The Instituto Português da Qualidade (CEP), established in 1929, was the first national institution devoted to standardization activities. At present IPQ is the national organization that manages and promotes the development of the Portuguese System for Quality (SPQ), with its three sub-systems - Standardization, Metrology and Qualification. Therefore, IPQ is the Portuguese representative body in the quality field at international level, and keeps a close co-operation with its European counterparts.
Within the SPQ framework, IPQ copes with the role of National Standardization Body (ONN), thus ensuring the co-ordination with European and International standardization bodies, and supervises the activity of the Central Laboratory of Metrology.
