LNE's mission of overseeing French metrology

Since 2005, the French national government has assigned responsibility for supervising and stimulating the field of French metrology to the LNE, as metrology in France has been organized into a network of laboratories.

To guide France's national metrology network (known under the acronym RMNF) efficiently, a Metrology Committee was created to assist LNE with its assigned mission. This Committee is composed of representatives from the main Public Sector bodies carrying out metrological activities, academic experts and representatives industry. Its role primarily entails establishing medium- and long-term strategic orientations in the field of metrology and then both validating and monitoring the successful execution of metrology research programs. Committee members are appointed by administrative decree.

The RNMF itself is composed of 10 laboratories: the French National Metrology Laboratory (LNE), plus nine other facilities, which are officially designated by name and recorded by European and international bodies, respectively the EURAMET Association and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM).

• LNE: French National Metrology Laboratory
• The nine designated laboratories:
  • LNE-LNHB at the CEA (Atomic Energy Commission)
  • LNE-SYRTE at the Paris Observatory
  • LNE-LCM at the CNAM (Engineering Research Center)
  • LNE-CETIAT
  • LNE-ENSAM
  • LNE-IRSN
  • LNE-LADG
  • LNE-LTFB
  • LNE-Trapil

The respective missions and responsibilities of each of these metrology laboratories have been described on the French Metrology Network's website.

French Metrology website

Scientific and technical missions performed by metrology laboratories

Metrology at the national level is primarily intended to generate and implement the units adopted by the International System of Units (abbreviated SI), as well as to facilitate access for users from all backgrounds (research, industry or control bodies) to the metrological references they require, all within the scope of a notion of traceability that has been rigorously defined.

RNMF member laboratories must also fulfill the needs of society at large and industries in meeting the challenges now being posed in sectors like energy, health, the environment, the space program and new technologies. Their mission extends to developing references with increasingly detailed precision and covering extreme value ranges or complex environmental conditions (e.g. nanometrology).

The projects being pursued within the framework of RNMF seek to:

• implement the units adopted by the international System of Units (SI) - multiples and sub-multiples along with the scales associated with certain units – by means of conducting new experiments and devising reference methods for a wide array of magnitudes and value ranges;
• develop reference and transfer standards to satisfy the needs expressed by industry as well as society;
• participate in all inter-laboratory comparisons organized by the CIPM and/or EURAMET, which are respectively the international and European metrology organizations, and in bilateral comparisons in the aim of ensuring international equivalences (within the scope of CIPM's MRA, i.e. Mutual Recognition Arrangement) among national measuring standards, measurement scales and reference methods and materials used by national metrology laboratories.

All RNMF member laboratories disseminate the experience they've acquired by proposing training modules to promote knowledge transfer to industry and across laboratories.

Over 250 researchers are actively involved in both advancing research in the field of metrology and showcasing French expertise at the international level.

Key figures

Research projects

Consult the research projects being conducted under the aegis of the French Metrology Network on the network's website:

French Metrology website

Research report 2021

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