Geoscience Reference
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following 4 broad themes, chosen because of their importance to the new European
Seismic Design Code, namely: (1) Reinforced Concrete Highway Bridges (ISMES,
Bristol, JRC Ispra), (2) Reinforced Concrete Frames (Athens), (3) Infilled Frames
(Athens, ISMES, Bristol,LNEC); and (4) Geotechnical structures (Bristol).
Giventhesuccessoftheco-operationandcollaborationbetweenresearchinfrastructures,
external researchers (Universities and Laboratories), and the outcome of the research
activityanditsrelevanceforEuropeanstandardsinprocessofdevelopmentandapproval
by the European countries, the consortium was further financed to continue its activities,
addressing now new topics, as part of the programme of the research network ICONS—
Innovative Concepts for New and Existing Structures, with emphasis on: (1) Seis-
mic Actions, (2) Assessment, strengthening and repair, (3) Innovative design concepts,
(4) Composite structures, and (5) Shear-wall structures.
In the context of the 5th Programme of the Commission, the consortium was further
expanded(ECOLEADER)andearthquakeengineeringresearchconcentratedonthetop-
ics of the Network—Safety Assessment for Earthquake Risk Reduction—(SAFEER)
research programme, namely: (1) characterization of seismic hazard, (2) assessment and
design in low seismicity regions, (3) strategies/techniques for risk reduction, and (4) risk
assessmentsystems.DetailsoftheexperimentalresearchcarriedoutattheEuropeanlab-
oratories can be found in Severn (2000) and in the 27 Technical report series ECOEST-
PREC8 (1996), ECOEST2-ICONS (2001), and CASCADE (2005). They were written
andeditedbyseveralEuropeanresearchersandpublishedbytheNationalLaboratoryfor
CivilEngineering,Lisbon,constitutingimportantmilestonesofthepioneeringEuropean
cooperative research on earthquake engineering, involving experimental facilities, their
users and the research community.
6.3. THEUSA NEES INITIATIVE
As mentioned earlier, in the second half of the 1990s, the U.S. National Science Foun-
dation (NSF) initiated a programme aimed at establishing the Network for Earthquake
Engineering Simulation (NEES). As stated by Nelson et al. (2000) NEES is a project
aiming at providing a national, networked collaboratory of geographically-distributed,
shared-use next-generation experimental research equipment sites, with tele-observation
and tele-operation capabilities, which will transform the environment for earthquake
engineeringresearchandeducationthroughcollaborativeandintegratedexperimentation,
computation, theory, databases, and model-based simulation to improve the seismic
design and performance of U.S.civil and mechanical infrastructure systems.
The NEES project developed by NSF through a series of competitive programme solic-
itations: (a) “System Integration” (SI) to develop the high performance system for the
NEES collaboratory, (b) “Earthquake Engineering Research Equipment” NEES research
equipment sites, and (c) a “Management Consortium” to operate the NEES collabora-
tory through 2014. In fact, all the three components have been developed in coordi-
nation, and today NEESinc, with headquarters located in Davis, California, acts as the
