The Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP) hosts the European Union Reference Laboratory for Alternative Methods to Animal Testing (EURL-ECVAM) which is active in evaluating and validating in vitro cell based assays that can be used in regulatory safety assessment of chemicals. High throughput screening approaches are being investigated to expedite the process. Effective management of reference compounds including characterisation of solubility, stability, fate and traceability, is critical to ensure quality and reliability of validation results.