STUVA is an independent, non-profit research institution. It was founded in 1960 and today has more than 230 members. For the processing of contracts from private clients STUVAtec - Studiengesellschaft für unterirdische Verkehrsanlagen mbH (Research Association for Underground Transportation Facilities Ltd.) was set up separately in 1996 as a 100% subsidiary of STUVA. Our fields of activities include fundamental research and special analyses, focusing mainly on the areas of underground construction and railway and road transport. Owing to their wide-ranging experience and knowledge gained from many years of research work, STUVA and STUVAtec are also consulted for many object-related analyses and expert reports at home and abroad.

At our headquarter in Cologne there are three experimental halls covering a total area of approx. 2.000 m². Our research and experimental results are made available to the public in various ways:

• The international magazine "Tunnel", our official journal; 8 issues per year, bilingual (German/English)
• Book series "Forschung + Praxis, U-Verkehr und unterirdisches Bauen" (Research + Practice, Underground Transportation and Buildings)
• STUVA research reports
• Reports published by 3rd party institutions
• Internet

Every two years in autumn the STUVA conference takes place with various main topics from the fields of tunnelling and underground construction. The conferences are each attended by approximately 1,500 tunnelling experts from more than 30 different countries. At an accompanying special exhibition, construction companies, consultants, machine suppliers and component manufacturers present their products and services to a specialist public.