The National Standards and Calibration Laboratory (NSCL) was established in 1987 as a result of fruitful cooperation between Syria and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
NSCL is responsible for establishing and maintaining Syria's highest standards for physical measurement traceable to the International System of Units (SI).
NSCL also provides calibration services to laboratories and organizations in both the public and the private sectors to ensure measurement quality and proper metrological traceability to the SI.
With the aim of participating in the activities in the field of metrology and also benefiting from the global uniformity and acceptance of measurement results, NSCL cooperates with other National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) and related bodies at the national, regional and international levels:

• NSCL is an associated member of the Asia Pacific Metrology Programme( APMP), since 1997;
• NSCL signed the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) in 2012(CIPM MRA), representing Syria as an associate state of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) for the mutual recognition of national measurement standards and the respective result reports.

Role

The Laboratory's role and main functions can be summarized as follows:

• Maintaining and realizing Syria's units and standards of measurement;
• Disseminating measurement units in compliance with the SI;
• Meeting the needs of industry and scientific organizations for calibration and measurement and related consultancy and training;
• Providing advice on measurement to laboratories and organizations in both the public and the private sectors;
• Performing research and development work on measurement standards in order to support all the functions of NSCL and meet the increasing demand of industry for a greater accuracy in measurement and a broader range of measurements necessary to fulfill the regulatory needs in matters such as food safety, the environment and trade.

Structure

NSCL operates from one site that is located in Damascus, the capital of the Syrian Arab Republic. It has 8 specialist laboratories, grouped under electrical, mechanical and temperature metrology clusters.
NSCL Organizational Chart

NSCL implements a management system that complies with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025. The system was accredited in 2008 by the "German Calibration Services DKD" for pressure, mass, weighing instruments, electrical DC and LF quantities.

Accreditation was suspended as of 4 May 2012 due to the current circumstances in the country that made it impossible for the assessors to perform the third surveillance visit, which was scheduled for April 2012