Choosing an ISO 17025 accreditation body: Global ACI recognition, technical fit and how to compare offers

What does an ISO 17025 accreditation body actually do?

An accreditation body is the organisation that decides whether your laboratory is competent for a stated list of tests or calibrations. It works to ISO/IEC 17011:2017, the standard for bodies that accredit conformity assessment bodies, and it has no role in running your laboratory.

It reviews your application and documents, then sends a lead assessor and technical assessors who watch selected tests or calibrations and examine the evidence behind the numbers. The body's committee or council then takes the decision. If accreditation is granted, the body publishes a schedule naming the methods, ranges and sites covered, then keeps checking through surveillance and reassessment.

The choice matters: the body's recognition decides where your results are accepted, and its assessors will return for years. The full sequence from application to decision is set out in our guide to the ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation process.

Global ACI recognition: what it means for a laboratory

On 1 January 2026 ILAC and IAF were brought together in a single organisation, Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated, known as Global ACI. Its Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MRA) replaced the ILAC MRA, under which laboratory accreditation had been recognised internationally, and the IAF MLA used for certification bodies.

The arrangement exists to reduce technical barriers to trade. Each signatory accepts the accreditations of the others as equivalent to its own, except where regulation or law says otherwise.

Three points follow:

• Recognition is by scope. A body can be a signatory for certification or inspection without being one for testing or calibration. Check the scope that matches your laboratory activities.
• Existing accreditations carry over. A body whose website still cites the ILAC MRA is not automatically a concern; ILAC-era accreditations remain recognised during the transition.
• The list is the authority. Use Global ACI's published list of recognised bodies, not a brochure logo.

National body or another signatory?

Most laboratories apply to their own country's accreditation body: its assessors share your language, local regulators know it and travel stays local. In some markets the question is settled for you. In Dubai, for example, EIAC states that registration is mandatory for Dubai-based laboratories under local regulations, while accreditation outside Dubai is voluntary. In the European Union, national accreditation bodies are designated by their governments under Regulation (EC) No 765/2008.

A laboratory may look abroad when its customers sit in another market or the national body lacks assessors for a specialised discipline; first ask whoever relies on your results whether they accept a foreign body.

The table shows what national bodies in Sterling's main markets say about themselves. We assert no body's current Global ACI standing: in September 2026 several did not appear on the list as we viewed it, and some still cite ILAC-era arrangements.

Can the body assess your tests and calibrations?

Recognition shows the body is credible, not that it has technical assessors for each discipline you apply for. Ask:

• Does it already accredit laboratories for these methods or ranges, with published schedules to show it?
• Who will act as technical assessor for each discipline, and how soon are they available?
• Which tests or calibrations will be witnessed?
• How must calibration capability and uncertainty be expressed on the schedule?
• Does the body allow a flexible scope, and under which of its own rules?
• What does its proficiency testing policy require before grant? NABL, for instance, asks applicants to take part successfully in at least one scheme first.

How to word the scope you apply for is covered in our guide to the ISO/IEC 17025 scope of accreditation, and planning scheme participation in the guide to proficiency testing.

What the application pack should tell you, and three offers compared

Ask each body for its application pack and fee schedule before you apply, and collect the same facts from each: application and document review charges, any pre-assessment, lead and technical assessor days and their basis, witnessing, travel, annual and surveillance charges, the reassessment cycle, the deadline for closing findings and the decision time. How these lines add up is explained in our guide to ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation cost.

Cycles and deadlines genuinely differ. UKAS describes a first surveillance visit six months after grant, annual surveillance and full reassessment every fourth year, with about 12 weeks to evidence mandatory findings. NABL describes annual surveillance, reassessment every two years and 30 days for corrective action. EIAC grants accreditation for three years.

An illustrative comparison for a single-site calibration laboratory:

Warning signs when choosing an accreditation body

• A certificate in days. Accreditation follows validated methods and records built up over normal work, never a fortnight.
• No technical assessors and no witnessing. A document check alone cannot establish competence to perform a test or calibration.
• No public schedule. Accreditation without a published scope gives your customers nothing to verify.
• A body you cannot find on the Global ACI list or in a national directory.
• A consultant who issues the accreditation too. Consultants prepare laboratories; only accreditation bodies accredit.

How to check an existing accreditation and its scope is covered in our guide to verifying a laboratory's ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation.

Where Sterling stands

Sterling does not accredit. The body you choose assesses and decides; our part is an informed choice and a prepared laboratory.

Choosing an ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation body: questions buyers ask