Five years ago, the ICAP initiative on harmonisation and standardisation in the nomenclature of HEp-2 IFA patterns was implemented at the International Workshop on Autoantibodies and Autoimmunity (IWAA) in São Paulo, Brazil. Luis E. C. Andrade, professor at the Rheumatology Division, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, has been involved from the first day. In an interview with our colleagues from EUROIMMUN Poland, he tells us about the beginnings of ICAP and how the initiative has evolved until today.