Our proficiency testing (PT) scheme for water analysis went into operation in 1995. It is part of the national monitoring programme on ground and surface water quality in Austria. The Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (BMLFUW) executes this monitoring programme on the legal basis of the "Gewässerzustandsüberwachungsverordnung" (GZÜV - BGBl. II. 479/2006). For the contractors of the monitoring programme, the participation in the interlaboratory comparisons is obligatory.

Other laboratories, which are active in the field of water analysis, may participate in the interlaboratory comparisons voluntarily. Until now, more than 400 laboratories participated in our PT scheme in order to check their analytical performance.

In the year 2009, the Center for Analytical Chemistry of the IFA-Tulln conducted 22 interlaboratory comparisons covering six different parameter groups.