Motivation

Our entire society – people, businesses, and authorities – is increasingly dependent on the correct functioning of infrastructures. If the failure of an infrastructure causes

  • fatalities,
  • large economic damage or
  • major societal unrest,

then this infrastructure is called a Critical Infrastructure (CI).

European See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI form a gradually changing and increasingly complex system of systems. Change occurs due to political, technological, economical and societal reasons. These include, for example:

  • Unbundling power generation
  • Transmission and distribution in the electrical power sector
  • Nuclear energy exit decision (as in Italy and Germany)
  • Introduction of smart grids or mobile telecommunication systems
  • Increasing usage of Internet and more.

Simultaneously, the number of potential threats to See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI is increasing, too. To name just two: See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI are becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats, and the number of catastrophic meteorological events, which for instance may result in widespread flooding, is also increasing. All See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI stakeholders, See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI operators, and civil protection authorities need to understand the complex system of See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI and need to adapt to these changes and threats in order to be best prepared for mitigating emergencies and crises affecting or emerging from See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI.

Although much research on the system of See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI systems and on improving their protection and resilience has been done in Europe in the last 15 years, the transfer of research results into practical application lags behind expectations. A role See conceptual model
[Click for more information]model for successful transfer of research results on Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) is the study, design and implemen-tation of measures (pro-action, prevention, preparation, incident response, recovery) aimed to reduce the risk that critical infrastructure fails with serious consequences and..
[Click for more information]Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) into application is the facility NISAC, the National Infrastructures See computer simulation.
[Click for more information]Simulation and Analysis Center. It supports preparedness and protection of the nation and society by

NISAC provides advanced capabilities based on Modelling denotes the action of designing and creating a conceptual model or a computational model or a CI model or a computer simulation. Other synonyms may apply as well.
[Click for more information]modelling, See computer simulation.
[Click for more information]simulation and analysis (MS&A) to See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI operators, civil protection agencies and other stakeholders. It has the capacities to develop, improve and deploy these capabilities and thereby contributing to an enhanced national preparedness.

Europe lacks a comparable facility and the capabilities and capacities that NISAC provides. 

CIPRNet plans to make a first step for changing that situation by creating new capabilities for See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI operators and emergency managers and building the required capacities for developing and deploying these capabilities. CIPRNet plans to link the currently scattered European See critical infrastructure protection
[Click for more information]CIP research entities into an integrated virtual community with the capability to support national, cross-border and regional emergency management and MS in their preparation for and more effective response to large national and cross-border disaster emergencies while taking See critical infrastructure
[Click for more information]CI into account.

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