The Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, IZIIS, University "Ss. Cyril and Methodius" was established in 1965 based on the recommendation of the International Consultative Board, the decisions of the Government of Republic of Macedonia and the Authorities of the City of Skopje, and the extensive support of UNESCO.

Since its foundation, the primary mission of the Institute has been to assist and supervise the post earthquake reconstruction, revitalization and development of the City of Skopje.

The laboratories, the offices, the lecture rooms and the premises cover 8500 m2. The Dynamic Testing Laboratory is equipped with a bi-axial shaking table, 5x5 m in plan and pay load of 30 t, a uniaxial shaking table, 1.4x2.5 m, a quasi-static testing equipment, a full-scale testing equipment (forced and ambient vibration) and other recording and processing equipment. Out of 73 employees, 20 are with doctoral degree, 10 with master degree, 12 with B.Sc. degree, 9 are technicians and the other staff is involved in services and administration. The financial input is 25% from the Ministry of Education and Science and the remaining 75% from the research and education activities at national and international level.

Throughout the development of the Institute, particular attention has been paid to the increasing and training of personnel, as one of the major factors determining the quality of the research, and the educational activities of the Institute.

Most of the scientific staff of the Institute have, at one time or the other, worked at the universities in the USA, Japan and other countries, as visiting professors or research fellows, or as UN experts in earthquake engineering or engineering seismology in developing countries.

The scientific research activities of the Institute are basically aimed at defining the technical basis for earthquake reduction. A large number of projects have been carried out on the following subjects:

• Study of strong earthquake occurrence, definition and improvement of methods of earthquake risk assessment, study of seismicity and evaluation of the risk related to occurrence of future earthquake damage;



• Determination of the dynamic properties of materials and structures in order to establish consistent scientific criteria for the stability of civil engineering structures under various dynamic effects;



• Establishment of optimum economic and technical criteria for evaluation of the consequences of strong earthquakes, and optimization of the economic value of structures in respect to earthquake intensity, frequency of occurrence, expected lifetime and purpose;



• Conditions for economic and rational construction using industrialized construction methods and systems, adequate materials, pre-cast elements and structural systems;



• Establishment of scientific and technical basis for updating and improvement of the Construction Code, compatible with the level of economic development of the country.

The Institute carries out a large number of applied and development research projects and provides consulting services for design and analysis of sophisticated civil engineering structures. In addition to direct cooperation of the Institute with universities, institutions and the economic sector of the Republic, within the framework of the above mentioned activities, a permanent and intensive international cooperation has been developed and maintained. Such international cooperation with universities, scientific institutions and centres worldwide is a prerequisite for more efficient and more complex scientific research within the Institute.

The highly-qualified personnel and the equipment of the IZIIS Laboratories, the computer centers and the developed aplicative software are a guarantee for the successful performance of fundamental, applied and development research in the Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology - Skopje.