The project, consisting 16 consortiums focuses on developing biobased and easy-to-recycle self-reinforced composites based on PLA fibers. Dr. Parva Chhantyal from Steinbeis Advanced Risk Technologies (R-Tech) is responsible for the workpackage that evaluates the environmental and economic impact of the project. Congratulation to the whole team!

Review the following two-page flyer for more details:

Metallographie in Qualitätssicherung und Schadensanalyse - Flyer

Metallography in quality assurance and damage analysis 

This book provides a brief introduction to materials science and describes the influence of manufacturing and processing on metal microstructure. The location and orientation of samples to produce polished sections from is a critical parameter which affects the conclusions of each and every metallographic analysis. This is where targeted action must be taken to ensure that manufacturing and operational defects in metal components are reliably detected.

Evaluating the acceptability of irregularities in a metal sample requires proper preparation, experience in macroscopic and microscopic evaluation of textures and knowledge of the relevant standards and guidelines. Numerous documentations and case studies exist to provide assistance in the practical procedure. The authors explain characteristic features of different types of defects and suggest optimized procedures or alternative preparation methods.

Assessing damage and material failures is a particularly difficult task for metallographers. The decisive factor for success is the correct analytical approach, the proper choice of the grinding position and its correct orientation. Practical instructions to tackle these task are presented and explained using practical, real life examples. A glossary of relevant terms is presented in the appendix to close gaps in knowledge in the adjacent fields of science, metallurgy and production engineering, so that the instructions for practical work presented in this book can put to use without consulting further literature.

Prior to the meeting, the participants spent the preceding week in Cologne, Germany, participating in course on the topics of resilience and smart cities, which was organized by the Steinbeis R-Tech Transfer Institute as part of Steinbeis University Berlin. Over the course of 10 years, the R-Tech group led by Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Jovanovic has worked with the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology on more than 14 strategic projects; this meeting provided a valuable opportunity to reflect on and discuss past, present, and future opportunities for collaboration.

The project, consisting 16 consortiums focuses on developing biobased and easy-to-recycle self-reinforced composites based on PLA fibers. Dr. Parva Chhantyal from Steinbeis Advanced Risk Technologies (R-Tech) is responsible for the workpackage that evaluates the environmental and economic impact of the project. Congratulation to the whole team! For more information, click here.

The ZDH-ZERT audit took place on February 7-8, 2019 and showed again that the Steinbeis Advanced Risk Technology Group and EU-VRi duly improves and complies with the requirements of ISO 9001 Quality Management. The audit has covered the areas of integrated risk management and industrial safety with multidisciplinary, global and holistic approach, including education and training, information providing, innovation, professional services and consulting, products and software, project management.

This standard is currently under development by ISO/TC (Technical Committee) 262 ‘Risk Management,’ which "develops international standards in the field of risk management to support organizations in all their activities including making decisions to manage and minimize the effects of accidents, disasters and faults in technical systems as well as response and recovery from major disruptive risks."

To learn more about the new ISO 31050 standard, visit: https://committee.iso.org/sites/tc262/home/projects/ongoing/iso-31022-guidelines-for-impl-2.html

Invitation for the Joint Final Conference
of the SmartResilience and SAYSO H2020 projects

April 15-17, 2019

Budapest, Hungary

The joint final conference of the SAYSO and SmartResilience projects will be hosted by the National University of Public Service in Budapest on April 15-17, 2019. The objectives of the joint conference are to present and discuss their respective outcomes as well as to discuss next steps! The conference will involve practitioners, developers, technology suppliers, standardisation and procurement specialists, as well as decision-makers to find the best ways to harmonise, integrate, and enhance the projects’ outcomes and achieve tangible impact at the European level.

If you wish to participate as a speaker, please contact us before January 31, 2019, at SAYSO-SmartResilience-Conference@eu-vri.eu.

The e-registration for all participants will open early 2019.

To be among the first informed, follow us on Twitter!

@SmartResilience and @SAYSO

Contributors and participants from other projects and institutions are welcome to attend.

