ESYD Workshop on Biobank Accreditation – Thessaloniki, 4 December 2025
On the afternoon of 4 December 2025, at the MonAsty Hotel in Thessaloniki, ESYD organized a dedicated closed workshop on the accreditation of biobanks.
The event followed the successful completion of the EA Laboratory Committee Working Group for Health Care (EA LC WG Health Care) meeting, which ESYD hosted in Thessaloniki on 3–4 December 2025. This gave us the opportunity to bring together representatives from most EA National Accreditation Bodies with six Greek biobanks from Thessaloniki, Athens, Larissa and Florina that have already expressed their interest in accreditation by ESYD and in the same time to present the effort done by ESYD to develop the relative accreditation scheme.
ESYD is in the final stages of completing its biobank accreditation scheme, which is planned to launch in January 2026.
In the first part of the workshop, presentations were given by:
- Dr Ioannis Sitaras, Director of Laboratory Accreditation at ESYD, and
- Simon Herres, representative of the Swiss Accreditation Service (SAS) and coordinator of the EA-LC Task Force Group on biobanking.
Key topics included:
- The core requirements of ISO 20387 and its ongoing revision, expected in early 2026.
- The start of the process to extend EA’s Multilateral Agreement (EA MLA) to biobanking.
- Validation/verification requirements for biobanking processes and quality control schemes.
- ESYD’s experience in developing the accreditation scheme for biobanks.
The second part was dedicated to open discussion and exchange of experience, highlighting critical points such as:
- The draft revision of ISO 20387 (DIS) extends its scope to biobanks of genetic material beyond medical research, including food, agriculture and environmental applications.
- In this draft, ISO 21899 is proposed as guidance rather than a mandatory requirement for validation/verification of biobanking.
- There are already several accredited EQA/PT providers in Europe for biobanking processes, which biobanks can use to meet quality control requirements.
- Validated biobanking methods are already available and can be adopted, provided their fitness for the intended use is adequately assessed.
- Approaches used by accreditation bodies to build competent assessment teams vary depending on the national context, but there is a shared understanding of the required technical competence.
ESYD expresses its satisfaction with the strong participation and fruitful exchange during the workshop. The interest and maturity demonstrated by the Greek biobanks confirm that accreditation by ESYD will offer significant added value to the already high-level medical research carried out in Greece and will support ESYD’s effort for participation in the EA MLA for biobanking.