A friend has just sent me a press release from the European MR trade association EFAMRO that updates the status of ISO 20252 adoption worldwide. As of May, 175 companies have certified, with the majority of those in the UK, Australia, and the Netherlands. Their survey found another 52 companies (mostly in France and Italy) that are certified to ISO 9000. It might be reasonable to expect that as these certifications lapse those companies will chose to transition to the more appropriate 20252 standard. Another 92 companies report having certified to local national standards and many of them, too, may transition to 20252 in the near future.
The access panel standard (ISO 26362) has been out for only a few months and thus far nine companies have certified with another 14 in process. Virtually all of these companies are located in the Netherlands.
The missing part of the story is North America where generating headway has been difficult. For starters, we need certifying bodies in the US who can conduct the necessary audits and certify companies. But we also need the recognition that this is an important competitive issue for global research and that has been slow in coming. The Canadians have done some great work on standards via MRIA's Gold Seal program that one would hope to see transitioned to ISO. In the US, CASRO has formed a task force focused on the feasibility of creating the needed infrastructure to bring ISO 20252 to North America.
I find all of this encouraging, even for an impatient guy like me.