Illustrative: packages on a board with routed traces carrying clocked signals, or a data hall of racks and their status lights

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Infrastructure, Energy and Industry

Industry and Supply Chains

Advanced industry, manufacturing and materials

Advanced industry, manufacturing and materials, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Advanced industry, manufacturing and materials: foundations and practice

This area covers production systems, industrial process safety, industrial cyber resilience, advanced materials and the resilience of manufacturing to shocks in inputs, energy, labour and technology.

Level
L2 Intermediate
Study time
about 24 hours (planning estimate)
Status
In authoring
Prerequisites
An L1 course in the area, or an entry review

Why now

It shows how control system interface design and task assignment are process safety issues, not only ergonomics, in highly automated plants. U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, U.S. Chemical Safety Board Releases Final Investigation Report on 2025 Explosion and Fire at Shell Polymers Monaca Facility in Pennsylvania, 16 September 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Define operational technology and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain manufacturing operations risk and operational technology security with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against industrial process safety, stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Manufacturing operations risk
    • Manufacturing operations risk
    • Operational technology security
    • Industrial process safety
  2. Advanced materials and nanomaterials
    • Advanced materials and nanomaterials
    • Materials and components supply
    • Industrial energy and water
  3. Human-machine work
    • Human-machine work
    • Technology adoption
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • A process upset happens at a frequency; each independent protection layer fails on demand with a probability; the product of the two is how often the hazard is reached; comparing that frequency with the tolerable one tells the designer how much risk reduction the safety-instrumented function must supply.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-X10 Chemical, industrial, nuclear and radiological safety
  • NRS-D5 Economic development, industry and innovation risk
  • NRS-H50 Hazard family: Industrial and process accidents
  • NRS-H53 Hazard family: Cyber-physical disruption
  • NRS-H108 Hazard family: Advanced and distributed manufacturing
  • NRS-M18 Method fabric: Critical infrastructure and industrial risk

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
  • 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
  • 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Intermediate, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, U.S. Chemical Safety Board Releases Final Investigation Report on 2025 Explosion and Fire at Shell Polymers Monaca Facility in Pennsylvania, 16 September 2026
  2. Center for Chemical Process Safety, Layer of Protection Analysis: Simplified Process Risk Assessment, 2001
  3. Center for Chemical Process Safety, Guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety, 2007
  4. Khan, Rathnayaka and Ahmed, Methods and models in process safety and risk management: past, present and future, 2015
02Live map

Hazards and exposure in Indonesia

Flood water, active fires and surface heat beside population and night-time lights, over Indonesia.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 3

Hazards and exposure

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Hazards and exposure, framed on Indonesia.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONET · U.S. Geological SurveySources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
  • VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MODIS and VIIRS atmosphere products, NASA LANCE and LAADS DAAC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
  • Live: U.S. Geological Survey Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • River discharge forecast, 30 days with range (GloFAS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Emergency Management Service information 2026; not a flood warning.
  • Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
  • Optional layers (10 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Aerosol optical depth, daily: VIIRS NOAA-20 Deep Blue AOD, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

Frontier course · L3 advanced, programme courses and standards

Advanced industry, manufacturing and materials: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed advanced industry, manufacturing and materials between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Advanced industry, manufacturing and materials: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

It shows how control system interface design and task assignment are process safety issues, not only ergonomics, in highly automated plants. U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, U.S. Chemical Safety Board Releases Final Investigation Report on 2025 Explosion and Fire at Shell Polymers Monaca Facility in Pennsylvania, 16 September 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in advanced industry, manufacturing and materials since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce CSB links Shell Monaca furnace explosion to interface design and staffing on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. CSB links Shell Monaca furnace explosion to interface design and staffing
    • The CSB found the June 2025 explosion at Shell Polymers Monaca was caused by inadvertently opening two isolation valves at once, with contributing factors including an inexperienced engineer, weak administrative controls and a confusing human-machine interface.
    • It shows how control system interface design and task assignment are process safety issues, not only ergonomics, in highly automated plants.
    • U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, 16 September 2026
  2. EU Cyber Resilience Act sets security duties for connected products
    • The EU Cyber Resilience Act, in force since 10 December 2024, requires cybersecurity for hardware and software products with digital elements; reporting obligations apply from 11 September 2026 and main obligations from 11 December 2027.
    • Manufacturers of connected and industrial products face new security-by-design and vulnerability reporting duties that affect product liability and supply chains.
    • European Commission, 10 December 2024
  3. Reproduction lab
    • Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
    • State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
    • Peer review against a shared checklist
  4. Technology that helps and the risks it carries
    • Digital twins, sensors and robotics for inspection.
    • Cascading cyber-physical failure and vendor lock-in.

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-X10 Chemical, industrial, nuclear and radiological safety
  • NRS-D5 Economic development, industry and innovation risk
  • NRS-H50 Hazard family: Industrial and process accidents
  • NRS-H53 Hazard family: Cyber-physical disruption
  • NRS-H108 Hazard family: Advanced and distributed manufacturing
  • NRS-M18 Method fabric: Critical infrastructure and industrial risk

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  • 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
  • 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Expert, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, U.S. Chemical Safety Board Releases Final Investigation Report on 2025 Explosion and Fire at Shell Polymers Monaca Facility in Pennsylvania, 16 September 2026
  2. European Commission, Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), 10 December 2024
  3. Center for Chemical Process Safety, Layer of Protection Analysis: Simplified Process Risk Assessment, 2001
  4. Center for Chemical Process Safety, Guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety, 2007
  5. Khan, Rathnayaka and Ahmed, Methods and models in process safety and risk management: past, present and future, 2015
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Operational technology

Hardware and software that monitor and control physical equipment and processes.

Term

Functional safety

Safety that depends on control systems working correctly in response to their inputs.

Term

Just-in-time production

Production that keeps minimal inventory and relies on timely deliveries.

Term

Advanced material

A material engineered for new or much improved properties, such as composites or nanomaterials.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

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