A brief outline is given of the development of the European Union, together with the research platform in Europe. The special case of post-tensioned bridges in the UK is discussed. In order to illustrate the type of European research being undertaken, an example is given from the University of Edinburgh portfolio: relating to the identification of voids in post-tensioned concrete bridges using digital impulse radar.
Introduction
The challenge in any research arena is to harness the findings of different research groups to identify a coherent mass of data, which enables research and practice to be better focused. A particular challenge exists with respect to Europe where language barriers are inevitably very significant. The European Community was formed in the 1960s based upon a political will within continental Europe to avoid the European civil wars, which developed into World War 2 from 1939 to 1945. The strong political motivation formed the original community of which Britain was not a member. Many of the continental countries saw Britain’s interest as being purely economic. The 1970s saw Britain joining what was then the European Economic Community (EEC) and the 1990s has seen the widening of the community to a European Union, EU, with certain political goals together with the objective of a common European currency.
Notwithstanding these financial and political developments, civil engineering and bridge engineering in particular have found great difficulty in forming any kind of common thread. Indeed the educational systems for University training are quite different between Britain and the European continental countries. The formation of the EU funding schemes —e.g. Socrates, Brite Euram and other programs have helped significantly. The Socrates scheme is based upon the exchange of students between Universities in different member states. The Brite Euram scheme has involved technical research grants given to consortia of academics and industrial partners within a number of the states— a Brite Euram bid would normally be led by an industrialist.



在歐洲，一個共同研究的平臺隨著歐盟的發(fā)展誕生了。為了舉例說明歐洲的研究方法已經(jīng)被這種方式所替代，一個典型的案例就是有關(guān)英國后張法橋梁被討論的事，愛丁堡大學(xué)給出了這個關(guān)于用數(shù)字化脈沖雷達鑒定后張法混凝土橋梁孔隙的資源互補的案例。
引言
利用各研究團體的研究成果去驗證大量相關(guān)論據(jù)是所有研究領(lǐng)域所面臨的挑戰(zhàn)，這是為了能使研究和實踐更好地結(jié)合，具有針對性。此外，在歐洲，不容忽視的語言壁壘也是一個巨大的障礙,為了避免再次爆發(fā)類似于從1939年至1945的第二次世界大戰(zhàn)似的的歐洲內(nèi)戰(zhàn)，歐洲國家有了一個共同的政治目的，成立于20世紀60年代的歐共體便是基于這一目的。它的成立帶有很強的政治動機，但英國并非這一組織的成員，因為很多的歐洲國家視英國的利益為單純的經(jīng)濟利益，直到70年代，英國才加入由歐共體轉(zhuǎn)化而來的歐洲經(jīng)濟共同體。到90年代，歐洲經(jīng)濟共同體擴展為歐洲國家聯(lián)盟，而此時的歐盟既有共同的政治目標(biāo)又有建立歐洲共同的貨幣體系的經(jīng)濟目標(biāo)。
隨著經(jīng)濟和政治的發(fā)展，土木工程，尤其是橋梁工程至今沒能形成某種統(tǒng)一陣線。這緣于英國和其他的歐洲國家迥異的大學(xué)教育培養(yǎng)體制，歐洲基金計劃如蘇格拉底計劃、大不列顛（英國）歐洲計劃等等。對改變這種局面發(fā)揮了獨特的作用，蘇格拉底計劃是以各成員國內(nèi)互派學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)為基礎(chǔ)，而英國歐洲計劃主要是給予一些國家的學(xué)術(shù)機構(gòu)和工業(yè)伙伴以科研援助；它通常是由一個工業(yè)國家牽頭。