According to §40 (1) SaatG, the Federal Office for Food Safety (BAES) as the authorising authority may, upon application, authorise external variety trial organisers or their staff for precisely defined tasks, subject to compliance with certain conditions.

According to the Seed Regulation 2006, the Federal Office for Food Safety (BAES) may grant authorisation to conduct field trials and laboratory tests within the framework of VCU testing.

The application for authorisation shall specify the scope of the crop for which the authorisation is to be granted and the persons to be authorised. The granting of authorisation is limited to one year and must be reapplied on an annually basis.

The authorisation requires the fulfilment of formal requirements and continuous monitoring by the Institute for Sustainable Plant Production. The aim of authorisation is to optimise the effectiveness, efficiency and the costs of the VCU testing.

The persons to be authorised possess relevant knowledge of field testing based on their training or many years of activity in this subject area. In addition, the Institute for Sustainable Plant Production offers regular training programmes in this context. These also include ring tests to harmonise the application of the rating scales and are to be attended at least every 2 years.

Authorisation documents
Application for authorisation

Costs of authorisation
The fees for authorisation are set out in the Tariff List for the Variety Regulation and include an annual authorisation fee and training fees per participant.

Contact Authorisation Application
Federal Office for Food Safety
Spargelfeldstrasse 191
1220 Vienna

sortenwesen@baes.gv.at
Tel.: +43 (0)5 0555-34205