People

Elvira Romano is a scientific project officer at the European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra (VA, Italy) in the ‘Built Environment’ Unit since 2020, currently working on the Preparatory Action ‘New European Bauhaus (NEB) Knowledge Management Platform’ to develop a NEB self-assessment method and tool for buildings and living spaces, relying on performance indicators that integrate sustainability, functionality, aesthetic, and inclusiveness in line with the NEB initiative. Previous research activities at JRC focused on the analysis of seismic and energy renovation technologies and the development of methodologies for the combined assessment of seismic and energy/environmental performance of new and retrofitted buildings in a life cycle perspective within the Pilot Project ‘Integrated seismic and energy renovation of buildings (REEBUILD)’. Elvira was educated in architecture and building engineering at the University of Naples ‘Federico II’ (Italy), where she also collaborated in European and national research projects dealing with integrated approaches to life-time structural engineering design of reinforced concrete and steel buildings, including LCA and LCC analysis. Before joining JRC, further research activity was carried out in civil engineering field at the University of Leeds (UK) focusing on the structural assessment of existing concrete large panel system buildings subjected to gas explosions to ensure safety and reliability to hazards towards a multi-performance renovation, in line with the Sustainable Structural Design method developed within my first JRC experience as a trainee in 2013. Elvira also serves as member of the European Association of Earthquake Engineering (EAEE), Working Group 15 (WG15) ‘Combined seismic and environmental upgrading of existing buildings’.