The role and objectives of the BIPM

The unique role of the BIPM is based on its international and impartial character
enabling it:
To coordinate the realization and improvement of the world-wide measurement
system to ensure it delivers accurate and comparable measurement results.
To undertake selected scientific and technical activities that are more efficiently
carried out in its own laboratories on behalf of Member States.
To promote the importance of metrology to science, industry and society, in
particular through collaboration with other intergovernmental organizations and
international bodies and in international forums.
The unique role of the BIPM enables it to achieve its mission by developing the
technical and organizational infrastructure of the International System of Units (SI) as
the basis for the world-wide traceability of measurement results. This is achieved both
through technical activities in its laboratories and through international coordination.

Our objectives:
To establish and maintain appropriate reference standards for use as the basis of
a limited number of key international comparisons at the highest level.
To coordinate international comparisons of national measurement standards
through the Consultative Committees of the CIPM; taking the role of coordinating
laboratory for selected comparisons of the highest priority and undertaking the
scientific work necessary to enable this to be done.
To provide selected calibrations for Member States.
To coordinate activities between the NMIs, such as through the CIPM MRA1, and
to provide technical services to support them.
To liaise as required with relevant intergovernmental organizations2 and other
international bodies3 both directly and through joint committees4.
To organize scientific meetings to identify future developments in the world-wide
measurement system required to meet existing and future measurement needs
in industry, science and society.
To inform, through publications and meetings, the science community, the wider
scientific public and decision makers on matters related to metrology and its
benefits.
What is metrology?
Metrology is the science of measurement, embracing both experimental and theoretical
determinations at any level of uncertainty in any field of science and technology.
Measurement science is not, however, purely the preserve of scientists. It is something
of vital importance to us all. The intricate but invisible network of services, suppliers and
communications upon which we are all dependent rely on metrology for their efficient
and reliable operation. For example:

The economic success of nations depends upon the ability to manufacture and
trade precisely made and tested products and components;

Satellite navigation systems and international time correlation make accurate

location possible allowing the networking of computer systems around the
world, and permitting aircraft to land in poor visibility;

Human health depends critically on the ability to make accurate diagnosis, and in
which reliable measurement is increasingly important;

Consumers have to trust the amount of petrol delivered by a pump.

All forms of physical and chemical measurement affect the quality of the world in which
we live. Because of the need for international agreement on matters concerning
metrology, an international treaty known as the Metre Convention was established as
early as 1875. This treaty founded the BIPM and remains today the basis of
international agreement on units of measurement.

The Metre Convention

The Convention of the Metre (Convention du Mtre) is a treaty that created the Internation
Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), an intergovernmental organization under the authority
the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) and the supervision of t
International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM). The BIPM acts in matters of wo
metrology, particularly concerning the demand for measurement standards of ever increasi
accuracy, range and diversity, and the need to demonstrate equivalence between nation
measurement standards.

The Convention was signed in Paris in 1875 by representatives of seventeen nations. As w

as founding the BIPM and laying down the way in which the activities of the BIPM should
financed and managed, the Metre Convention established a permanent organizational structure
 member governments to act in common accord on all matters relating to units of measurement.

The Convention, modified slightly in 1921, remains the basis of international agreement
units of measurement. The BIPM now has fifty-eight Member States, including all the ma
industrialized countries.

General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM)

International Committee of Weights and Measures (CIPM)
International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM)
States Parties to the Metre Convention (generally referred to as "Member States")

Text of the Metre Convention, other official texts, and the BIPM Compendium
Chain of responsibility (the organizational structure of the BIPM)
The original signatories

BIPM: Our work programme

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures has the mandate to provide the
basis for a single, coherent system of measurements throughout the world, traceable to
the International System of Units (SI). This task takes many forms, from direct
dissemination of units (as in the case of mass and time) to coordination through
international comparisons of national measurement standards (as in electricity and
ionizing radiation).

General Conference on Weights and Measures

The General Conference on Weights and Measures (Confrence Gnrale des Poids e
CGPM) is made up of delegates of the governments of the Member States and obse
the Associates of the CGPM.

