17 ASSOCIATION NEWS Ten Years as Head of ISTA Accreditation and Technical Department Florina Palada Head of Accreditation and Technical Department, ISTA Secretariat, Wallisellen, Switzerland; florina.palada@ista.ch COORDINATING THE ACTIVITY OF THE ACCREDITATION AND TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT FOR A DECADE has been a complex responsibility. The achievements of this period were possible only due to dedicated teamwork. The collaboration and communication of the Department team from the ISTA Secretariat, including the audit administrators and the contracted system auditors (SA) and technical auditors (TA), are our keys to success. Furthermore, the support and guidance of the ISTA Executive Committee (ECOM) and its Accreditation Working Group (AWG) must be commended. The growth in the number of auditors and their expertise is summarised in the following table. As can be seen, the total number of auditors increased to 33 (almost double) over 9 years and several categories of experts were introduced from 2019. In the same period, the number of system and technical auditors for standard tests increased, despite the fact that some colleagues decided to stop performing ISTA audits. Training and examinations of candidates to become ISTA auditors are also in progress, with the support of senior auditors and accredited members. In the same period of time the number of accredited members increased, and at the end of 2025 there was a total of 161 laboratories and sampling entities already accredited. Find out more from Dr Florina Palada at youtu.be/tWJPu8f4kQA?si=io-UnotIobKI2s6B The total number of accredited members increased by 36 over 10 years and there are four more members in the accreditation process, having been audited in 2025. It is thus estimated that there will be 165 accredited members in total in the first trimester of 2026. During the same interval, nine laboratories discontinued their ISTA accreditation (approximately one member per year on average). At the proposal of ISTA members, from 2023 the Department has organised ten webinars focused on the requirements of the ISTA Accreditation Standard and important changes impacting accreditation status. They were received with great interest and each session hosted more than 200 participants from accredited and non-accredited members, as well as non-ISTA members. The sessions were also watched afterwards on the ISTA YouTube channel, and it is known that they are being used as training materials in several laboratories. The webinar topics were: • How to address non-conformities identified at ISTA audits (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=nmh1XejIeUE) • ISTA samplers monitoring (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=69lmThAaO5U) • ISTA analysts monitoring (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=XMQgXdmJBog) • Introduction of ISTA eCertificates, two sessions (www.youtube.com/watch?v=emhzE0PkZoo) • Quality assurance – ISTA auditors (www. youtube.com/watch?v=NpegyfkvBRM) • Risks and opportunities assessment (www. youtube.com/watch?v=0TfTMa2tfIc) • Revision of ISTA Accreditation Standard and Directive Acc-D-06B, two sessions (www. youtube.com/watch?v=s5fFewXQ0cM) • Management review (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SUAk4535OBs) With the aim to promote quality assurance principles and the ISTA accreditation programme, 15 workshops were successfully organised. Ten were designed for beginners and five for advanced laboratories. Four out of 15 were provided online and the other 11 were held in different regions of the world. In 2025 the first workshop on Quality Assurance and ISTA Accreditation for beginners in French language, was also organised. This was done as part of 1 12 25 64 74 82 91 95 99 102102103106114120123127135137134137138142146149151151 163 163 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2016 2025 Auditors at ISTA Secretariat 2 + 1 audit administrator 3 + 2 audit administrators Contracted SA and TA 3 1 Contracted SA 1 7 Contracted TA 11 13 GMO, variety experts – 3 Seed health, variety experts – 1 GMO experts – 1 Sampling TA – 2 Seed health experts – 2 Totals 17 33 Evolution of ISTA accredited members 2016–2025
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