The Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance in conjunction with National Collection of Type Cultures (NCT), Public Health England, has produced a pilot EQA comprised of 16 bacterial strains (in duplicate) covering gram positive and negative species and some major resistances. These samples are sent blinded and participants will send back
- Presumptive species based on both microbiology and genomics alone
- AST results and the antimicrobial sensitivity/resistance interpretations based on these results
- Genomic determinants present and likely to confer antimicrobial resistance and, based on these, those antimicrobials to which resistance is predicted.

The first pilot is currently underway.