An online meeting of representatives engaged in communication activities in metrology institutes, organized by the European Association of National Metrology Institutes (EURAMET), was held on 16 December 2020.

Considering that this year’s meeting, which was planned for November in Dublin, Ireland, was cancelled, the meeting was organized with the aim of exchanging business experience in the field of communication during 2020, which was marked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the meeting, the participants had the opportunity to briefly exchange their experiences and challenges they faced in 2020, when all external and internal communication activities in many institutions had to be changed and adjusted to the conditions caused by the pandemic. Some of the NMIs faced special challenges in their work because they didn’t have social networks established or updated web sites before the pandemic outbreak, which significantly affected their communication with stakeholders. On the other hand, LGC Group from the United Kingdom, as an authorized institute, cooperated directly with universities and British government by helping and supporting corona virus testing capacities.

Majority of NMIs used intranet for internal communication within the facility, i.e. different kinds of internet-based technologies, with the aim of easier access to information and data. In addition, Microsoft Teams platform was mostly used for meetings and webinars.

At the meeting, celebration of the World Metrology Day (WMD) was mentioned, regarding the new poster and the WMD theme, which will be presented in January 2021. Techniques of social media use and video production were defined as some of the future meeting topics, while realization of communication campaigns, which would support the UN Climate Change Conference COP26, was suggested as one of the main topics of the future meetings.

Andjelika Durutovic, the independent advisor for public relations of the Bureau of Metrology attended the meeting, and she presented the Bureau’s communication activities in 2020 and the manner of doing business during a pandemic.

Except the representatives of the European NMIs, the meeting was also attended by the representatives of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), LGC Group from the United Kingdom, as well as the Brazilian NMI Inmetro.

Previous EURAMET meetings on communication activities of NMIs were organized once a year in the period from 2016 to 2019 in London, Prague, Vienna, and Brussels.