We look forward to welcoming you in Budapest!

Kind regards,

A. Jovanovic & H. Burkow

on behalf of the SmartResilience and SAYSO Consortia

These events include:

December 2-6, 2018:

Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (USA) – Professor Jovanović will be sharing the following presentation related to SmartResilience:

Analyzing Interdependencies Among Infrastructures Based on Big Data and Resilience Indicators (Jovanovic AS, Klimek P)

December 4, 2018:

Second Project SAYSO Public Workshop, Brussels, Belgium

December 5-6, 2018:

Security Research Event (SRE) 2018, Brussels, Belgium

As stated on its website, WaterBriefing is "an information service, delivering daily news, company data and product information straight to the desks of purchasers, users and specifiers of equipment and services in the UK water and wastewater industry." The article describes SmartResilience's series of real-life based case studies, such as the FOXTROT case study focused on assessing the resilience of drinking water supply in Swedish cities.

The delegates from the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology participated in a meeting with Steinbeis Advanced Risk Technologies (R-Tech) and the European Institute for Integrated Risk Management (EU-VRi) in Stuttgart, Germany on August 16, 2018. They discussed possible projects in the area of emerging risks, risk management and resilience. During the meeting they officially signed the future framework collaboration agreement between Steinbeis, EU-VRi and BJAST.

Around 40 participants from all over the world (China, USA, France, etc.) gathered together in the premises of Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam. During the 1-day workshop, the most tangible results of the work done in the project were presented. Project partners higlighted the specific issues tackled by their case studies, showing the indicators which they have selected for the assessment as well as their contribution to the integrated network/tool developed within SmartResilience. Furthermore, application of SR Tool on other EU DRS project has been presented by dr Emanuelle Bellini, coordinator of RESOLUTE.  

In the second part of the meeting, Frederic Petit from Argonne National Laboratory presented the need to promote a global approach to resilience.

At the end, the Chair of Critical Infrastructure Resilience Advisory Board, Prof. Claudio Rolandi, and coordinator of the project, Prof. Aleksandar Jovanović led a fruitful panel discussion about the challenges related to resilience management, perspectives on enterprise resilience, and engagement of relevant politicians. 

Special Issue: societal safety, critical infrastructure reliability and related intersectoral governance

Societal safety refers to the consolidation of society’s robust “normal” functioning and includes the prevention and absence of major disruptions within and across key sectors. When failures occur, societal safety incorporates the ability to respond to and cope with external or internal stresses, such as natural hazards, terrorism and major industrial accidents. Critical infrastructures are the lifelines of modern societies and their reliability is essential for societal safety. Sectors, organizations and populations are organized around the expectation that infrastructures function, typically with near 100 per cent reliability. Their success—their usefulness and high reliability —produces societal vulnerability and challenges in terms of governance, as dependence on them is engrained in the fabric of society.  Joint and coordinated efforts from different disciplines are required to maintain societal safety in general and critical infrastructure reliability in particular as both the vulnerabilities and the resources for resilience straddle organizational, sectoral, jurisdictional and national boundaries.

This Special Issue invites studies that advance our understanding of societal safety and our capability for preventive and responsive action. We seek to elaborate societal safety around two particular foci: as societal issues (matters concerning policy and regulation) and as operational issues (the operation and emergency management in infrastructure sectors along with their other key functions) and, importantly, how the two foci are intertwined. At least two important trends challenge both:

1) Neoliberal forms of governance have led to more fragmented organizations while sectors of society have become more tightly coupled.

2) Digitalization has introduced new, often intractable, interdependencies and couplings, increasing complexity and the potential for domino- or cascade effects. It opens up new vulnerabilities related to intentional and accidental events but also new means for risk monitoring and coordination in emergencies.

While the dependency on highly reliable critical infrastructures and digital technologies may invite models of societal safety based on strict rules and regulation, the last decades of safety and reliability theory has increasingly been concerned with how system variability is handled in dynamic ways and how situational adaptations and adjustments can be resources for resilience. Our Special Issue specifically encourages reflection on the boundaries of this adaptability, the managing of adaptability, and its regulation.

