SIKB - English (about SIKB)

Mission statement
SIKB is a network, encompassing both the private and the public sector, set up to continuously and structurally enhance the standards of activities relating to soil management in The Netherlands. This includes decision-making, rendering of services, as well as soil remediation and soil handling.

The mission breaks up into five goals:

1 further harmonisation of applied procedures and technology
2 application of improved technology and procedures
3 economic and cost aware execution of work
4 well defined definition of quality and making quality assurance identifiable by certification
5 getting and keeping support from all parties concerned

Some history
Consciously incorporating aspects of quality on the job is definitely on the rise, not just in corporate business, but also more and more in public institutions. Among employees as well as employers the awareness is growing that forms of quality assurance play a vital part in delivering products and services that really answer to the customer's demands.

Site investigation and soil remediation
Several organisations working on the protection and cleaning of the Dutch soil are forerunners in this general trend. Some years ago it was also established that site investigation in The Netherlands was suffering from a falling quality level. Several initiatives were started independently in response. A confusing situation then threatened to arise, due to a lack of co-ordination. The Association of Quality Assurance in Site investigation (VKB) and the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment (VROM) then started a project to bring the existing initiatives together in a new Foundation Infrastructure for Quality Assurance of Soil Management, which in Dutch abbreviates to SIKB.

The development of this new structure was started in September 1998 and the structure was formally founded on 12 april 2000. A series of quality assurance documents has been developed since then, in Dutch. Some of these, i.e. most of the documents on laboratory analysis, have been translated into English and are available in pdf-format free of charge. They are accessible via the following links:
accreditation programme AP04
accreditation scheme AS3000

Data exchange
SIKB has developed a protocol for the digital exchange of soil data. The objective of this protocol is to provide a standard exchange format for digital soil data for the sector as a whole, to prevent errors due to the inability to exchange digital data unambiguously. read more

Archaeology
The European Convention on the protection of the archaeological heritage (Valletta 1992) is requiring Member States of the Council of Europe to require archaeological research more often than before. In The Netherlands this Valletta Convention has opened up the market in archaeological research, traditionally dominated by the universities, to commercial parties. The Dutch government has required the market to develop national quality standards. SIKB builds and maintains the resulting quality assurance structure. read more

Education
Site investigation and remediation (Dutch)
To coordinate existing courses on policy, law and technology SIKB has founded, together with SKB and Soil+, the BodemBreedAcademie (BBA). Among courses on offer is one geared to enforcement officers.

Sampling (international)
As part of the European Commission-sponsored Leonardo da Vinci programme an international consortium is developing a sampler education structure, including a structure for examination. This pilotproject should yield results by mid-2008. SIKB is on the reference group, that will have its first meeting on 14 March 2008. The education will be geared towards the specifications of Nordtest, a certification structure in place in the Scandinavian and Baltic countries. read more

Archaeology (Dutch)
The Post-Academic Education Track Archaeology (PASTA) consists of seven modules on policy, fieldwork and materials, which can be taken independently from eachother.

Outline of the our structure
The general outline of the new structure has been based on quality assurance always taking the form of a circular process. The continuous further improvement mentioned above is possible only when experience is brought back into the process. The way this principle has been applied to the structure is shown in the figure.