On Monday the 28th of March, the Public defense of the doctoral dissertation of Eline Vereecken took place. The title of this PhD dissertation is ‘Applied Bayesian Pre-Posterior and Life Cycle Cost Analysis for Determining and Optimizing the Value of Structural Health Monitoring for Concrete Structures’ and is the result of a joint PhD between Ghent University and KU Leuven. Prior to this defense, a small workshop took place in relation to the ongoing FWO-SBO lifeMACS project, on the topic of ‘Multi layer Bayesian life cycle methodology for the structural assessment of existing concrete structures’, which is a collaboration between Ghent University, KU Leuven and WTCB. The afternoon started with the workshop on the FWO-SBO lifeMACS project. After an introduction to the project by prof. Robby Caspeele (UGent), the different researchers working on the project gave an overview about the research they have already performed and what will be further investigated within the project. A first part of the presentation discussed the integration of damage modelling and monitoring in numerical tools for structural performance prediction under uncertainty, and was presented by Constantijn Martens (KU Leuven), Stef Helderweirt (UGent) and Menno van de Velde (KU Leuven). A second part of the presentation treated the optimisation of inspections, monitoring and interventions using Bayesian approaches coupled to BIM-based data management. This part was presented by Karel Van Den Hende (UGent) and Cedric Driesen (WTCB). As a closure to the workshop, Dr. Wouter Botte (lifeMACS project manager, UGent) presented the validation of the multi-layer Bayesian life-cycle meth odology on the basis of laboratory experiments and case studies. More information about the project can be found on the website www.lifemacs.be. After a networking break, the public defense of the doctoral dissertation of Eline Vereecken took place. After a short introduction of the candidate by the chair of the examination committee (prof. Filip De Turck), the candidate presented her research to the audience. The presentation gave a clear and comprehensible overview of the most important aspects treated in the PhD. After the presentation, the jury (prof. Ruben Van Coile, prof. Hans De Backer, prof. Alan O’Connor, prof. Edwin Reynders, prof. Raphaël Steenbergen and prof. Els Verstrynge), the supervisors (prof. Robby Caspeele, prof. Geert Lombaert and Dr. Wouter Botte) and the audience had the opportunity to ask questions about the PhD to the candidate. After the candidate responded to all the questions, the jury retired to deliberate upon the whole of the doctoral dissertation and the public defense, and granted the academic degrees of Doctor of Civil Engineering (UGent) and Doctor of Engineering Science (PhD): Civil Engineering (KU Leuven) to Mrs. Eline Vereecken.