The special issue invites papers discussing societal safety as operational and societal issues. We are particularly, but not exclusively, interested in papers discussing the inter-organizational/inter-sectoral management of societal safety, case studies of critical infrastructures and organizations/agencies responsible for societal safety, resilience based perspectives on societal safety, perspectives on the management on the societal interconnectedness of risk and on the relationship between safety and security. We are also interested in theoretical and empirical contributions addressing the implications of digitalization and neoliberal governance (New Public Management, managerialism, public-private partnerships etc) for these topics. 

Submission Method

The length of submitted papers will be between 7,000 and 10,000 words. Submitted papers must be unpublished and not currently under review by other journals. Papers using previously published conference papers should not exceed 20% similarity.

All Full length papers should be submitted via the Safety Science submission system. While submitting a paper to the special issue, please choose the article type “Societal Safety” otherwise your submission will be handled as a regular manuscript. All submissions will go through the journal’s standard peer review process. Criteria for acceptance include originality, contribution, scientific merit and relevance to the theme of the Special Issue. For author guidelines, please visit the website of the journal at http://www.journals.elsevier.com/safety-science

Deadlines:

Submissions of full papers are due via Safety Science’s submission portal on February 1, 2017. Papers must be in accordance with the ordinary format requirements of Safety Science.

We also invite interested authors to submit abstracts or extended abstracts (by email, max 1000 words) to the editors by October 15, 2016. This is not mandatory for full paper submission.

Managing guest editor:

Dr. Emery Roe, Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, University of California, Berkeley, US, emery.roe@berkeley.edu

Guest editors:

Dr. Petter G. Almklov, NTNU Social Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway, pettera@svt.ntnu.no

Kristine V. Størkersen, NTNU Social Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway, kristine.vedal.storkersen@apertura.ntnu.no

Dr. Stian Antonsen, Department of Safety Research, SINTEF Technology and Society, Norway, Stian.Antonsen@sintef.no

The CBRNE INNOVATION FAIR 2016 will take place 11-12 October 2016 in Brussels and will bring together decision-makers, from government, operational units, industry, science and research in CBRNE and crisis management.

The industry’s top performing companies and organisations will present their products and innovations. Among the products presented a special focus will be on EDEN Store, tools developed by the EDEN project and constructive dialogue and collaboration on topics relevant to disaster risk management and crisis management.

The EDEN Consortium invites decision makers, operators and donors of CBRNE technologies to join its Final Conference on 11 October 2016 organised jointly with the CBRNE INNOVATION FAIR 2016 in Brussels.

During the event, EDEN partners will present their results and achievements obtained in the last years of work in terms of technology, procedures and methods for the management of CBRN accidents. The EDEN Store will be presented and the movies from the validation exercises displayed.

EDEN Final Conference | Tuesday 11 October 2016, 11:00–16:30

Registration at www.cbrne-fair2016.eu
Attendance is free of charge, but registration is required (number of visitors is limited).

In the occasion of the "40 years anniversary of the disaster of Seveso*", The European Commission would like to invite you to the conference Resilience and Technological Risk: comparative experiences after the 40 years of disaster of Seveso to analyse in-depth the effectiveness of the adoption of the European Directives and by local governments and debate how “resilience actions” have been lasting uninterrupted for forty years. 

Experts of the European Commission and EU regional authorities will discuss how risk management and prevention have been improved thanks to the synergy between Institutional and socio-economics regional and local structures as well as the new perspectives: ranging from environmental restoration, scientific research and safety regulations. 

Confirmation to the participation is required by June 20th, 2016 to silvia.dognini@flanet.org (specifing surname, first name, date of birth, type and number of document, organization). 

*The accident of Seveso (July 1976) marked the start of a series of “resilience actions” which has been lasting uninterrupted for forty years thanks to an active participation of the civil society. 

