Annual Conference

Building a Resilient Europe in a Globalised World

The European Commission's Directorate-General Joint Research Centre (JRC),

in cooperation with the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC) of the European Commission cordially invite you to the Annual Conference Building a Resilient Europe in a Globalised World.       

The European Commission's Directorate-General Joint Research Centre (JRC), in cooperation with the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC) of the European Commission, is organising its annual conference on "Resilience".

Resilience determines capacity to successfully confront societal challenges and to adapt and overcome adversity. In an evolving global environment, resilience creates stability, which in turn promotes job creation, economic growth and environmental sustainability.

The conference will kick off discussion between experts, representatives from European Institutions and Member States, stakeholders from industry as well as academia on the continuous process of building a resilient, stable, competitive and prosperous Europe.

The thematic sessions will address:

• Resilient supplies: energy, food and water security
• Resilience to disasters: flexibility and ability to adapt existing plans
• Resilient Europe – Tackling the financial crisis

During the conference, DG JRC's Resilience Report will be launched as well as a Knowledge Centre for Disaster Risk Management.

Wednesday, 30 September 2015, 09:00-18:00
followed by a networking cocktail, 18:00-19:30

Venue:

European Commission, Charlemagne Building, Alcide de Gasperi Room
Rue de la Loi 170, Brussels

REGISTRATION: click here.

FIRM15 - FEHRL Infrastructure Research Meeting

The FEHRL Infrastructure Research Meeting 2015 (FIRM15) will be held on 22nd & 23rd April 2015 at the Diamant Centre in Brussels, Belgium.

This key event, which will be held in English and cost 150 Euros per person (2 days conference, exhibition entrance and cocktail), will gather some 120 transport infrastructure innovation and research experts, including European and national policy makers, leading industry, standardisation agencies, SME's and the media.

With the theme  of  "Innovative maintenance of Transport Infrastructure. Faster, cheaper, more reliable, safer, greener", FIRM15 will feature multiple information sessions on the following themes.

• Infrastructure level: Engineering and technical solutions 
• System level: operations including monitoring inspections
• Governance level: management and financial issues

Register now

Click here if you are a speaker for guidelines on your presentation. 

Contact isabelle.lucchini@fehrl.org to send any documents and if you need any more information about the event.

SafeLife-X Workshop

The next set of workshops of SafeLife-X will take place in Brussels, on March 19-20, 2015.

Overview of the event:

Location:

These events will be hosted by FEHRL at the following address:

FEHRL - Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories
Blvd. de la Woluwe 42 bte 3
B-1200 Brussels
Belgium

Please find here more information about the venue (including a list of hotels).

Registration for SafeLife-X events:
We kindly ask you to register by February 27 at the following link:

http://www.safelife-x.eu-vri.eu/Events/apply.aspx?EventID=8341

Contact: SafeLifeExtension@eu-vri.eu

Next thematic Workshops of SafeLife-X

We would like to invite to the next thematic Workshops of SafeLife-X that will take place in Stuttgart on December 2-3, 2014.

Overview of the event:

Objectives of the 3rd meeting for the preparation of the SRA (Tecnalia)
Define the scope of the SRA. Validate the Structure of the SRA.
Truly reflect and prioritise stakeholders strategic research needs.

Objectives of the 2nd meeting of the Implementation strategy (Deltares)
The work on the business cases in Task 6.1 and the planning for the tasks and deliverables in WP6 will be presented.
The work on the modelling of the economy of investments in aging management will be detailed.

Objectives of the 1st meeting to prepare the sustainable structure (VCE)
This workshop will aim at:

· Discussing on the criticality of infrastructures and their ranking

· Discussing on the options for a programme within Horizon 2020

· Assessing of the currently available instruments (Calls, PPP, JPI)

· Discussing the connection to the SRA and roadmap

· Discussing and deciding about priorities and next activities

Location:

Steinbeis-Stiftung
Kienestrasse 35
70174 STUTTGART (GERMANY)

Please find here more information about the venue (including list of hotels). 

