Infrastructure resilience is the ability to withstand, adapt to changing conditions, and recover positively from shocks and stresses.

Resilient infrastructure will therefore be able to continue to provide essential services, due to its ability to withstand, adapt and recover positively from whatever shocks and stresses it may face now and in the future.

This applies to physical infrastructure assets, and to the wider system that these assets are part of including the natural environment, the organisations that own and operate these systems, and the humans who make decisions across the value chains for these systems.

The Resilience Shift uses a value chain to identify the many stakeholders involved in delivering a service to end-users.  This includes those responsible for planning, financing, designing, delivering, operating and maintaining critical infrastructure systems. Each stakeholder can add resilience value to benefit the resilience of the whole system. Read more about the resilience value chain.

It is a shift from thinking about infrastructure in terms of what it is, to what it does, focussing on the service it provides and what happens when stresses accumulate, or sudden events occur that disrupt performance.  Instead of creating fail safe systems at specific design thresholds, we need to develop and operate systems so they fail safely with limited consequences and recover quickly.

Infrastructure resilience matters - whether you are in a government developing policy; an investor; an engineer responsible for the design, construction or retrofitting of safe infrastructure; an asset operator ensuring continuity of service; or a business concerned about continuity of a supply chain.  The Resilience Shift is committed to advance best practices across the infrastructure value chain, working collaboratively with leading organisations in critical infrastructure sectors and fostering knowledge transfer between them.

Existing infrastructure systems are increasingly complex and interdependent. These systems are under pressure due to growing demand, and have become fragile due to fragmented governance and a lack of investment in regular maintenance. From climate change to cyber-attacks, infrastructure systems have to operate in an increasingly uncertain future in which we cannot predict or avoid all shocks and stresses.  Therefore, it is essential for infrastructure to be prepared for the threats we can anticipate, and to be able to respond to the unexpected , so that it continues to provide the essential services on which society depends.

Significant investment is already planned to address infrastructure deficits globally, and to repair and retro-fit existing systems for a changing climate and digital age. Rapid urbanisation in developing countries will require considerable investment in new infrastructure to meet the increasing demand. This creates an enormous opportunity to plan and build infrastructure systems so that they continue to function under many circumstances - and if they fail, they do so safely.

There is an urgent need for a global shift in industry practice that can address these concerns across the whole infrastructure lifecycle. Organisations in charge of infrastructure planning, financing, design, delivery, operation and maintenance, but also end-users of critical infrastructure, are demanding new approaches. All stakeholders have a key role to play, which is why the Resilience Shift is working across the value chain for critical infrastructure.

We appointed Cambridge University Technical Services (CUTS) as our Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and ‘critical friend’ for the initial years of operation.

They provided independent technical advice that informed the strategic direction of the programme and reviewed the quality of approach and outputs. They provided scrutiny of and advice on the programme through critiquing the quality and value of the approach and outputs. They also provided a conduit to a wider knowledge base from academia and within industry.

Professor Peter Guthrie of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge chaired the TAG supported by Dr Kristen MacAskill

We continue to work closely with them on various initiatives.

In addition to Arup, and Lloyd's Register Foundation, we have worked with or are working with a number of partners.

Partners can be identified via different mechanisms, including:

• Open call for proposals / competitions
• Directly appointed (as strategic partners)
• Connecting as editorial or knowledge dissemination partners

The decision on which mechanism is used is a strategic decision and varies from activity to activity under the work streams and we ensure that any procurement process is transparent, robust and fair.

If you are interested in working with us, you can get in touch with us by emailing info@resilienceshift.org. All requests will be evaluated by The Resilience Shift's leadership team.

All outputs funded by the Resilience Shift are intended for the public good, and will be required to go into the public domain. We are therefore unable to support activities that create commercial advantage to any individual stakeholders. This includes Arup as host institution.

To be successful the Resilience Shift must provoke a substantial change in mind-set and practices connected with critical infrastructure, and become a self-sustaining movement.

This is as much about how we do it as what we do. Our approach is through learning by doing in collaboration with others, as well as by sharing knowledge and fostering a global community. We want to create value or benefit for those we are seeking to influence – maximising the impact for society.

One of our core principles is to focus on the 'supply side'. By which we mean produce outputs that are needed by infrastructure practitioners. We don't want to reinvent the wheel, and where we see that others are working in a similar area to us, we'd be keen to have a conversation about how we can best catalyse change.

• We award grants, and also act as a think tank and convening organisation. We aim to influence policy, shape practice and share learning through our work.
• In the first year, we developed a methodology for industry consultation to understand current practice. We conducted an online survey, focus groups in the UK and US, and 1-to-1 consultation with senior leaders.
• We also commission different kinds of research to clarify our understanding of critical infrastructure, infrastructure interdependencies and resilience engineering through a combination of Resilience Shift grants and partner funding. The outputs from this  research are published here.
• An initial literature scan was conducted to identify various tools and approaches identified that the programme might leverage including SURE, REDi, HAZUR, and RVR (resilience value realisation). This work evolved into our tools and approaches project.
• We are using round-table events and a focus on resilience value to test our thinking and ensure that we deliver the impact and outcomes we seek.

• We initiatially worked with Roland Kupers consultancy to explore the relationship between complexity and resilience and sustainability and resilience.
• Our CVP (customer value proposition) approach was developed using templates designed by Strategyzer to help us develop a Mission Model Canvas modified for our purposes by Marcela Ruibal of ValueLab.
• We also worked with Mark Foden of Foden Grealy Ltd to explore ideas around an influence and outreach strategy to help us to explore how best to create a movement around the Resilience Shift.

We were also originally inspired by the following thought leaders:

Erik Hollnagel | Donella Meadows | Peter Senge | Professor Brian Walker | David Woods