operate consistently. He is dedicated to moving accreditation forward in a clear and pragmatic way and is delighted to be a keynote speaker on the topic of flexible scopes
Ulrich Leist
DRRR
Ulrich Leist
DRRR
Ulrich Leist is the Director and Founder of the Deutsches Referenzbüro für Ringversuche und Referenzmaterialien GmbH (DRRR) (German Reference Office for Proficiency Testing and Reference Materials). He is a scientist with a degree in chemistry and environmental science. He obtained his doctorate before taking up a position as a researcher at Harvard University (Cambridge, USA). Following this, he began working in the field of proficiency testing (PT). He has amassed over 20 years of experience in PT, reference material (RM) and accreditation. He obtained his first successful accreditation as a Pt-provider in 2006. He is an active member of numerous national and international working groups, and has contributed his expertise as a member of the ISO working group WG 57 for the ISO 17043:2023. He developed innovative statistical evaluation systems for PTs in the field of chemical, microbiological and organoleptic testing. He and his team have gained renown for developing PTs associated with the most difficult technical challenges. He and his team provide further support for standardisation organisations such as ISO by offering method validation ILCs and regularly publishing scientific results in peer-reviewed journals. During his tenure, DRRR has evolved into one of the major PT providers, delivering over 700 PT rounds annually to participants worldwide.
Sabrina Pepa
ACCREDIA
Sabrina Pepa
ACCREDIA
Sabrina Pepa has a degree in analytical chemistry. After graduation she worked for a short period in a laboratory performig tests in food . Then she started to work in the quality department of a food company.
She has been working for Accredia , Italian National accreditation body since 2002. During the years she has dealt with different tasks such as Techical officer ,assessors monitor and assessors trainer, internal auditor. As a technical officer she deals with accreditation process for both testing and PTP scheme. She has been qualified for testing and PTP scheme as team leader and she performs several assessments each year.
At international level she was part (as UNI expert) of ISO CASCO WGs working on revision of ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17043. She has been qualified as team member peer evaluator since 2016 for testing and PTP. In the past she participated as well as an expert in some TWINNING PROJECTS promoted by European Union .
She is currently part of WG EEEPT and of EA TN for forensics and PT/RM.