EN ISO 20387:2018 Biotechnology — Biobanking — General requirements for biobanking was published in August 2018. The standard specifies “General requirements for the competence, impartiality and consistent operation of biobanks, including quality control requirements to ensure biological material and data collections of appropriate quality.”

A biobank is a facility that collects, stores, and manages biological material and related data in an organized manner for research purposes. Biological material is an essential asset for the progress of biotechnology, an emerging sector on a world scale, which, according to OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) estimates, will have an impact on the world economy in 2030 and will account for 2.7% of global GDP overall.

Researchers using deposited materials require guarantees regarding the collection, transport, storage, traceability, and distribution of these samples (human, animal, microorganism, plant, and fungal). For the progress of research, it is essential that the biological materials deposited are of quality and that the biobanks manage them to ensure the reproducibility and comparability of the research result through standard processes and procedures.

In November 2021, EA decided to extend its multilateral agreement (MLA) to cover accreditation in the field of biobanking. This decision was formalized by the adoption of EA Resolution 2021 (50) 11

A Train-the-trainer workshop on biobanking was then organized remotely on 13 and 25^th October 2022 to train the trainers from the National Accreditation Bodies (NABs), who will, in turn, train their assessors against ISO 20387:2018, but also to prepare EA evaluators to future peer evaluations covering biobanking.

The trainers involved in the workshop came from different sectors and bodies: Laura Lo Guzzo (ACCREDIA, Italy), Tiina Kauppila (FINAS, Finland), Louise Sanders (UKAS, UK), Andrea Wutte (BBMRI-ERIC – Biobanking and BioMolecular resources Research Infrastructure) and Simon Herren (SAS, Switzerland).

All kindly accepted -and we thank them for this- that EA publishes their presentations on its website. The objective is to allow you and everyone interested in the field to get familiar with the new standard.