About IAS
The International Accreditation Service (IAS) provides objective evidence that an organization operates at the highest level of ethical, legal and technical standards.
IAS is a nonprofit, public-benefit corporation that has been providing accreditation services since 1975. IAS accredits a wide range of companies and organizations including governmental entities, commercial businesses, and professional associations. IAS accreditation programs are based on recognized national and international standards that ensure domestic and/or global acceptance of its accreditations. IAS receives funding revenue through the provision of accreditation services, and the renewal of these services, as well as training offerings. These revenues are further used to participate and engage in developing industry based accreditation programs, domestic and international schemes including participation in standards development. IAS also maintains signatory status in a number of global multilateral recognition arrangements under Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC), International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). IAS is a member of the ICC Family of Solutions.
International Credentials
As one of the leading accreditation bodies in the United States, IAS is a signatory to the three primary international organizations that form a unified system for evaluating and recognizing competent accreditation bodies worldwide. These organizations are identified as “cooperations” because they have agreed to cooperate with one another by adhering to a common set of accreditation criteria and to undergo periodic onsite evaluation to determine ongoing compliance with ISO/IEC Standard 17011, General Requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies (CABs). Being a “signatory” means that an accreditation body has been evaluated onsite at its offices, a sampling of the assessments of its accredited entities have been witnessed by peer experts, and that it has been found to comply with international requirements.
These organizations agree to recognize the equivalence of accreditations granted by other signatory member accreditation bodies through a series of Mutual (or Multilateral) Recognition Arrangements (MRAs/MLAs). Once an accreditation body becomes a signatory it is obligated to recognize the certificates or reports issued by conformity assessment bodies accredited by all other signatories within a specified scope. The following organizations below make up the unified system for recognition of competent accreditation bodies (ABs).
