ProQares

ProQares B.V. is a leading, independent Dutch testing laboratory headquartered in Rijswijk, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands, with more than 50 years of institutional experience evaluating personal and collective protective equipment (PPE and CPE). The laboratory serves a global clientele that includes defence ministries, national procurement agencies, industrial safety officers, and manufacturers of protective gear, providing authoritative third-party test data to confirm that protective products deliver their stated level of protection under realistic chemical challenge conditions. Clients from both the public and private sectors on multiple continents have relied on ProQares for certification-critical testing.

The laboratory's core competency is chemical threat testing delivered across three service lines: materials testing, system testing, and on-site testing. Materials testing characterises the performance of individual barrier layers—garments, gloves, boots, respirator components, filter media, and coatings—when directly exposed to hazardous chemicals. System testing evaluates complete assembled protective ensembles under integrated challenge conditions that replicate realistic operational use. On-site testing extends ProQares's expertise directly to a client's facility or field environment, enabling performance evaluation of protective systems in the conditions where they will actually be used.

ProQares is one of the very few independent, non-governmental laboratories in the world licensed and equipped to work with live chemical warfare agents (CWAs), enabling authentic performance evaluations that go far beyond surrogate-compound testing. The laboratory routinely tests against a broad spectrum of toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) as well as classical Schedule 1 CWAs. Additional test agents include cytostatic compounds (chemotherapy drugs), making the laboratory relevant for manufacturers of pharmaceutical protective clothing. Key test categories include chemical permeation (measurement of breakthrough time and steady-state permeation rate through protective materials), chemical penetration, chemical adsorption capacity, and the performance of chemical agent resistant coatings (CARC).

ProQares conducts testing in accordance with a wide range of international industrial and military standards. Applicable frameworks include EN 14325, EN 374, EN 943, NATO AEP-38, FINABEL 0.7.C, NFPA 1990, and US Army test methods TOP 8-2-501A and TOP 8-2-503, among others. Tests can also be conducted against British Standards (BS), ISO methods, or bespoke protocols developed to customer specifications, allowing clients to obtain data in the exact format required for procurement decisions, product development programmes, or formal certification submissions.

The full scope of protective equipment evaluated at ProQares spans the entire PPE and CPE spectrum. On the personal side, the laboratory tests chemical protective suits and overgarments, protective gloves, protective boots and footwear, respiratory protective equipment (RPE) including CBRN filters and activated-carbon adsorbent materials, full-face masks, and self-contained breathing apparatus. Collective protective equipment—including shelters, vehicle filtration systems, and fixed installations designed to shield groups of personnel from chemical exposure—falls equally within the laboratory's technical remit. The laboratory also evaluates chemical agent resistant coatings applied to military and industrial surfaces.

ProQares holds ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation (registration number L 543) awarded by the Raad voor Accreditatie (RVA), the Dutch national accreditation body recognised by the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA). This accreditation confirms that ProQares's test results are produced under a validated quality management system meeting the international standard for testing laboratory competence, and that those results are accepted by regulatory bodies and defence procurement authorities worldwide. The laboratory is additionally listed in the Netherlands Defence and Security Industry Directory (NIDV), reflecting its established standing as a specialist service provider to the defence and security sector.

ProQares has deep institutional roots, having operated for over five decades as a trusted evaluation partner for both the defence community and the commercial PPE industry. In January 2026 the company was reintegrated into TNO—the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research—strengthening its access to advanced scientific infrastructure and aligning with TNO's strategic priorities in resilience, security, and defence. As part of this integration, ProQares is scheduled to relocate from its current Rijswijk address (Lange Kleiweg 137) to the TNO campus in Ypenburg during the first half of 2027, further expanding its collaborative research capabilities.

For organisations seeking reliable chemical-protective-equipment testing, ProQares offers a rare combination of independent accredited status, live-agent testing capability, five decades of sector-specific experience, and acceptance by both government and commercial clients globally. Its position as a neutral, ISO/IEC 17025-accredited third party—validated against real CWAs and TICs rather than chemical surrogates—makes it one of the most authoritative sources of PPE performance data available anywhere in the world, suitable for underpinning procurement specifications, product certification pathways, R&D validation programmes, and expert-witness or litigation-support engagements.