Informations:

40°  Anniversary after Seveso: 
Resilience and Technological Risk: comparative experiences 40 years after the disaster in Seveso 
29/06 at Committee of the Regions 
Bâtiment Jacques Delors, Rue Belliard 99-101 - Bruxelles 
Room JDE53 (5th floor of the JDE building) 

Steinbeis Advanced Risk Technologies (R-Tech), is part of the newly approved Horizon 2020 project BIO4SELF. Within this innovation project, R-Tech will, as part of a European consortium, contribute to the development of novel PLA materials for composites. 

The worldwide demand for replacing fossil-based raw materials for the production of polymers leads to a significant growth of bioplastics in terms of technological developments.

An assessment done by the European Commission has indicated that bio-based products and biofuels represent approximately € 57 billion in annual revenue and involve 300,000 jobs. According to the forecasts, the bio-based share of all chemical sales will rise to 22 % by 2020, with a compounded annual growth rate of close to 20 %.

Left: Expected Biotech Sales (Source: McKinsey). Right: graph showing the expected “biobased” employment growth (Source: Nova Institute).

However, there still exist drawbacks that prevent the wider use and commercialisation of biobased material. Two important ones:

• Lower mechanical performance: although PLA can already replace conventional materials (like polyester) for quite some applications, its limited mechanical strength is still hampering commercial application.
•  Limited durability: for application with long lifetime, PLA is not optimal yet due to its limited hydrolytic stability.

Enhancement of these properties remains an important challenge for biobased polymers. There is a need to develop biobased, sustainable polymeric materials with high stiffness, high impact and high durability without impairing recyclability.

The BIO4SELF project will tackle these drawbacks and aims for unprecedented stiffness by combining PLA (the largest used biopolymer) with a bio-LCP (Liquid Crystalline Polymer) to create an extra reinforcement level. Furthermore, the temperature resistance of PLA and its durability will be improved. The latter via adding well-chosen anti-hydrolysis agents. Further, inherent self-functionalization via photocatalytic polymers (self-cleaning properties), tailored microcapsules (self-healing) and deformation detection fibres (self-sensing) will be added.

The potential of the biobased materials will be proven in advanced prototypes for automotive and home appliances. Cost-efficient production of fully biobased composites meeting the demand for high technical performances and sustainability will be pursuit by investigating the performances of new biobased materials in plastic manufacturing. To reach this goal, the whole value chain will be considered within BIO4SELF (see figure below).

From PLA raw material to actual products – an overview of the BIO4SELF project scope.

R-Tech will contribute this by tackling the aspects related to sustainability of the materials and products developed within BIO4SELF. This implies the environmental and cost assessment, end-of-life scenarios and safety analysis. In the environmental assessment, a cradle-to-grave approach will be used to assess the investigated system (biobased composite structure and conventional fossil fuel based materials). The cumulative environmental impact resulting from all stages in the product development, includes raw materials’extraction (using secondary and tertiary data for the evaluation of specific impact) and the ultimate product disposal by investigating the benefits/constraints related with different scenarios defined by the compositions and characteristic of final products.

Furthermore, risk management studies in the project will be carried out by R-Tech. The risk management will follow the principles established at ISO 31000 and consider the main steps of risk assessment (risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation) together with monitoring and communication.

The BIO4SELF consortium is strongly industry driven, including 5 large enterprises and 5 SMEs. These are completed with 3 universities and 3 research centres. This way BIO4SELF covers all required expertise and infrastructure from academic, applied research and industry from 10 different EU countries (for a detailed overview of the consortium, see next page).

BIO4SELF is an H2020 project, meaning that it is co-funded by the European Union (grant of 6.8 million €). It will last 40 months and started on March 1^st, 2016. It is coordinated by Centexbel, the Belgian research centre for textiles and plastics.

