The term "smart" infrastructure refers to the integration of advanced technologies and methodologies to enhance efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, security and resilience. In the Institute's view, some of the key components of smartness are:

• Advanced Sensors and IoT: Real-time data collection using sensors and IoT devices is crucial for infrastructure monitoring. These devices track parameters such as temperature, pressure, traffic flow, and environmental conditions, enabling data-driven decisions for operations and design.
• Geolocation and Monitoring Technologies: Modern methods, including geometric documentation, geolocation systems, and dynamic monitoring, are essential for infrastructure development and management. Techniques such as satellite, inertial, radiometric, and optical sensing support navigation, mobility, and infrastructure health monitoring.
• Big Data Analytics: Processing and analyzing large data volumes from sensors and other sources helps identify patterns, predict failures, and optimize critical infrastructure operations.
• Machine Learning and AI: Machine learning and AI technologies enable predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and automation. They analyze data to forecast scenarios, improve decision-making, and optimize infrastructure management.
• Networked Communication Systems: High-speed communication networks, including 5G/6G, Wi-Fi, and fiber optics, ensure seamless data transfer between infrastructure components. Integration with computing infrastructure is critical for digitized services and operations.
• Cybersecurity Technologies: As infrastructures become interconnected, robust cybersecurity is vital to protect data, networks, and control systems from threats, ensuring trust, security, and interoperability.
• Digital Twins and Simulation Models: Digital twins—virtual replicas of physical infrastructure—enable simulation, analysis, and scenario testing across the infrastructure lifecycle, from design and construction to maintenance.
• Autonomous Systems and Robotics: Drones, autonomous vehicles, and robots improve efficiency, safety, and intelligence in infrastructure inspection, maintenance, and operations.
• Digitalized Production and Additive Manufacturing: Advanced manufacturing technologies, including direct CAD/BIM communication and 3D printing, support the construction, repair, and upgrade of critical infrastructure components.

Resilience, in the context of infrastructure, refers to their ability to prepare for, absorb, adapt to, and quickly recover from severe stresses and extreme events. Resilience does not guarantee that infrastructures will never fail, but rather that they will continue to operate even under partial failure and will swiftly return to their normal operating state after a disruption. When designing resilient infrastructure, several threats and challenges must be considered, sometimes in combination:

• Natural Disasters: Infrastructure must be resilient to extreme events like earthquakes, floods, droughts, hurricanes, and landslides. The Institute develops tools and methods to simulate these stresses, ensuring systems can withstand impacts and recover quickly.

• Climate Change: Infrastructure must adapt to long-term climate impacts such as rising sea levels, higher temperatures, changing precipitation, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events.

• Technological Failures: Resilience to technical failures, such as power outages and system breakdowns, requires designing redundancies and fail-safes to ensure continuous operation.

• Cyber Threats: As reliance on digital systems grows, protecting infrastructure from cyberattacks and digital disruptions is critical. The Institute will focus on securing interconnected systems, supporting directives like NIS2 and CER to ensure robust cybersecurity and recovery capabilities.

• Terrorism and Human-Made Disasters: Infrastructure must be prepared to withstand attacks, particularly those affecting national security.

• Economic Crises: Essential services must remain operational during financial downturns or economic instability.

• Social and Political Unrest: Infrastructure must continue functioning amid instability, such as strikes, protests, or political disruptions.

• Pandemics and Health Crises: The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for resilient infrastructure, particularly in public health, to ensure the continuity and quality of critical services.

• Supply Chain Disruptions: Infrastructure must address supply chain interruptions caused by natural disasters, geopolitical issues, or other factors. The EU’s push for strategic autonomy highlights the need to assess its impacts on critical infrastructure.

• Demographic Changes: Infrastructure must adapt to shifts in population size, age distribution, density, and migration flows, ensuring flexibility and capacity to meet evolving demands.