Registration for SafeLife-X events:
We kindly ask you to register by November 21, 2014 at the following link:

http://www.safelife-x.eu-vri.eu/Events/apply.aspx?EventID=8059

Don’t hesitate to contact us (SafeLifeExtension@eu-vri.eu) if you have any question.

 ENQUIRY in support of a review of identified corrosion issues pertaining to biorefining

The ECORBIO project has launched an enquiry in support of a review of identified corrosion issues pertaining to biorefining.

You are kindly invited to fill in the form and forward it to wassila.benaissa@ineris.fr and guy.marlair@ineris.fr.

SafeLife-X Workshops

The next thematic Workshops of SafeLife-X will take place in Vienna (Austria) on September 2-4, 2014.

Overview of the event (draft agendas available here):

 A dinner will be also organized on September 1^st

Objectives of the 2^nd workshop on “Strategic Research Agenda and Implementation Strategy ”:
The second workshop aims at determining cross sectorial most interesting topics for the SRA. Different groups according to sectors will be created and results of the MCAs will be merged to determine average weights for each criteria and the main cross-sectorial topics.

Objectives of the workshop “Methodologies of aging analysis and management”:
The workshop is aimed to provide best practices of aging methodologies and management to answer the needs  identified during the first part of the SafeLife-X project. Workgroups will discuss of their practices over 3 different subjects of aging methodologies and management.

Objectives of the workshop “analysis of the degradation laws and kinetics, and the implementation of probabilistic / deterministic approaches”:
The objective of this workshop is to discuss the degradation laws and kinetics and the most relevant probabilistic methods.

Objectives of the Kick of meeting of the WP4 (development of guidance documents and standards):
The purpose of this meeting is to launch the standardization activities. It is intended to develop an EN standard for Risk-Based Inspection (RBi) and to start a new CWA on aging that will prepare the ground for the future norms in this field.

Location:

These events will be hosted by VCE at the following address:

VCE Vienna Consulting Engineers ZT GmbH
Diesterweggasse 3,
1140 Vienna, Austria

Registration for SafeLife-X events:
We kindly ask you to register at the following link by August 10, 2014:
http://safelife-x.eu-vri.eu/Events/apply.aspx?EventID=7691

Registration for RBIF event:
Please send the registration form to Mr. Carlebur at Arthur.Carlebur@nen.nl.
Since we are obliged to have in the RBIF meetings only registered members and, only exceptionally guests,  we encourage to the partners who are not yet register in the CEN TC Working Group 12  to kindly register as soon as possible with the National Standard bodies (contact list available here). It would be highly appreciated that  Mr. Carlebur is informed about the action once the application is in course.

For more information, please contact SafeLifeExtension@eu-vri.eu.

FEHRL Infrastructure Research Magazine (FIRM)

SafeLife-X has published an article in the fourth issue of FEHRL Infrastructure Research Magazine (FIRM) focusing on international collaboration and implementation of results.

Click here or on the link below to take a look at the fourth issue of the FEHRL Infrastructure Research magazine (FIRM), which is in the process of being printed and will shortly be distributed in hard copy to FEHRL members and key transport infrastructure stakeholders. This fourth issue focuses on international collaboration and implementation of results, as well as the FEHRL highlights of TRA2014.

This issue also has a particular focus on the following selected key projects:

• TRA Visions - www.travisions.eu
• FOSTER-Road - www.ertrac.org 
• PROS - www.pros-project.eu
• ROSANNE - www.rosanne-project.eu
• ECOLABEL - www.ecolabelproject.eu
• AllBack2Pave - allback2pave.fehrl.org
• TRIMM - trimm.fehrl.org 
• SMARTRAIL - smartrail.fehrl.org 
• SAFELIFE-X - safelife-x.eu-vri.eu  
• INCRIS - incris.fehrl.org  
• SUP&R ITN - superitn.eu 

Contact Catherine Birkner, FEHRL Communications Officer, at catherine.birkner@fehrl.org with any feedback on FIRM and if you would like to request a printed copy of the FIRM magazine.

