Videos

Cement-based materials (CBM) are the foremost construction materials worldwide. Therefore, there are widely accepted standards for their structural applications. However, for service life designs, current approaches largely depend on CBM strength class and restrictions on CBM constituents. Consequently, the service life behaviour of CBM structures is still analysed with insufficiently rigorous approaches that are based on outdated scientific knowledge, particularly regarding the cumulative behaviour since early ages. This results in partial client satisfaction at the completion stage, increased maintenance/repair costs from early ages, and reduced service life of structures, with consequential economic/sustainability impacts. Despite significant research advances that have been achieved in the last decade in testing and simulation of CBM and thereby predicting their service life performance, there have been no generalized European-funded Actions to assure their incorporation in standards available to designers/contractors. Therefore, the main purpose of this Action is to bring together relevant stakeholders (experimental and numerical researchers, standardization offices, manufacturers, designers, contractors, owners and authorities) in order to accelerate knowledge transfer in the form of new guidelines/recommendations, introduce new products and technologies to the market, and promote international and inter-speciality exchange of new information, creating avenues for new developments.

The Green Engineering Camp (GEC) was a pilot COST Interdisciplinary Science Initiative (ISI) aimed at engaging specifically early stage researchers and investigators in real-life applications and intelligent and innovative uses of green ICT in order to boost knowledge transfer efficiently and to initiate new ideas and solutions to current and future challenges.

Is there a connection between thunderstorm activity, and climate? Two scientists (Yoav Yair, from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel, and Laure Lefèvre, from the Royal Observatory of Belgium) discuss this topic. This movie was produced by COST action TOSCA (Towards a more complete assessment of the impact of solar variability on climate), a multidisciplinary European network of scientists from 20 countries whose objective is to provide a better understanding of the hotly debated role of the Sun in climate change. For more information, and more movies, see http://www.tosca-cost.eu

COST and Delft University of Technology organised a three-day conference looking at solutions to the growing consumption of raw materials at a global scale: sustainable mining, recycling and substitution of critical materials, material life-time extension and product design. Participants also analysed ways forward in terms of research, policy and practice.

Dr Sjur Baardsen, Chair of the FPS Domain, shares his views on Tourism in a Green Economy when interviewed by the GreenUp programme.

The GreenUp programme, powered by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), prepares for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (aka Rio+20) in June 2012 by collecting a critical mass of evidence showing that the green economy is a real possibility for intertwining the world’s economies with our environmental and societal aspirations. The first action relates to Forests!

Visit http://www.greenup-unep.org/ for more information.

Will graphene live up to its promise? Is graphene the new silicon?
The latest video from this COST Action NanoTP designed to bring together theorists and experimentalists in the field of nanotechnology. This video shows scientists working in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology discussing the future for the new monolayer material, graphene, at a meeting held in Trieste in 2011.