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The report presents the work of the Joint Research Centre’s scientific network on adaptation of structural design to climate change focusing on the thermal design of buildings and infrastructure considering the changing climate. It presents scientific and technical background intended to stimulate debate and serve as a basis for further work to study the implications of climate change on the thermal design of structures. The report first outlines recent EU policies in support of sustainability and climate resilience of infrastructure and buildings. It highlights how the construction sector is encouraged to adopt more sustainable and circular economy practices, extend the lifetime of buildings and strive for better performance of buildings and infrastructure throughout their life cycle. It further emphasises the ongoing action plan to adapt the European standards to a changing climate. Following, the report explains the concept of the definition of thermal actions for the design of buildings and infrastructure using the European standards for structural design, i.e. the Eurocodes. It is showed that the adaptation of structural design to the implications of climate change is strongly linked with the assessment of changing characteristics of climatic actions (including thermal ones) in terms of the Eurocodes concept for the variable climatic actions. Variations in temperature that would directly affect the design values for thermal actions in the European standards are studied in depth for the case study of Italy. It is concluded that an increase in the maximum and minimum temperature used for structural design is expected all over Italy. It is discussed that structures, as bridges for example, are expected to be influenced by stresses from extreme temperatures and thus, should be designed for temperature amplitudes justified from climate projections for the actual region. However, the current European maps for thermal design are based on climatic data which, with some exceptions, are mostly 10 to 15 years old and ignore the potential effects of climate change. Thus, new European maps for the thermal design of structures should be developed using data that project more realistically the future climate. To this end, the authors present a methodology for developing thermal maps for structural design taking into account the influence of the changing climate and present an implementation of the methodology using the example of Italy., JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Buildings

The objective of the present report is to evaluate the state of harmonised use of the Eurocodes in the EU and EFTA Member States. Besides that, the report is deemed to assess the potential for further harmonisation and the associated needs to support the on-going activities of CEN/TC250 "Structural Eurocodes" in the development of the second generation of the Eurocodes. The report analyses the national choices of the 28 EU Member States and two EFTA Member States (Norway and Switzerland). The European Commission Nationally Determined Parameters Database (NDPs Database) was used as a source of information on the countries' choices regarding the values adopted in the Eurocodes National Annexes. The data available was subject of extensive analyses, comprising (i) assessment of the representativeness of the data set to draw conclusions on the country choices, (ii) examination of harmonised patterns of the NDPs, per country, Eurocode and for specific Eurocodes parts, (iii) study of cross-border convergence of the maps for climatic and seismic actions, (iv) identification of specific NDPs that achieved a high or a low consensus in the national choices, and (v) analysis of parameters with the largest divergence from the recommended values. The analysis of the reliability levels of structural members designed with the Eurocodes using the NDPs chosen by the Member States, complemented the statistical analysis of the NDPs, providing a more global assessment of the combined impact of the national choices on the levels of safety achieved. The results demonstrate that the Eurocodes have achieved a high level of harmonisation in the EU and EFTA Member States, since most countries accepted the parameters recommended in the Standards. In fact, the analysis performed with a data availability of 71%, shows a mean acceptance rate of 73% for all NDPs with recommended values. The high rate of acceptance of the NDPs does not automatically imply that these NDPs shall be eliminated in the second generation of the Eurocodes, since many of them are directly related to the safety which is under national responsibility, or account for local geographical, geological and climatic conditions. Nevertheless, it is of primary interest for the achievement of a deeper internal market for construction products and engineering services that further harmonisation in the use of the Eurocodes is attained, as foreseen in the second generation of the Eurocodes. There are still a number of NDPs in the standards that have a good potential to be considered in the works on the second generation of the Eurocodes, as these NDPs are accounting for different design cultures and procedures for structural analysis. The cross-border convergence of the national maps for climatic and seismic actions shall be considered as an indicator for the harmonised use of data and methods for derivation of these maps. Harmonising the use of the Eurocodes in the EU and EFTA Member States, by reducing the number of Nationally Determined Parameters in the standards, will reduce the obstacles arising from different national practices and will boost the free circulation of products and services within the European Economic Area., JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Buildings

The on-going work to prepare a new European standard for ice loads on structures is described.

