CoTRE - Complexity Twin for Resilient Ecosystems

As we accelerate into the 21st century, our backbone engineering systems are becoming increasingly complex and connected. Many of our critical infrastructure ecosystems are comprised of interdependent sub-systems, each governed by complex non-linear dynamics and cascade interactions. The CoTRE project will build a mathematical mirror to the UK's critical infrastructure ecosystems. The "complexity twin" will be a world first attempt to understand the resilience of large-scale complex systems that increasingly face threats from man-kind and nature. The project will address the fundamental theoretical aspects of the stability of complex systems and work with a variety of critical infrastructure operators to develop short term and long term resilience investment strategies.

The CoTRE project constitutes world's first "complexity twin" of its connected infrastructures - focused on understanding the mathematical relationship between the resilience of individual functional sub-systems and the resilience of networked systems. The project will address the fundamental theoretical aspects of the stability of complex networks. By bringing together academic and industrial experts from network theory, non-linear dynamics, critical infrastructure (CI) operators, the translational impact will transform the way CI ecosystems operate and invest, as well as inform both the government and secondary industries. Unlike simulation-based digital twins, the complexity twin offers mathematical understanding of resilience bounds. As a concrete outcome, the project will deliver the world's first demonstration of a complexity twin based on UK's 3 critical infrastructure systems.