The General Conference receives the report of the International Committee for Weights an
(CIPM) on work accomplished; it discusses and examines the arrangements required to
propagation and improvement of the International System of Units (SI); it endorses the res
fundamental metrological determinations and various scientific resolutions of international s
decides all major issues concerning the organization and development of the BIPM, in
dotation of the BIPM.
 The CGPM meets in Paris, usually once every four years; the 25th meeting was held from 1

International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM)

The principal task of the CIPM is to promote world-wide uniformity in units of

measurement and it does this by direct action or by submitting draft resolutions to the
General Conference (CGPM).
Duties of the CIPM include the responsibility to:

discuss the work of the BIPM under the delegated authority of the CGPM;

issue an Annual Report on the administrative and financial position of the BIPM
to the governments of the States Parties to the Metre Convention;

discuss metrological work that Member States decide to do in common, and set
up and coordinate activities between specialists in metrology;

make appropriate Recommendations;

commission reports in preparation for meetings of the CGPM, for example the
Blevin and Kaarls reports, and others such as the SI Brochure.

The CIPM is made up of eighteen individuals, each of a different nationality. The

presidents of the Consultative Committees are appointed by, and are normally members
of, the CIPM.

The CIPM meets every year (since 2011 in two sessions per year) and, among other
matters, discusses reports presented to it by its Consultative Committees. Reports of
the meetings of the CGPM, the CIPM, and all the Consultative Committees, are
published by the BIPM.
The role of the Consultative Committees

Over the years, the CIPM has set up a number of Consultative Committees, which bring
together the world's experts in their specified fields as advisers on scientific and
technical matters. Among the tasks of these Consultative Committees are the detailed
consideration of advances in physics that directly influence metrology, the preparation of
Recommendations for discussion at the CIPM, the identification, planning and execution
of key comparisons of national measurement standards, and the provision of advice to
the CIPM on the scientific work in the laboratories of the BIPM.
The CCs have the responsibility:

to advise the CIPM on all scientific matters that influence metrology, including
any BIPM scientific programme activities in the field covered by the CC;
to establish global compatibility of measurements through promoting traceability
to the SI, and where traceability to the SI is not yet feasible, to other
internationally agreed references (for example, hardness scales and reference
standards established by the WHO);
to contribute to the establishment of a globally recognized system of national
measurement standards, methods and facilities;
to contribute to the implementation and maintenance of the CIPM MRA;
to review and advise the CIPM on the uncertainties of the BIPM's calibration and
measurements services as published on the BIPM website;
to act as a forum for the exchange of information about the activities of the CC
members and observers; and
to create opportunities for collaboration.

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Primarily, NML disseminates the basic measurement units to the industry and other
private and government institutions through its calibration and measurement
services; provides calibrations that are traceable to the International System of
Units (SI) through the National Measurement Standards; and provides the link to the
world metrology system through the participation of the Philippines in the Metre
Convention as an Associate State of the General Conference on Weights and
Measures (CGPM).

Presently, NML has nine laboratories that are equipped with state-of-the-art
equipment that are used to serve the technical requirements of its customers, both
private and public. The laboratories and their capabilities are described as follows:
 Thermometry and Hygrometry Laboratory maintain standard
Platinum Resistance Thermometers and Type R thermocouple as
reference standards. For humidity it uses the dewpoint meter;
Pressure Laboratory maintains hydraulic and pneumatic pressure
balances as reference standards;
Electrical Laboratory maintains reference standards for the electrical
quantities of voltage, current, and resistance. For frequency and time
interval, its uses the Cesium Bea m Primary Frequency standard with
international traceability to the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)
through GPS common-view transfers with the National Measurement
Institute of Australia;
Mass Laboratory is the countrys provider of traceability to the
international prototype kilogram. It is also the premier authority in the
verification, calibration, and performance testing of weights, mass
standards, and weighing instruments;
Photometry Laboratory - maintains reference standards for luminous
intensity and luminous flux;
Force Laboratory uses standard load cells as reference standards for
the calibration of universal testing machines, tensile, and compression
testing machines;
Density and Volume Laboratory provides calibration of volumetric
wares, densitometers, pycnometers, and hydrometers with traceability
to the mass reference standards;
Length Laboratory maintains gauge blocks and line measuring
system as reference standards; and
Big Volume and Flow Laboratory is the premier authority in the
calibration and performance testing of test measures, provers, road
tankers, storage tanks, and flow meters.