Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Intellectual Capital

Gabriela Atanasiu and Florin Leon
Stressing <strong>the</strong> self-evaluation stage as a collective exercise for <strong>the</strong> unit under review to ensure <strong>the</strong>
implementation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> appropriate change (this includes academic and administrative staff and
students);
Ensuring a follow-up <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> internal reviews, e.g. implementation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> appropriate
recommendations and feedback loops into strategic management.
The impact <strong>of</strong> this project on <strong>the</strong> team <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Multidisciplinary Centre <strong>of</strong> Structural Engineering & Risk
Management (MCSERM, 2010) was two-fold. On <strong>the</strong> one hand, it allowed <strong>the</strong> enhancing <strong>of</strong>
knowledge by learning several aspects <strong>of</strong> project management from o<strong>the</strong>r partners in <strong>the</strong> <strong>European</strong>
Union. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, it allowed <strong>the</strong> individual growing <strong>of</strong> intellectual capital and at <strong>the</strong> same time
<strong>the</strong> increase in <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> intellectual capital <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Centre team.
6. Managing <strong>European</strong> projects in <strong>the</strong> post-accession phase
The lessons learned from <strong>the</strong> <strong>European</strong> projects in Romania’s pre-accession phase proved to be
valuable assets for <strong>the</strong> management <strong>of</strong> projects in <strong>the</strong> post-accession phase. The individual
accumulation <strong>of</strong> knowledge, but also <strong>the</strong> team cohesion and intellectual capital, as <strong>the</strong> sum <strong>of</strong>
individual knowledge, increased <strong>the</strong> potential <strong>of</strong> successful managing <strong>of</strong> international projects. The
experience earned in managing projects since <strong>the</strong> pre-accession phased has proved very valuable in
winning <strong>the</strong> participation in projects within <strong>the</strong> FP7 programme.
6.1 EFAST project
The first <strong>European</strong> project currently in execution is EFAST (Design Study <strong>of</strong> a <strong>European</strong> Facility for
Advanced Seismic Testing), a <strong>European</strong> collaborative project that deals with <strong>the</strong> study <strong>of</strong> all aspects
regarding <strong>the</strong> design <strong>of</strong> a major testing facility in Europe that would complement and collaborate with
<strong>the</strong> existing ones. Earthquake risk is a major civil protection issue which is related to mitigation
measures for protecting citizens, infrastructures, property and <strong>the</strong> human cultural heritage. Seismic
testing plays a key role for <strong>the</strong> better understanding <strong>of</strong> physical phenomena, <strong>the</strong> validation and
improvement <strong>of</strong> analysis and design methods and for <strong>the</strong> qualification <strong>of</strong> sensitive equipment.
Therefore, <strong>the</strong> availability <strong>of</strong> high level experimental facilities is essential to meet <strong>the</strong> objectives <strong>of</strong>
earthquake mitigation (EFAST, 2010).
6.2 SERIES project
The second <strong>European</strong> project recently gained is SERIES (Seismic Engineering Research
Infrastructure for <strong>European</strong> Synergies). It aims at addressing <strong>the</strong> current situation that <strong>European</strong>
seismic engineering research suffers from extreme fragmentation <strong>of</strong> research infrastructures (RI)
between countries and limited access to <strong>the</strong>m by <strong>the</strong> S/T community <strong>of</strong> earthquake engineering,
especially that <strong>of</strong> Europe’s most seismic regions. Therefore, <strong>the</strong> project is a consortium <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 23 key
actors in Europe’s seismic engineering research, including 3 industrial beneficiaries. The scope
covers all aspects <strong>of</strong> seismic engineering testing, from eight reaction wall pseudodynamic (PsD)
facilities and ten shake table labs, to EU’s unique tester <strong>of</strong> bearings or isolators, its two major
centrifuges and an instrumented site for wave propagation studies. Transnational access is <strong>of</strong>fered to
a portfolio <strong>of</strong> world class RIs: EU’s largest PsD facility, four diverse shake tables and <strong>the</strong> two
centrifuges. Networking sets up a public distributed database <strong>of</strong> past, present and future test results,
installs distributed testing capabilities at all PsD labs, fostering development <strong>of</strong> up-and-coming ones at
Europe’s most seismic regions, drafts and applies protocols for qualification <strong>of</strong> RIs and engages <strong>the</strong>
entire <strong>European</strong> community <strong>of</strong> earthquake engineering via <strong>the</strong> best possible instances: <strong>the</strong> <strong>European</strong>
Association <strong>of</strong> Earthquake Engineering, EU’s seismic code makers and <strong>the</strong>ir national groups, <strong>the</strong>
<strong>European</strong> construction industry, as well as all relevant S/T associations or networks. Joint research
engages all labs, exploring and prototyping novel actuators (combination <strong>of</strong> electro-dynamic and
hydraulic ones) for better control <strong>of</strong> fast tests or special applications, new sensing and instrumentation
systems, data assimilation in equipment-specimen models for better test control and optimisation <strong>of</strong>
testing campaigns, as well as experimental studies <strong>of</strong> soil-structure interaction at all types <strong>of</strong> testing
facilities (SERIES, 2010).
Recently in <strong>the</strong> spring <strong>of</strong> 2010, within <strong>the</strong> internal evaluation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> research centres <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Technical
University <strong>of</strong> Iaşi, TUIASI, several success factors were revealed for our centre, <strong>the</strong> Multidisciplinary
Centre <strong>of</strong> Structural Engineering & Risk Management, in terms <strong>of</strong> growing <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> ISI-indexed
scientific papers to 25 in 2010, <strong>the</strong> successful entering in <strong>the</strong> FP7 programme <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>European</strong>
Commission by gaining <strong>the</strong> two FP7 projects, and also o<strong>the</strong>r two on <strong>the</strong> national level, a successful
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