EUROMAINTENANCE 2014

In EuroMaintenance 2014 Congress more than 100 experts from 30 countries will give their presentations on the latest findings and experience on physical asset management and maintenance.

EuroMaintenance Congress offers a massive information package on maintenance with case studies. Top business leaders share their success stories and key speakers from international universities present their educational programs and latest research developments.

The Congress is complemented by The 6th World Congress on Maintenance and Asset Management with presentations of physical asset management – currently the hottest topic in maintenance!

The SafeLife-X project initiated by ETPIS and reFINE will be presented during this event.

More information at www.euromaintenance2014.org

INFRAVATION CALL

Infravation call has been launched on 3rd March 2014

The Infravation 2014 Call aims to support the development of advanced systems, materials and techniques for road infrastructure. The topics being covered have been specified in a Scoping Study and are drawn from the following challenges:

• Advanced predictive infrastructure performance processes.
• Enhanced durability and life-time extension.
• Rapid and non-destructive methods for routine quality and performance checks of materials and construction.
• Keeping freight routes open through zero-intrusive maintenance.
• Ensuring infrastructure performance under all weather conditions.
• Resource and energy efficiency in road construction and maintenance (Eco-design).
• Virgin material reduction by substitution or recycling.

The Infravation 2014 Call focusses on the development of innovative technologies for road operations, either on the European, national, regional or urban networks. For construction and maintenance technology, aspects such as advanced robotics could be developed. The exact details, including the funding scheme for specific stakeholders, will be published in the Infravation 2014 Call Guide for Applicants, which will be available at the launch on 3rd March 2014.

More information on the Infravation 2014 Call here.

Infravation 2014 Call joint information and brokerage day, 20 March, Brussels.

 
Join information and Brokerage event day on Match 20, 2014

Register by 12th March 2014 for the Infravation 2014 Call joint information and brokerage day being held on 20th March 2014. Participation in the event is free of charge. For logistical reasons, all participants are required to register for the event using the online registration system.

More information here.

SafeLife-X workshop: Identification of the needs on aging of infrastructures and industrial plants

The proceedings of the 1st SafeLife-X thematic workshop are available online.

To watch the chaptered video of the workshop, please click here.

This 1st thematic workshop aimed at collecting feedback from the experts and to agree on a shared vision on the needs that will structure the other workpackages.
During the workshop, the experts have identified a serie of needs:

Energy / Power plants including renewables

Life(time) extension
For example, the rules and practices are not always clear for recalculating margins or safety factors to deal with uncertainties in loads that aging structures are subjected to . Similarly, significant uncertainties appear in the response to these loads by aging structures, and in the predicted life, when aiming for life extension.   

Change of operational mode
For example, the increasing share of unrestricted wind and solar power tends to make the overall electricity supply more fluctuating and increases the fatigue type loading to the rest of the plants in the system, if not fully balanced by e.g. fast responding hydro capacity and spinning reserves. This results in increasing fatigue-related aging in thermal plants, and can also make the previous inspection data and experience (e.g. for RBI) largely redundant.  

Dealing with fatigue and creep (more than one mechanisms), and predicting aging for new structures
In general, prediction of aging under the action of single damage (and failure) mechanism is better accommodated in the existing methods, guidelines and standards than with combined action of two or more mechanisms, and this can greatly add to the overall uncertainty of the prediction. The challenge is exacerbated by lacking data from real operation/inspections for new processes/structures/materials at the stage of design and also later until such information has been accumulated.   

Improved methods for inspections and monitoring of critical structures/locations
For example, challenges appear for NDT in offshore windmills to inspect deep subsea structures covered with biomass crust and no inspection access from inside. More generally, there is a challenge to link inspection and monitoring data to the governing damage and failure mechanisms for critical structures and locations. Improved (health) monitoring methods and sensors are also needed for critical components that operate under severe environments. 

