terms of the scatter of the results, e.g. in round-robin tests. In considering the role of AQA in the higher education sector it is necessary to differentiate between the various university activities which include services, research and development and teaching, as follows: • Routine chemical analyses (including ad hoc analyses) performed for external clients and for the university's own measurement campaigns (e.g. investigations of the quality of waste-water and air) requiring full documentation. • Routine chemical analyses carried out for internal clients as a service to research in other Chemistry Departments such as Inorganic, Organic, and Biochemistry. • Chemical analyses performed as part of research and development work not only in Analytical Chemistry but also in other chemical disciplines such as Inorganic, Organic and Biochemistry. • Chemical analyses carried out within the framework of research projects having pre-eminent goals which are analytically-based (e.g. studies of the temporal and spatial variations in metal-species concentrations in riverwater; determination of the gas composition in a waste incinerator as a function of the operating parameters). These considerations also apply to the whole range of scientific disciplines in which chemical measurements are made, such as Biology, Geology, Medicine, Microbiology, Mineralogy, Ecology, Pharmacy, Toxicology etc.