Research and Development

Research at NRC's Institute for National Measurement Standards (INMS) is aimed at the realization of high accuracy primary standards compatible with those of other countries, and at specific applications of measurement techniques.

The Institute has eight research groups with eleven specialized programs in physical and chemical metrology.

INMS conducts frontier metrology research to improve the accuracy with which measurements are made of fundamental quantities like length, time, electric current, temperature, luminous intensity and mass. Researchers also strive to improve measurement methods for a host of additional quantities derived from these fundamental units — absorbed dose to water and air kerma, pressure, volume, hardness, flow rate, chemical composition, voltage, resistance, and many others.