# NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities)

> NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia) is Australia's national accreditation body; it accredits testing and calibration laboratories to ISO/IEC 17025 and inspection bodies to ISO/IEC 17020, among other programs.

- Source: https://amps.global/glossary/nata/
- Type: Glossary
- Published: 2026-09-05
- Tags: accreditation, quality, Australia

## Key facts

- Established in 1947, the world's first national laboratory accreditation body
- Accredits NDT and inspection companies for a defined scope of methods, products and standards
- Reports issued under accreditation carry the NATA endorsement and must be signed by an authorised signatory
- Signatory to the ILAC mutual recognition arrangement, so NATA results are recognised internationally

Also known as: National Association of Testing Authorities, NATA accreditation.

## What accreditation involves

An application for a defined scope, a document review, an on-site assessment by technical assessors who witness testing and interview staff, and then periodic surveillance and reassessment. Findings must be closed with corrective actions.

## NATA and AMPS

Many AMPS customers in Australia are NATA-accredited inspection companies. AMPS is software and holds no accreditation itself; what it does is keep the records an assessor asks for in one place: personnel and equipment certificates with expiry flags, calibration documents, a report folder per job and a history of every action.

## Related pages

- [ISO/IEC 17020](https://amps.global/glossary/iso-iec-17020/)
- [ISO/IEC 17025](https://amps.global/glossary/iso-iec-17025/)
- [IANZ](https://amps.global/glossary/ianz/)
- [Authorised signatory](https://amps.global/glossary/authorised-signatory/)

## Sources

- [NATA - National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia](https://nata.com.au/)
- [ISO/IEC 17020:2012 at iso.org](https://www.iso.org/standard/52994.html)