XXIX Russian-Polish-Slovak Seminary Theoretical Foundation of Civil Engineering (RPS Seminar TFoCE), 30 November – 4 December 2020 on-line meetingsEdited by: Zbigniew WÓJCICKI – Wrocław University of Science and Technology Jacek GROSEL – Wrocław University of Science and Technology Monika PODWÓRNA – Wrocław University of Science and TechnologyDear FriendsThe phrase Dear Friends is a typical salutation currently commonly used in electronic communications. For participants of the Russian-Polish-Slovak Seminary Theoretical Foundation of Civil Engineering (RPS Seminar TFoCE), this phrase has a much deeper dimension than the typical Dear Friends. A group of scientists from three neighbouring Slavic countries (occasionally from other countries also) has been systematically meeting annually for nearly 30 years, alternately in Russia, Slovakia or Poland, on the occasion of the exchange of information in the scientific field of Civil Engineering. During such a long series of meetings, seminar participants will get to know each other much better than in typical sporadic conference meetings. This is the basic specific feature of RPS Seminar TFoCE. The participants got to know each other, but by the way they got to know the countries that they briefly but systematically visited. They could exchange scientific information taking into account the geopolitical specificities of the three countries, of which Russia, due to its size and ethnic diversity, was perhaps the most important. In my opinion, it is not possible to exchange scientific knowledge only. Seminar participants also exchanged socio-political views and information. They presented their points of view on scientific and other topics, including those related to the “vagaries of history” in the informal discussions. In total, I think at least 1,000 scientists have participated in the Seminary over these 30 years. But a certain group of people, the backbone of the conference, has been basically unchanged for many years. There have been times when some of them disappeared for some time for various reasons, such as health care or excess of responsibilities resulting from the performance of organizational functions at home universities. After a while, however, most returned. Those who retired – unfortunately not. Nevertheless, as you can see from today’s perspective, a slightly “nebulous” group of scientists has formed the “core” of the seminar. And this group of scientists is, in my opinion, the seminar’s greatest achievement. Those who have known each other for so many years and remained faithful participants of the Seminary, because they wanted to, really became friends with a capital “F”. That’s why, for the RPS Seminar TFoCE, the phrase Dear Friends has such a completely different, much deeper and literal meaning!List of titles Local Organizing Committee, International Scientific Committee are available in this Pdf.