Research in metrology and tolerancing is of major interest in design, manufacturing and quality control. There has been rapid and signififcant progress in dimensional and geometrical metrology as well as geometrical tolerancing in recent years due to global changes in production technology and increased requirements regarding economy and safety.The developments in metrology and specification concern the increasing introduction of optical, robust and shopfloor-suitable methods of augmented accuracy, the dispersion of the coordinate measuring method from tactile techniques to various techniques based on other measuring effects, and the provision of new procedures for measurements with sub-nanometre resolution. In particular, to ensure the maximum significance of measurement results, global traceability and uniform strategies for measurement uncertainty evaluation are being developed. Concepts for computer-assisted and web-based education and training for metrology reflect the enormous influence of the operator on measurement results.The CIRP Conference CAT 2007 highlighted the recent evolution of metrology and specification of geometrical tolerances, focused on their implications for science, industry and engineering and introduced new techniques of metrology and verification for advanced quality control.More than 100 participants from 17 different countries, 73 paper presentations and five keynote addresses provided CAT 2007 with knowledge, experience and new visions in the field of metrology. To make the new technical expertise derived from the contributions to the conference available to a broader audience Measurement Science and Technology is pleased to publish five selected papers from the conference. We hope they will be as interesting, stimulating and informative to you as the conference CAT 2007 was for the participants.