730 papers have been received by the Scientific Committee of the World Tunnel Congress 2019, the second phase of the process has now been completed. The next step will lead to a selection of suitable papers to be presented during the World Tunnel Congress (Naples, 3-9 May 2019). The call came to an end on September 23rd. The Scientific Committee will evaluate the 730 papers and, if necessary, ask for any additions from each author by November 15th, while the amendments must be sent back by December 7th. The deadline will be 1st of February 2019, when all participants will receive an email confirming the outcome of the ‘call’. About 150 papers will be selected for podium presentation and at least 300 for e-poster presentation.

The number of scientific contributions received is particularly significant and is much higher than those received from the World Congresses held in San Francisco (2016), Bergen (2017) and Dubai (2018). "Given the high quality of papers – underlines Daniele Peila, professor at the Polytechnic of Turin and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of WTC2019 – it will be really difficult to choose the ones to be presented orally". There is great satisfaction due to the amount of international entries. Most of the papers (250) comes from Italy, but a lot of papers arrived from over 50 nations all over the world. For example, 52 contributions have been sent from Japan, 44 both from France and China, as well as a significant amount from the United States and Australia, and also from relatively unknown countries within the tunneling sector, such as Iran. "The innovative approach of the e-posters – continues Peila – will help to put all the authors in contact with the participants during the Congress, through the use of a dedicated app, which will also facilitate exchange and networking, enhancing everyone's work and allowing the experts of the various sectors to deal with similar subjects".

There has been a large variety of papers from authors, covering 11 topics, under 5 main themes for the Congress: engineering, innovation, archaeology, architecture and art. "Extensive participation with papers dedicated to innovation, including monitoring and control systems, as well as mechanized excavation and new materials. “There has been particular interest in new technologies and materials for the consolidation of soil and rock masses" comments Peila.

So save the date to see these papers! The WTC 2019 Naples is from the  3^rd to the 9^th of May. For further information please visit http://www.wtc2019.com/ you can also find more by reading the latest press release.