Civil structures (bridges, ports…)

Improve methodologies for assessing the remaining loading capacities of structures and lifetime prediction

Infrastructures are aging; the effective remaining loading capacity is unknown and there are not satisfactory methodologies that allow to assess it. The need to investigate in that direction is considered as primary in this sector. Assessing the remaining loading capabilities will also enable an accurate lifetime prediction.

Methodologies for assessing aging of structure (monitoring tools and guidelines)

Innovative monitoring tools (as early warning monitoring systems, new smart sensing and communication technologies, data collection, processing and aggregation systems) must be developed. Guidelines that, in accordance with the standards, define what are the procedures for assessing the ageing of structures must be defined. The idea is to produce a flow diagram that defines the actions to be taken accordingly to structure performances and deficiencies.

Risk framework to assess structural performances

Ageing of an infrastructure can cause relevant economic (and not only) consequences. This threat must be addressed in a global scale by formulating a complete risk framework.

Innovative and low cost solutions to extend lifetime of structures and related monitoring

Due to cuts on funding, the aging problem must be addressed with innovative and low cost solutions capable to extend the lifetime of the aged structures. Since these solutions are new, their performances must be monitored in order to fully define their behaviour.

“Pattern-type” assessing of structures

Many structures have common characteristics and due to that it is reasonable to assume that they behave similarly. For this reason, the feasibility to define “pattern-type” behaviour must be evaluated. This would allow simplifying monitoring procedures for all the structures that belong to a common “pattern-type”

“Intelligent” design of new structures taking into account future ageing

Ageing occurs to any type of structures and requires upgrade of the structure by means of retrofitting techniques. New structures should be designed in a way to efficiently allow retrofitting that at some point will be necessary due to structural ageing.

Chemical/process plants

Minimal data needed
How to get a reliable, usable and minimal set of data ? Important cost for collecting data : can we reduce information and be reliable ?

Probability of failure developed by causes
not only by equipment…

Combination of failure modes
How to integrate multiples damage mechanisms?

Data sharing
decision methods... ?

Avoid double work done by full integration of ageing management in safety management.

Common risk assessment

Ageing of new structure

Networks and horizontal issues (economics, costs, decision making and management, resilience, standardization…)

Integrated approach

Data/info/systems: €, design, operation, maintenance…

Indicators and benchmarking

Unclear ownership

Who owns risks, profits, benefits, savings… who is motivated?

Broader view on assets

PAS 55 and ISO 55000; aging just one of the factors, aged plants just as “special case” of optimized (4)

“Bucket principle”

Should vs. Can

The public report on the identification of the needs on aging of infrastructures and industrial plants will be released soon.

Conference: Nuclear Long Term Operations & Ageing Management Europe

"Nuclear Energy Insider" organizes a conference on "Nuclear Long Term Operations & Ageing Management Europe: Ensure safe long term operation and improved performance by executing definitive ageing management strategies" that will take place on September 24-25, 2013, in Brussels.

As the majority of European NPPs approach the end of their original design life and costs for new reactors rise dramatically, investment in the long term operation (LTO) of existing fleets is more essential than ever. With life after 40 costing over €30bn for the French fleet alone (WNA), it is critical to strengthen the European supply chain and share knowledge, best practice and innovation.

• Review lessons learnt from recent LTO and PLEX programmes to achieve a swift and cost efficient delivery on your projects
• Evaluate post-Fukushima costs for operators to understand how this has increased the size of the LTO market
• Discover the latest innovations in addressing physical ageing and obsolescence to improve plant performance and ensure operation past original design life
• Hear updates from a panel of key European regulatory bodies to understand their expectations for life after 40
• Profit from expert knowledge on I&C analogue to digital upgrades, fatigue analysis and concrete degradation, enabling you to construct a comprehensive ageing management programme

Further information (agenda, registration...) is available here.