Further contact:

Gözde Kara                                      gkara@risk-technologies.com

Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Jovanovic           jovanovic@risk-technologies.com

Project website:

www.bio4self.eu

BIO4SELF Consortium

"The overall theme of the 2015 World Congress was Risk Analysis for Sustainable Innovation, highlighting sessions that identified ways that risk analysis can assist private and public policy makers facing complex and uncertain challenges while maintaining innovation and development. Special emphasis was placed on the role of risk analysis as a tool for policy making and tradeoffs in situation of limited resources and extreme challenges that are characteristic of developing countries."*

Among speakers, who represented topics from fields of health, environment, agriculture, engineering, economics, decision-making, psychology, social & political sciences, communication, law & policy, Prof. Jovanovic "(…) explaining his concept of "Industrial Revolution 4.0". He particularly highlighted the difficulties laypeople have in grasping fundamental understandings of where technology is heading today, stating that with the advent of automation, "humans could go the way of the horse", and that the practice of human skills may be lost”**.

The congress is finished, but all new ideas which have arisen during that time will be expanded in the future.

Photos

Read more about The World Congress on Risk 2015

*  http://www.sra.org/worldcongress2015
**  http://www.sra.org/news/sra-world-congress-risk-2015

Lecturer: Prof. Aleksandar S. Jovanovic, STI R-Tech

Venue: Steinbeis Transfer Institute Advanced Risk Technologies, Haus der Wirtschaft, Willi-Bleicher-Str. 19,
70174 Stuttgart, Germany

At the end of the course, students are expected to have basic knowledge about:

• main principles of the ISO 31000 standard
• ISO 31000 framework for managing risk
• implementation principles of the ISO 31000 standard
• related standards
• open issues in ISO 31000
• further development of ISO 31000 (ISO 31004, new revisions)

Course content by Units

Register before April 15, 2013 and you will receive a 10% discount from the registration fee! Final application deadline: May 6, 2013.

The course is intended for:

• professionals responsible for developing risk management policy within their organization
• professionals accountable for ensuring that risk is effectively managed within the organization as a whole or within a specific area, project or activity
• developers of standards / guides / procedures / codes of practice that, in whole or in part, set out how risk is to be managed within specific context(s)
• other professionals (engineers, managers, inspectors, legislators, etc.) who wish to deepen their knowledge in the field of risk management standardization
• individuals with no previous experience in the field of risk management standardization, but willing to extend their knowledge and take up new roles in this field within their companies
• university student

Direct contact: sti889@risk-technologies.com

Mr. Andras Veres
Tel: +49 711 1839 647
av@risk-technologies.com

Ms. Roswitha Kokejl
Tel: +49 711 1839 616
rk@risk-technologies.com

Lecturer: Prof. Aleksandar S. Jovanovic, STI R-Tech

The purpose of this course is exactly to assure that engineers, managers and IT experts can understand the importance of these aspects for the success of their collaboration with partners from other cultural background. It will address issues such as

• Intercultural value systems
• Differences in cultural practices
• Cross-cultural project management
• Individualism vs. Teamwork
• Successful management of cultural differences as a factor of success in international projects
• What one should know, do or not do in an EU project
• Case studies: US, Japan, India, China ...

Unit 1: Successful management of cultural differences as factor of success of IT and other projects

Unit 2: Multicultural contexts – what you should know, what you should do, what you should not do…

Unit 3: Multilingual environments in international projects

Unit 4: Essentials of Business communication & Elements of Human Resources Management in multinational projects

Announcement / Course Profile / Registration

Among others, the course is intended to promote the results of PROMISLingua project among SMEs. Due to these promotional purposes, the registration for PROMISLingua members and for SMEs is free of charge. For any other individuals and organizations (not SMEs), the registration fee is EUR 500. 

Register before March 27, 2013 and you will receive a 10% discount from the registration fee! Final application deadline: April 14, 2013.

• Engineers
• Managers of IT and other companies
• Project managers

Direct contact: sti889@risk-technologies.com

Mr. Andras Veres
Tel: +49 711 1839 647
av@risk-technologies.com

Ms. Roswitha Kokejl
Tel: +49 711 1839 616
rk@risk-technologies.com