skip to content

Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction

Transforming infrastructure through smarter information
 

Academia, government and industry have come together to publish a new white paper, Flourishing Systems, calling for a fundamental change in how we view and run our nation’s infrastructure in the face of climate change and the socio-economic recovery from Covid-19. 

The central ideas in the paper are simple and radical: that the purpose of infrastructure is human flourishing, therefore infrastructure should be viewed and managed as a system of systems that serves people and the environment. 

The paper is jointly published by the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB), the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) at the University of Cambridge, with the support of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Its development was supported by over 30 key experts and influencers from industry, government and academia. 

Meeting the net-zero carbon by 2050, enabling the circular economy and investing in infrastructure to level up prosperity and well-being across the country are systemic challenges that require immediate and collaborative action.  

To do this, the paper sets out a systems-based, people-focused view of infrastructure with a focus on: 

  • People – the key purpose of infrastructure is to support and serve society, we must get better at understanding and delivering the interconnected social, environmental and economic outcomes needed for human flourishing.  
  • Connections – infrastructure has become a complex, sociotechnical, interconnected system of systems. That should be reflected in the way we run the industry through a systems based strategy for national infrastructure and new metrics for infrastructure performance.  
  • Sustainability – it will become increasingly difficult to sustain infrastructure and society unless the system itself becomes sustainable, secure and resilient. This requires us to consider how each asset-level intervention affects the system, a make a deliberate move towards the circular economy in infrastructure.  
  • Digitalisation – bringing digital and physical assets together to create cyber-physical systems – smart infrastructure. We must recognise digital assets, such as data, information, algorithms and digital twins, as genuine ‘assets’, which have value and must be managed effectively. 

Download a PDF of the paper 

This article first appeared on the CDBB website 

Latest news

UK Risks Harming National Interests Without Urgent Reform to Visa Policy for Scientists, warns Lords Committee Chair

7 May 2025

The UK risks missing a real opportunity to drive economic growth in the UK and to build up our research base in science and technology unless urgent reforms are made to its visa and immigration policies for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent, the Chair of the House of Lords Science and...

CSIC event in Cambridge to honour 63 Rankine Lecturer Professor Kenichi Soga

24 March 2025

On 21 March 2025, the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) hosted an event in honour of Professor Kenichi Soga, Donald H. McLaughlin Chair in Mineral Engineering and a Distinguished Professor at the University of California Berkeley. The event at the West Hub, University of Cambridge was chaired by CSIC...

 

CSIC Social Media

Follow us on:  LinkedIn and BlueSky

Watch our videos on: YouTube