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Article History

Received: 6 July 2025

Accepted: 12 July 2025

First Online: 1 September 2025

Conflict of interest

: The research leading to these results has received funding from the Norway Grants 2014–2021 via the National Centre for Research and Development. The authors declare the following competing interests related to the SILREF Project: The SILREF project was financed by the Norwegian Funds, operated by the National Center for Research and Development. The project benefited from a grant of €444,930.14 from Norway and €78,517.08 from the state budget. The aim of the project was to develop new certified reference materials for the silicon industry. The project was coordinated by the Łukasiewicz Research Network—Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals in Gliwice, Poland in collaboration with the industrial partner Elkem ASA (Norway), a global supplier of silicon-based materials. This partnership included joint development of certified reference materials (CRMs) for silicon metal, ferrosilicon magnesium, and silica fume, and involves shared intellectual property and commercial applications. While the project was publicly funded, the involvement of an industrial partner may have been perceived as a potential source of bias. However, no author holds shares, patents, or receives personal financial compensation from Elkem ASA or any other commercial entity related to the project. The authors affirm that all results and interpretations presented are based solely on scientific evidence and are free from undue influence by any funding or commercial entity. There are no private persons outside Łukasiewicz-IMN and Elkem who benefited financially from the project.