ESIS Newsletter December 2025

ITALY

The cornerstone of IGF's 2025 calendar was the organisation of major scientific gatherings, solidifying Italy’s role in the global structural integrity community. The primary event was the joint organisation of the 28th International Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity (IGF28) and the 3rd Mediterranean Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity (MedFract3). Held from September 15-18, 2025, in the picturesque setting of Aci Castello (Catania, Italy), this hybrid event successfully attracted more than 150 participants (both in-person and remote) participants from 40 different countries. The videorecordings of the presentations are available in the dedicated YouTube playlist ( LINK ), the proceedings will be published in a Procedia Structural Integrity issue ( LINK ), and two special issues will be published in Fracture and Structural Integrity ( LINK ) and in Progress in Engineering Science (LINK). During the IGF28-MedFract3, IGF awarded:

• Sabrina Vantadori (Italy) with the Manson-Coffin IGF medal • Giuseppe Andrea Ferro (Italy) with the IGF Award of Merit • José Alexander Araújo (Brasil) with the IGF Honorary membership • Grzegorz Lesiuk (Poland) with the IGF Honorary membership • Oleg Plekhov (Russia) with the IGF Honorary membership • Guian Qian (China) with the IGF Honorary membership

In conjunction with the IGF28/MedFract3 conference, IGF hosted a focused Summer School on September 15th, morning, titled "AI-Driven Innovations in Structural Integrity." This educational initiative provided a deep dive into the use of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning techniques for damage assessment, predictive maintenance, and optimisation of material properties. The school was offered free to all conference participants, underlining IGF's commitment to nurturing the next generation of researchers with advanced, interdisciplinary skills. IGF maintained a strong international presence throughout 2025, promoting knowledge exchange and collaboration. While not directly organised by IGF, the group promoted major relevant international meetings, such as the 1st Biennial ESIS-CSIC Conference on Structural Integrity (BECCI25) in Belgrade in November 2025, co-organizing with ESIS TC03 a successful thematic symposium. IGF continued to manage and financially support its official journal, Fracture and Structural Integrity ( F&SI ). This diamond open-access journal, published quarterly, maintained its high standards of excellence. In 2025 it published 89 papers, with a 77% of rejection rate, from 30 different countries. F&SI upheld its rigorous publishing criteria, ensuring all papers underwent a preliminary plagiarism and AI check and a blind peer-review process with a minimum of two reviewers. This dedication to quality ensures the journal remains a trusted and highly indexed resource (Scopus, Web of Science).

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