NRC Institute for National Measurement Standards (NRC-INMS)

(Ottawa, Ontario)

Ensuring Canada Measures Up

As Canada's primary centre of reference for the accuracy, validity and traceability of physical and chemical measurements, NRC-INMS anchors the national measurement system and provides a fundamental technical infrastructure that supports Canadian industry and the Canadian public by:

• facilitating Canada's global trade and global co-manufacturing by providing high accuracy, primary measurement standards and services compatible with those of other countries;
• strengthening the competitiveness of Canadian companies by facilitating the traceability of their measurements to recognized international standards of measurement;
• ensuring that Canadian companies exploiting emerging technologies are supported by the timely development of appropriate new measurement standards and services;
• addressing health and environmental issues through chemical metrology services that create appropriate measurement standards and certified reference materials.

Standards of length made of low thermal expansion glass

Central to NRC-INMS activities is the international recognition of Canada's primary measurement standards, an issue vital to Canada where over 40 percent of GDP is dependent on exports — a level five times greater than in the United States. To this end, NRC-INMS actively cooperates with the counterpart organizations of Canada's trading partners, and participates in high-level international comparisons of primary standards and measurement techniques. The Institute's high accuracy calibration services disseminate measurements that are recognized worldwide to industry, universities, hospitals, and government departments and agencies.

Core R&D activities which encompass a broad range of scientific disciplines, are aimed at the realization of high accuracy primary standards and at specific applications of measurement techniques. These activities underpin the industrial sector of Canadian economy where measurement is a key component in product quality and the inter-operability and exchangeability of components. Stakeholders include resource industries such as pulp and paper and electrical power, automotive manufacturing, and high-tech industries such as aerospace and telecommunications. Metrology is also essential for consumer and environmental protection and in the health sciences.