Purpose of the NCPN Quality Initiative 

 

Quality in all aspects of NCPN program management is seen as a part of the ‘core’ diagnostics, therapeutics, and foundations mission of NCPN.  Furthermore, quality of NCPN supported clean plant centers, their respective processes, and products, and of the Network overall is a prime interest of NCPN as noted in the NCPN Strategic Plan.  

The purpose of the NCPN quality initiative is to enable clean plant centers to integrate quality management principles into their operations. Due to the diversity in size and capacity of NCPN centers, the quality initiative focuses on supporting a flexible framework of quality standards, training in quality concepts and techniques, and supporting a network for collaboration on quality specifically for NCPN programs.

 

The NCPN quality initiative will also support centers in fulfilling their roles in diagnostics, therapy, maintenance, and distribution of plant material that has tested free of targeted pathogens. The scope of the NCPN Quality Initiative is to provide an overarching framework that supports and provides coordination of efforts to enable the development and maintenance of quality concepts at NCPN centers. The NCPN Quality Initiative was also developed to enable NCPN centers to meet comparable standards of quality for laboratory management, facilities, equipment, and trained personnel for both non-regulatory and regulatory objectives as outlined in their facility’s quality manual.

The quality initiative aims at engaging leaders of the respective industries by not only receiving pathogen-free propagative material, but also ensuring that the quality of distribution, propagative strength/ viability, selection, and availability of cultivars be guaranteed.

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NCPN Requirements and Standards document, approved in May 2022, can be downloaded HERE. 

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