Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture

The Institute performs the administration and carries out some other administrative activities, expert and testing tasks and control and monitoring activities in accordance with special acts in the areas of plant variety testing, feedingstuffs, agrochemical testing of soils, soils and plant nutrition, seeds and seedlings of the grown plants, perennial plants (viniculture and hops), protection against harmful organisms and plant protection.

Projects from Transition Facility Programme

Since 1st May 2004 the Czech Republic as an EU member state has been gaining support from new programme of EC called Transition Facility, which is based on Article No 34 of the Treaty of Accession.

The aim of the European Commission was to provide temporary assistance to the new member states on development and strengthening of the institutions of public administration which are responsible for implementation of EU legislation into the national legal systems and to stimulate exchange of experience between the old and new member states.

Priorities of the Programme:

The support from this programme was particularly focused on strengthening the institutional capacity in the following areas:

justice and home affairs (strengthening of the judicial system / external border control / strengthening of the capacity for law enforcement)
financial control
protection of financial interests of the EC and fight against fraud
internal market, incl. customs union
environment
veterinary service and administrative capacity to ensure food safety
administration and control systems for agriculture and rural development incl. the IACS system
nuclear safety (strengthening the effectiveness and competence of nuclear safety offices and of the supporting organisations as well as of the agencies dealing with radioactive waste)
statistics
strengthening of the public administration

Filling Gaps in Food Safety – Improvement of RASFF (2) CZ 04.06.01 TF

This project of the total amount of 1 200 000 EUR had two parts – supply of equipment (purchase of IT hardware and software) and subsequent technical assistance. The realization of the project was based on a previous twinning light project of the same name Filling Gaps in Food Safety – Improvement of RASFF.
Realisation period: 9/2005 - 12/2006

Improvement of Soil Protection by Strengthening Laboratory Control of Sewage Sludge Application on Soil CZ 2005/017/518

This project of the total amount of 260 000 EUR consisted of two parts – supply of equipment (purchase of laboratory equipment) and twinning light (partner NAGREF, Greece, experts from Austria and Germany) and was focused on training and study visits of UKZUZ’s experts in ecotoxicology.
Realisation period: 08/2006 – 05/2007

Preparatory Steps for Improvement of Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) in CISTA CZ 04.09.01.02

This project (Twinning) of the total amount of 250 000 EUR helped UKZUZ with preparation on certification of all of its activities according to ISO 9001/2009 and in the same time accredited the remaining non-accredited laboratories incl. special accreditation on Proficiency Testing. Experts from NAGREF, besides training our staff, proposed a solution that was used by UKZUZ within the certification and accreditation.
Realisation period: 01/2007 – 09/2007

Strengthening of the CISTA Authority in the Field of Official Control and Certification CZ 04.09.01.04

This project - Twinning Light of the total amount of 120 000 EUR was focused on training and study visits of UKZUZ’s experts in perennial plants. Workshops were held by experts from Greece and Holland.
Realisation period: 01/2007 – 07/2007

Filling Gaps in Food Safety – Testing Procedures for Testing Management Application (TMA) in CISTA CZ 05.06.01.08

This project of the total amount of 105 000 EUR followed the recommendations of foreign experts mentioned in the Final report of one of the previous projects. It was focused on creation of TMA (Testing Management Application), which enables a connection between LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) and the information systems of the technical departments of the Institute and which ensures an effective internal communication which is necessary for a fully operational RASFF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed)
Realisation period: 9/2007 - 9/2008

Strengthening of the Official Control in the Field of Soil Protection - TwL+Supply Transition Facility

This project (Twinning) of the total amount of 105 000 EUR followed a succesful project of the same name and was focused on training and study visits of UKZUZ‘s experts in ecotoxicology by experts from Finland and Germany.
Realisation period: 12/2008 – 09/2009

Filling Gaps in Food Safety – Quality Control and Quality Assurance in CISTA CZ 06.02.01

This project of the total amount of 1 020 000 EUR consisted of three parts. The first one was a Twinning light, which was focused on training staff of UKZUZ in laboratory methods by Danish experts (Danish Plant Directorate). The second part was purchase of equipment (IT) and the last and the most important part was Technical assistance, in the frame of this part UKZUZ certified all of its activities according to a ISO 9001/2009 and in the same time accredited the remaining non-acredited laboratories incl. special accreditation on Proficiency Testing.
Realisation period: 10/2007 – 04/2008