Accreditation and conformity assessment use a large set of acronyms, and most pages assume you already know them. This page expands each one and says in a sentence what it refers to, consistent with ISO/IEC 17000, the international vocabulary standard for conformity assessment. For fuller definitions of the underlying terms, see the Glossary of accreditation terms.
Conformity assessment vocabulary
• CA, conformity assessment: the checking of whether a product, process, system, person or organization meets specified requirements.
• CAB, conformity assessment body: any organization that performs conformity assessment. Certification bodies, inspection bodies, laboratories, and validation and verification bodies are all CABs.
• AB, accreditation body: a body that assesses and accredits conformity assessment bodies. Accreditation bodies work to ISO/IEC 17011.
• CB, certification body: a conformity assessment body that performs certification. In laboratory contexts the same letters are sometimes used for calibration; on ASCB's pages CB always means certification body.
• MS, management system: the set of policies, processes and responsibilities through which an organization directs and controls itself with respect to a given subject.
• V&V, validation and verification: confirmation of claims. Verification confirms a claim about something that has already happened; validation confirms a claim about an intended future use.
• VVB, validation and verification body: a body that performs validation and verification.
• PTP, proficiency testing provider: a body that organizes inter-laboratory comparisons so laboratories can demonstrate their performance.
• RMP, reference material producer: a body that produces the reference materials laboratories measure against.
Standards organizations
• ISO, the International Organization for Standardization. The short name comes from the Greek isos, meaning equal; it is not an initialism, which is why it does not match the English word order.
• IEC, the International Electrotechnical Commission. Publishes electrotechnical standards and co-publishes the conformity assessment standards with ISO, which is why those standards are designated ISO/IEC.
• ISO/CASCO, the ISO Committee on Conformity Assessment: the committee that develops the ISO/IEC 17000 series.
Management system abbreviations
Each management system abbreviation pairs with the standard an organization is certified against:
• EMS, environmental management system:
ISO 14001.
• OHSMS, occupational health and safety management system:
ISO 45001.
• FSMS, food safety management system:
ISO 22000.
• BCMS, business continuity management system: ISO 22301.
• AIMS, artificial intelligence management system:
ISO/IEC 42001.
International cooperation
• Global ACI, Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated: formed on January 1, 2026 from the merger of the IAF and ILAC. It operates the multilateral recognition arrangement among its member accreditation bodies.
• IAF, the International Accreditation Forum: managed the multilateral recognition arrangement for the accreditation of certification bodies until it merged into Global ACI on January 1, 2026.
• ILAC, International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation: managed the mutual recognition arrangement for laboratory and inspection accreditation until the same merger.
• APAC, Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation: the regional accreditation cooperation for the Asia Pacific, formed in 2019.
• MRA and MLA, mutual or multilateral recognition arrangement: arrangements through which the member accreditation bodies of a cooperation recognize one another's accreditations. The IAF MLA and the ILAC MRA are now subsumed in the single Global ACI arrangement.
ASCB's position on membership of these bodies is set out in International affiliations.
ASCB and its standards
• ASCB, Accreditation Service for Certifying Bodies: an independent accreditation body operating to ISO/IEC 17011.
• TP:2025, the ASCB Training Provider Standard, and TC:2025, the ASCB Training Course Standard: ASCB's published standards for training accreditation.
• ASL, the prefix on ASCB's controlled documents: the letter in parentheses marks the series, so ASL(G) documents are guides and ASL(I) documents are instructions. Accredited bodies meet these references in their terms of engagement and guidance.
• IRQAO, the International Register of Quality Assessed Organisations: an independent register and validation service established in 1997, on which certificates issued by certification bodies and training institutes, including those accredited by ASCB, are recorded. How it fits into checking a certificate is covered in
Verify a certificate.
Common questions
What is the difference between a CB and a CAB?
A CAB is any body that performs conformity assessment; a CB is the kind of CAB that performs certification. Every CB is a CAB, and so is every inspection body, laboratory, and validation and verification body.
What happened to the IAF and ILAC?
They merged on January 1, 2026 into a single body, Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated (Global ACI), which now operates one recognition arrangement in place of the IAF MLA and the ILAC MRA. ASCB's position on membership of these bodies is set out in
International affiliations.
What does ISO stand for?
It is not an initialism. The organization's full name is the International Organization for Standardization, and ISO comes from the Greek isos, meaning equal, chosen so the short name is the same in every language.