Mission

The missions of the operational directorate Expertise, service provision and customer relations are:

• Assessment and checking of the quality of biological medicines for human use (vaccines and blood products) before they are placed on the market
• Assessment and checking of the quality of clinical biology laboratories and in vitro diagnostic medical devices
• Assessment of the risks linked to the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and/or pathogens and assisting in checking their use
• Within the WIV-ISP, providing the logistical, technical and scientific support required by the operational directorates for service provision and customer relations.

Activities

The operational directorate Expertise, service provision and customer relations provides services and expert scientific and technical opinion, based on applied research and a proactive and innovative approach.

Its fields of scientific activity have been organised into four scientific services:

• the service Biological standardisation, whose work relates to the quality of vaccines and products derived from blood
• the service Quality of medical laboratories, essentially in charge of monitoring agreements and inspections of clinical biology laboratories, external quality control of their services, as well as in vitro diagnostic medical devices.
• the service Biosafety and biotechnology, essentially in charge of assessing risks to human and animal safety and the environment linked to the use of GMOs and/or pathogens
• the platform Molecular biology and biotechnology, on the one hand responsible for the GMO detection laboratory and coordinator of the national GMO reference laboratory, and on the other hand, logistical, technical and scientific support of the WIV-ISP's operational directorates regarding molecular biology

The operational directorate also houses the following horizontal divisions:

• the Dispatching Centre, in charge of receipt and recording of samples to analyse at the WIV-ISP, as well as the sending of analysis reports to customers
• the Customer relations coordination and advisory unit, essentially in charge of coordinating relations with customers and the main WIV-ISP partners to whom it provides services.

Patrons and forms of collaboration

There are a relatively large number of patrons of the scientific departments of the operational directorate Expertise, service provision and customer relations. In Belgium, the main patrons are: The Federal Public Service for Public Health, Food Chain Security and Environment, the Federal Public Service for Internal Affairs, the Federal Agency for Medicine and Health Products (AFMPS-FAGG), the Federal Agency for Food Chain Security (AFSCA-FAVV), the Regions, the Flemish Community, and the National Institute of Sickness and Invalidity Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV).
At an international level, the Operational Directorate works with the Joint Research Centre (CE), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicine and Healthcare (DEQM) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).