Background of Congress

The first International Congress of Civil Engineering in Iran was held in Shiraz University (1971). The second and third of these congresses were also held in Shiraz University (1974 and 1990). After a short break, the 4th and 5th International Civil Engineering Congresses were held at Sharif University of Technology and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in 1997 and 2000, respectively. During the last congress held in Mashhad, a group of representatives of Iran's top universities decided to create an appropriate structure as there was not a single, inclusive and active Civil Engineering Association to be responsible for holding subsequent congresses and while agreeing to hold the "Sixth International Congress of Civil Engineering" at Isfahan University of Technology in 2003, they developed a board of trustees based on the statute approved by the representatives of 11 universities on 2002-12-24, including:

• University of Tabriz
• Trabiat Modares University
• University of Tehran
• Shiraz University
• Isfahan University of Technology
• Amirkabir University of Technology
• Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology
• Sharif University of Technology
• Iran University of Science and Technology
• Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
• Kerman University

According to this statute, first, given the comprehensiveness of various specialized fields, the name of "International Civil Engineering Congresses" was chosen for these conferences, second, a three-year period was determined for holding congresses, and third, the condition of universities' membership in the Board of Trustees was considered "having a PhD in at least one of the civil engineering fields". During the "Sixth International Congress of Civil Engineering" in Isfahan University of Technology (2003), due to the great reception of these congresses by researchers, on the one hand, and the need to establish more relationship between universities and the civil industry in the country and develop cooperation between them to update industry, on the other hand, it was agreed that National Civil Engineering Congresses would also be held among the International Civil Engineering Congresses and the first of these National Congresses was held at Sharif University of Technology (2004). Since then, the following National and International Congresses have been successfully held by the Board of Trustees.

• 2005 2^nd National Congress at Iran University of Science and Technology
• 2006 7^th International Congress at Tarbiat Modares University
• 2007 3^rd National Congress at Tabriz University
• 2008 4^th National Congress at Tehran University
• 2009 8^th International Congress at Shiraz University
• 2010 5^th National Congress at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
• 2011 6^th National Congress at Semnan University
• 2012 9^th International Congress at Isfahan University of Technology
• 2013 7^th National Congress at Sistan and Baluchestan University
• 2014 8^th National Congress at Babol Noshirvani University of Technology
• 2015 10^th International Congress at Tabriz University
• 2016 9^th National Congress at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
• 2017 10^th National Congress at Sharif University of Technology
• 2018 11^th International Congress at Tehran University
• 2019 11^th National Congress at Shiraz University
• 2020 12^th National Congress at Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz
• According to the plan the 12^th International Congress will be held in 2021 at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.

Since the formation of the Board of Trustees with 11 universities as members, so far, the following universities and research institutes have become members of the Board of Trustees:

• Sahand Tabriz University of Technology, Tabriz in 2004
• Sistan and Baluchestan University in 2004
• International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering in 2004
• Semnan University on in 2006
• Babol Noshirvani University of Technology in 2010
• Urmia University in 2011

Since the formation of the Board of Trustees (2002), it has held 67 meetings on a regular basis with the presence of all or a majority of members in different cities. In the meantime, the condition of membership in the Board of Trustees was changed to "helping at least one group of PhD students graduate in one of the civil engineering fields".

In addition, Iran University of Science and Technology and Kerman University withdrew from the Board of Trustees due to their lack of interest in continuing their cooperation and participation of their representatives in the meetings of the Board of Trustees, from the 35th meeting (2011-04-26) and 42th meeting (2013-02-13), respectively, after which the Board of Trustees had 15 members; however, since the 59th meeting, Iran University of Science and Technology rejoined the Board of Trustees and now it has 16 members.