How to build a robust model against perturbation factors with only a few reference values: A chemometric challenge at ‘Chimiométrie 2007’

Following up on the success of previous chemometric challenges arranged during the annual congress organised by the French Chemometrics Society, the organisation committee decided to repeat the idea for the Chimiometrie 2007 event (http://www.chimiometrie.org/) held in Lyon, France (29–30 November) by featuring another dataset on its website. As for the first contest in 2004, this dataset was selected to test the ability of participants to apply regression methods to NIR data. The aim of Challenge 2007 was to perform a calibration model as robust and precise as possible using a data set with only a few reference values available and submitted to different perturbation factors. The committee received nine answers; this paper summarizes the best three approaches, as well as the approach proposed by the organisers.