The report provides general information on the concept of the Eurocodes implementation in the regulatory system and discusses case studies of EU Member States that have successfully implemented the Eurocodes in the national regulatory system. It also highlights the experience of designers on using the Eurocodes by presenting simple application examples. Moreover, the state of the Eurocodes implementation in the non-EU Balkan countries is presented, based on the information exchanged and collected during the workshop “The way forward for the Eurocodes implementation in the Balkans” (10-11 October 2018 in Tirana, Albania), along with the activities of the Engineering Chambers in support of the Eurocodes implementation. The way towards the publication of the Second Generation of the Eurocodes, expected after 2021, is also discussed., JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Buildings

The reliability level of structural members in buildings designed according to the Eurocodes was assessed for 20 EU and EFTA MS using the NDPs uploaded in the European Commission NDPs Database by the end of 2017 by 16 EU MS and consulting the National Annexes of four other EU and EFTA MS. The main conclusions of the study are the following: - the reliability of structural members which were designed according to the national choice of the NDPs varies in a rather broad range. The reliability levels of the structural members for most common categories of imposed loads match the reliability indices recommended in EN 1990. - in some cases the reliability levels according to the country choices of the NDPs are below the CEN target values and therefore should be further analysed and calibrated. - the reliability levels achieved using CEN recommended values should also be studied further, in order to delineate eventual needs for calibration of the recommended values. - the reliability levels of composite, steel and timber members designed according to the lower bound of imposed loads recommended in EN 1991-1-1, are commonly lower than the reliability levels recommended in EN 1990 for some fundamental combinations of actions. It should be noted, that the reliability of whole structure is normally higher than the one of a structural member. Thus, the presented results show that a generally good level of structural reliability has been achieved with the country choices of the NDPs., JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Buildings

The international, randomized phase 3 HD15 trial established 6xeBEACOPP as standard therapy for patients with newly diagnosed advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) within the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG). We performed a follow-up analysis to assess long-term efficacy and safety of this approach. Between 2003 and 2008, 2182 patients aged 18 to 60 years were recruited and randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio between 8 or 6 cycles of eBEACOPP or 8 cycles of the dose-dense BEACOPP-14 regimen, each followed by 30 Gy radiotherapy in case of positron emission tomography (PET)-positive residual lesions ≥2.5 cm. The study aimed at demonstrating non-inferiority regarding efficacy of the 2 experimental arms on a significance level of 2.5% each. The intention-to-treat analysis comprised 2126 patients with a median follow-up of 102 months. Ten-year progression-free survival was 81% (97.5% CI 77–85) with 8xeBEACOPP, 84% (80–87) with 6xeBEACOPP, and 84% (80–87) with 8xBEACOPP-14; the non-inferiority margin of 1.51 for the hazard ratio (HR) could be excluded for both comparisons (6xeBEACOPP, HR = 0.7, 97.5% CI 0.5–1.0; 8xBEACOPP-14, HR = 0.9, 97.5% CI 0.7–1.2). Overall survival at 10 years was 88% (85–91), 90% (88–93), and 92% (89–94), respectively. A total of 142 second malignancies corresponding to 10-year cumulative incidences of 10%, 7%, and 7% and standardized incidence ratios of 4.3, 2.5, and 2.8 were reported for 8xeBEACOPP, 6xeBEACOPP, and 8xBEACOPP-14, respectively. This updated analysis of the HD15 trial thus confirms the efficacy and reports on the long-term safety of a shortened first-line chemotherapy consisting of 6xeBEACOPP followed by PET-guided radiotherapy in advanced-stage HL.

The consideration of sustainability aspects in the construction sector jointly with considerable economic interests have been the main impulse to include the work item of assessment and retrofitting of existing structures in the Mandate M/515 with a high priority. The new European technical rules will be developed using the existing organization of CEN/TC250. The present report has been worked out in the frame of CEN/TC250/WG2 activities. The report encompasses:  Part I introduces the policy framework and the CEN/TC250 initiative.  Part II is a collation of the different existing National regulations and standards in Europe with regard to existing structures.  Part III gives a prospect for CEN guidance for the assessment and retrofitting of existing structures. Having in mind the stepwise procedure for preparation of CEN Technical Documents, the contents of Part III is broader, covers more aspects, and includes more information than the normative technical recommendations. In particular, key issues are identified that require resolution and a summary of different national perspectives is provided rather than seeking to resolve all difficult technical issues during the first work step. The report presents scientific and technical background intended to stimulate debate and serves as a basis for further work to achieve a harmonized European view on the assessment and retrofitting of existing structures., JRC.G.4-European laboratory for structural assessment

Probabilistic methods are used for verification of the reliability of models proposed for determination of compressive masonry strength and for comparisons with experimental results. Reliability level of some theoretical models for compressive masonry strength has a significant scatter and in some cases seems to be rather low. It appears that the reliability of theoretical models given in Eurocodes or proposed by the Masonry Standards Joint Committee meets requirements for the target reliability level recommended in Eurocodes.