January 2020

CIB W014 – Fire Safety

New Commission Coordinator
In January 2020, the CIB Programme Committee
appointed João Paulo Correia Rodrigues as new
Coordinator of the Working Commission W014 – Fire
Safety.
CONTACT DETAILS:
João Paulo Correia Rodrigues
Civil Engineering Department,
Coimbra University,
Rua Luís Reis Santos,
3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal.
jpaulocr@dec.uc.pt

CURRICULUM VITAE SUMMARY:João Paulo Correia Rodrigues is graduated in Civil
Engineering from Coimbra University (UC), in 1991 andcompleted the Masters in Civil Engineering in the areaof Structures at UC, in 1994. He completed the PhD inCivil Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)of the Technical University of Lisbon (UTL), in 2001 andthe Habilitation in Civil Engineering at Lisbon University(UL), in 2014.
He has spent all of his professional career at the Civil
Engineering Department (DEC) of UC having joined it in1992. He is currently Associate Professor withHabilitation at UC. From July 2020, he will also join theFederal University of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, as Invited
Full Professor.
His research interests lie in the areas of: (i) fire safetyof structures; (ii) behaviour of structural and nonstructural materials at high temperatures; (iii) firesafety engineering (performance based fire design andfire risk analysis).
He is also author of hundreds of scientific publications
and has supervised hundreds of MSc and PhD students
in the area of Fire Safety Engineering. From 2006 to2019 he was coordinator of the Post-graduate
programme (MSc and PhD) on Fire Safety Engineeringof Coimbra University, in Portugal, having been
responsible for its creation.
He has also participated actively in various international
working groups: W014-Fire Safety of the International
Council for Research and Innovation in Building andConstruction (CIB), HTC and HPB-Concrete Properties
at High Temperatures of the International Union ofLaboratories and Experts in Construction Materials,
Systems and Structures (RILEM), TC3-Fire of theEuropean Convention for Constructional Steelwork(ECCS), TG 4.3-Fire Design of Concrete Structures ofthe International Federation for Structural Concrete(fib), TC92 SC4-Fire Safety Engineering of theInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO)and TU0904-Integrated Fire Engineering and Responseand FP1404 – Fire Safety of Bio-Based Building Productsof the European Cooperation in Science and Technology(COST). For this last action he was the nationalrepresentative,
designatedbythePortuguese
Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).
New Horizons for CIB W014 – Fire Safety
CIB W014 – Fire Safety is one of the oldest active
commissions of the International Council for Researchand Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB). This
Commission over the years has developed extensive
and effective work in different areas of fire safety withthe publication of many important roadmaps. This work
has been carried out by hundreds of experts around theWorld. The Commission has organized numerous
workshops and supported several congresses in thearea and recently created a new cycle of international
congresses, the IFireSS – International Fire Safety
Symposium.
The commission has met regularly in person, in different
parts of the world, trying to combine the meetings withthose of other committees with which it has liaison, suchas the TC 92 – Fire Safety committee of theInternational Standards Organization (ISO).
The work carried out by the previous CIB W014
Commissions was excellent and only this justifies that
CIB W014 is one of the oldest Commissions still active.
Continuing this excellent work and improving it, is an
obligation of the new Coordination.

CIB Newsletter

The Commission enters now in a new era whereincreasing, enhancing and systematizing its activity isnecessary. The Commission intends to set up several
working groups in different thematic areas of fire safety.
It is intended, in a first phase, to create a working groupon Structures and Materials at High Temperatures,
another in Systems, Installations and Equipment of Fire
Safety and another in Fire Safety Regulations andStandards. These working groups will be complemented
by sub‐groups on more specific topics that will give risein the future to new subcommittees. This will allow towork in a decentralized way where everyone will feel
responsible in the Commission’s activities.

documents intend toconstruction worldwide.

For an easier coordination of the work, it is intended toappoint co-coordinators of CIB W014 commission fordifferent large territorial areas of the World. Thus, a co‐coordinator for Europe, another for North America,
another for Latin America, and another for Asia andOceania, are intended. These co‐coordinators canaccompany more close the work in the areas where they
live and carry out their professional and research
activity. These co‐coordinators together with thecoordinator will constitute a core group that will manageand plan the activities of the commission.

CIB W014 will also make an evaluation, non‐binding, ofthe existing doctorate, masters and specialization
courses on fire safety around the World and give advice
on their restructuring when necessary for an enhanced
quality. The Commission will write model curriculums
for the different types of courses in order to uniform
them around the World. The creation of the figure of fire
safety engineer, with very well‐defined skills, will be ofoutmost importance for the development of the area ata global scale.

The registration of new members in the Commission isof outmost importance, especially young students andresearchers. This will be promoted by the presentationof the Committee in Schools and Universities, indifferent parts of the World. These dissemination
actions will be done by the regional groups in dedicatedworkshops or in parallel with other events. The
registration of members from companies, working in thearea, beyond the members of the universities andresearch centers, is also very important. The connection
between research and companies is very important forthe development of applied solutions and final products.
A new website dedicated to the work of the Commission,in parallel with the information already in the CIB
website, will be created. The activity of the commission
will be advertised using different means. A CIB W014
newsletter will be distributed by email to all CIBmembers.
The continuation of publishing roadmaps, in different
areas of fire safety, is important, but the Commission
will also publish thematic handbooks, as otherassociations of the area do, and special thematic issues
with papers in scientific journals. In these special issues
and whenever possible, the Commission members
should mention its affiliation to CIB W014, in order toadvertise the Commission. Being a member of CIB
W014 will be a distinctive aspect in each one's
curriculum vitae.

uniformandimprove

theCIB W014 will also organize thematic courses andworkshops in different areas of fire safety. These
courses will be face‐to‐face, but it is intended to create
also e-learning courses for a global audience.
CIB W014 is not a research group, but it should promoteresearch synergies in different areas of fire safety
between its members and those of other scientificgroups and researchers in general from different
institutions around the World.

The Commission work will be reported at least once ayear to CIB Board of Directors. The Commission's work
should be always at a high standard and contributes to
the CIB’s objectives of developing research andtechnical knowledge in construction industry worldwide.
The IFireSS – International Fire Safety Symposium willcontinue to be the great global scientific meeting of CIB
W014. IFireSS is an International Congress across thevarious areas of fire safety engineering and has beenasserting in recent years as a reference in the area. ThisSymposium had its first edition in 2014, in Coimbra‐
Portugal, followed in 2017, by Naples – Italy and in
2019, by Ottawa – Canada. The next edition of theSymposium will take place in 2021, in Rio de Janeiro ‐Brazil. The idea to continue with this Symposium, each
two years, in different parts of the World. After Rio deJaneiro, in 2021, it is expected to have an edition
somewhere in Asia or Oceania. Indexed proceedings
and thematic issues in journals, with the best papers
presented in these Symposiums, will be prepared.
Thus, the main objective of the new coordination will be
the development of the Commission for thedevelopment of fire safety worldwide.

João Paulo Correia Rodrigues
Coimbra University, Portugal
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CIB W014 intends also publish technical appraisals ofdifferent innovative fire safety products and solutions
for a proper use in building construction. TheseInfo Section:
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20-01-2020