On 8-9 October 2009, a meeting will be held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the CIPM MRA. This will take place at the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris. The aim is to bring together at this exciting event some 200 government officials concerned with measurements in trade, representatives from intergovernmental organizations and international bodies whose missions benefit from the global uniformity and international acceptance of measurements, and representatives from industry.

The CIPM MRA was signed in October 1999 by the directors of 38 national metrology institutes and representatives of two international organizations. Today almost 200 such institutes participate. It has made a major contribution to improving the world metrology system and has achieved one of the original objectives, namely to reduce technical barriers to trade. Over the last ten years it has evolved steadily from covering the world measurement system in physics and engineering and now tackles the areas of metrology in chemistry; in the future it will include applications in fields as diverse as sports drug testing, environmental and climate studies and hospital medicine.

Participation at this anniversary event is by invitation only; interested parties are welcome to contact the BIPM.