emSHM-DM – Towards a European Master in Structural Health Monitoring of Civil Infrastructure

PROMOTER ENTITY COFAC – LUSÓFONA UNIVERSITY
COORDINATOR (UL-CUL) ELÓI FIGUEIREDO
FUNDING INSTITUTION EUROPEAN COMMISSION THROUGH ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME (ERASMUS-EDU-2024-EMJM-DESIGN)
BUDGET TOTAL BUDGET: 60 000,00 EUROS (Project number: 101177357)
FUNDING PERIOD 2024-2025
PARTNERS Lusófona University (ULusofona, Portugal), Silesian University of Technology (SUT, Poland), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC, Spain), and University of Twente (UTwente, The Netherlands).

Civil infrastructure, like bridges, roads, and ports plays a crucial role in modern societies. The safest, most economical, and resilient infrastructure is the one that is well managed and maintained.
Structural health monitoring (SHM) has been a promising tool to (i) support the condition assessment, (ii) reduce uncertainty in the planning and designing of maintenance activities, (iii) increase the performance and safety of operation, and (iv) determine in time when and how to perform climate change adaptation of infrastructure.
emSHM-DM project pilots the first European master program in SHM oriented towards civil infrastructure. As a 2-year joint master’s degree with 120 ECTS over four semesters, it will train the next generation of structural engineers suitable to support the design, maintenance, and management of infrastructure.
The Consortium is composed of four European institutions: Lusófona University – COFAC (Portugal), University of Twente (Netherlands), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain), and Silesian University of Technology (Poland). The study plan will be organized into focus areas, like structural analysis, structural design, sensing technology, data science and artificial intelligence, digital twins, and resilience. The graduates will benefit from extensive international collaboration and training opportunities, preparing them to pursue an academic or professional career.
The emSHM-DM project will support the organization of remote and in-person meetings, workshop, stakeholder engagement sessions, summer courses, and guest lectures to design a fully integrated curriculum and output multiple partnership and student agreements regarding the master program.
This project will increase the European competitiveness in engineering and asset management, support the digital transition, and contribute to achieving the goals of the European Green Deal by fostering the sustainability of built environment through climate change adaptation.