National Physical Laboratory

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is the national measurement standards laboratory for the United Kingdom, based at Bushy Park in Teddington, London, England. It is the largest applied physics organisation in the UK. NPL is an internationally respected centre of excellence in measurement and materials science. Since 1900, when Bushy House was selected as the site of NPL, it has developed and maintained the primary national measurement standards. Today it provides the scientific resources for the National Measurement System financed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. NPL also offers a range of commercial services, applying scientific skills to industrial measurement problems, and manages the MSF time signal. Teddington was also home to the UK National Chemical Laboratory but this was closed in 1965 and some of its work was transferred to NPL. The National Physical Laboratory was contractorised in 1995 and is operated by Serco. Since contractorisation, overheads have been halved, third party revenues have grown by 16% per annum, and the number of peer-reviewed research papers published have doubled.