 Throughout the 1970s the institute worked with the Ministry of Defence and industry to try and establishing a common approval system for quality and giving certificates of competence to successful companies.By 1980 the institute had a membership of 5,400 members which doubled by the end of the decade.Early on in the 1980s the institute merged with the National Council for Quality and Reliability and in 1981 the IQA formed a corporate bodies arm with the British Quality Association.