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(gè)共同研究的平臺(tái)隨著歐盟的發(fā)展誕生了。為了舉例說(shuō)明歐洲的研究方法已經(jīng)被這種方式所替代，一個(gè)典型的案例就是有關(guān)英國(guó)后張法橋梁被討論的事，愛(ài)丁堡大學(xué)給出了這個(gè)關(guān)于用數(shù)字化脈沖雷達(dá)鑒定后張法混凝土橋梁孔隙的資源互補(bǔ)的案例。
引言
利用各研究團(tuán)體的研究成果去驗(yàn)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(shí)踐更好地結(jié)合，具有針對(duì)性。此外，在歐洲，不容忽視的語(yǔ)言壁壘也是一個(gè)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(guó)家有了一個(gè)共同的政治目的，成立于20世紀(jì)60年代的歐共體便是基于這一目的。它的成立帶有很強(qiáng)的政治動(dòng)機(jī)，但英國(guó)并非這一組織的成員，因?yàn)楹芏嗟臍W洲國(guó)家視英國(guó)的利益為單純的經(jīng)濟(jì)利益，直到70年代，英國(guó)才加入由歐共體轉(zhuǎn)化而來(lái)的歐洲經(jīng)濟(jì)共同體。到90年代，歐洲經(jīng)濟(jì)共同體擴(kuò)展為歐洲國(guó)家聯(lián)盟，而此時(shí)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(jì)目標(biāo)。
隨著經(jīng)濟(jì)和政治的發(fā)展，土木工程，尤其是橋梁工程至今沒(méi)能形成某種統(tǒng)一陣線。這緣于英國(guó)和其他的歐洲國(guó)家迥異的大學(xué)教育培養(yǎng)體制，歐洲基金計(jì)劃如蘇格拉底計(jì)劃、大不列顛（英國(guó)）歐洲計(jì)劃等等。對(duì)改變這種局面發(fā)揮了獨(dú)特的作用，蘇格拉底計(jì)劃是以各成員國(guó)內(nèi)互派學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)為基礎(chǔ)，而英國(guó)歐洲計(jì)劃主要是給予一些國(guó)家的學(xué)術(shù)機(jī)構(gòu)和工業(yè)伙伴以科研援助；它通常是由一個(gè)工業(yè)國(guó)家牽頭。