NIM

Brief Introduction

Founded in 1955, the National Institute of Metrology (NIM) is China’s national metrological institute and technical center for legal metrology, affiliated with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ). Same as other NMIs,NIM is tasked with establishing, maintaining and improving national measurement standards and conducting research on relevant technologies to achieve more precise measurements.

Up until now, NIM has established 124 national primary standards and 220 national standards. By disseminating these standards to lower levels of standards and customers and participating in international comparisons, NIM provides essential insurance for the accuracy and reliability of quantity values within China and their international consistency.

NIM is committed to push back the frontiers of metrology to support the nation’s development in economy, science and technology and to facilitate the application of high-tech in industries. For more than 50 years since its founding, a great number of foundational and application R&D projects were completed, winning up to 300 state-or-ministry-level prizes. The significant role of these achievements are already and will continue to be seen everywhere in our country’s economy, high tech development and the overall social progress.

With the authorization of the former State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision, NIM signed the CIPM MRA in 1999 on behalf of China. Within the framework of MRA, NIM participates actively in international and regional key and supplementary comparisons to ensure our national standards’ equivalence and their traceability to the SI, and provides the country with a very important technical basis for her involvement in international trade and economic globalization. NIM has also passed laboratory accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 for more than 1000 verification and calibration services.

In 2000, the State Council approved NIM to build a second experimental base, which is expected to be a modernized experimental site tailored for the research on the next-generation measurement standards and technologies based on quantum physics. This is a new initiative in answering to the needs of high-tech industry and people’s demand for higher life quality for more accurate measurements.

        In 2005, the incorporation of the former National Research Center for Certified Reference Materials (NRCCRM) marked the birth of new NIM. Our tasks are:
     •To conduct research on, establish and maintain national measurement standards in an increasingly wider scope and to improve them continually by taking the advantage of advanced science and technology;
     •To participate in international comparisons to ensure the traceability and international equivalence of national standards and to disseminate their quantity values to lower levels of standards and customers through verification and calibration services to ensure the accuracy and reliability of quantity values nation-wide;
     •To conduct research on fundamental and new measurement theories, modern measurement methods and technologies;
        •To undertake other technical work related with legal metrology, laboratory accreditation and quality certification, etc.

        In future, one of our work focuses will be the research on some of the cutting-edge metrology science and technology and the new-generation measurement standards newly demanded by society. It is our objective to develop NIM into a world-class NMI with an optimized academic and organizational structure, strong human power, high innovative capability and great strength in metrological research.