Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Civil Engineering (GDDCE) is a provincial level key laboratory approved by the Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province, which was officially established in 2011 and accepted in 2015. It was based on the former Shenzhen Durability Centre for Civil Engineering authorized by the Shenzhen Department of Science and Technology in 2004. At present, there are 68 fixed researchers, including 17 professors, 5 associate professors, 61 doctors, and 52 scholars have more than one year foreign study experience. Full-time professors including 1 academician of the Engineering Academy of Japan (Japanese nationality), 6 winners of the National Science Fund for Distinguish Young Scholars and the Yangtze River Echelon level (3 of them are completely cultivated by the GDDCE platform), and 1 winner of the National Science Funds for Excellent Young Scholars. There is also a team of visiting professors composed by 10 international distinguished scholars.

The Key Laboratory research team has conducted a comprehensive and in-depth studies focusing on durable and sustainable development of marine civil engineering structures. Under the guidance of Academician Zhaoyuan CHEN and Academician Fulin ZHOU, directors of the Key Laboratory Academic Committee, with the leadership of academic director Professor Feng XING, as well as academic advisor Professor Ningxu HAN, the overall research strategy and technical route based on the theoretical framework of civil engineering service life (re)design has been established. This main research strategy has been further expanded through the strong support of more than 20 National Key Programs, such as: the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (by NSFC), the National Program on Key Basic Research Project (National ‘973’ Program, NSFC), Major International Science and Technology Cooperation (NSFC), Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC), Key program of the National and Provincial joint Fund (NSFC-Guangdong NSF) etc., as well as 70 research projects from the NSFC, and 50 provincial, ministerial and municipal research projects. Meanwhile, with the comprehensive utilization of resources and sustainable new materials as the research focus, basic methods of the reliability analysis of marine concrete infrastructure and the identification and control of deterioration have been continuously improved. A series of innovative research outcomes have been achieved in the field of deterioration mechanism, control theory and its engineering applications for marine concrete structures. Within these research themed, 961 papers (including 566 SCI) have been published, 103 invention patents (including 8 European and American patents) been authorized, have won 2 second prize of the National Technology Invention Award in 2014 and 2017, and 5 provincial and ministerial science and technology awards, including first and second prize.

The Key Laboratory’s international influence in the industry has been increasing significantly in the past decade. In recent years, more than 90 distinguished scholars from home and abroad have come to the Key Laboratory and delivered more than 200 academic lectures and forums; 30 selected researcher has visited Sweden, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Australia, the United States and Hong Kong (China) for short-term visiting research (from 2 months to one year); the key lab has successfully hosted and organized 5 high-level international academic forums.

In the Key Laboratory, team members all work together and devotes themselves to promote technology improvement in the marine civil engineering area, to continuously enhance the influence of China’s civil engineering industry in the worldwide research field.