The National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) was established some thirty years ago by the Department of Health and Children and University College Dublin (UCD) to provide a national diagnostic and reference service for clinicians investigating virus infections. Since that time NVRL has remained an integral part of Medical Microbiology at UCD. In the past year both entities have been incorporated into the Centre for Research into Infectious Diseases (CRID) at UCD. This has allowed a significant expansion of the facilities available to NVRL activities which include: a state of the art laboratory for molecular diagnostics, a dedicated GMP Laboratory for reference testing for the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS), a Biosafety level 3 plus containment laboratory and a range of new research laboratories. The laboratory is fully accredited by both the Clinical Pathology Accreditation and the World Health Organisation as a National Laboratory for Poliovirus, Influenza, Rubella and Measles. Current workload extends to over 500,000 tests per annum. An out-of-hours service is available with clinical support to deal with emergencies such as organ donation, needle-stick injuries and dialysis. This ensures continuity of service with testing available 365 days a year on a 24-hour basis when necessary. A wide range of tests are performed routinely but others are available through consultation with the laboratory staff and the range of tests available are outlined in our NVRL User Manual and on this website. Professor William Hall Director Effective Date: August 2011