Illustrative: the exceedance probability of a hazard as a sheet, return-period isolines and simulated events

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

Reliability, safety and resilience engineering

Reliability and resilience engineering studies how engineered systems fail and how they are designed, tested and maintained to keep working or to recover quickly.

Map reliability, safety and resilience engineering on a real place

01Model

The model, step by step

The model

From a failure rate to a safety integrity level: how often a protection fails on demand

DataModelGateDecisionStandard it teachesStandard it relies onNeighbouring discipline

7 steps
Integrity band of the single channel (SIL)
2
Mean time between failures (years)
143
PFD, single channel (1oo1)
0.00175
PFD, two channels voting (1oo2)
0.0000041
/

The model From a failure rate to a safety integrity level: how often a protection fails on demand

02Scope

What the discipline covers

The subtopics its courses and labs teach.

Reliability, safety and resilience engineering: 0 primary courses open, 1 in preparation and 6 also taught here, across 8 subtopics. Courses: RAS-407 L3 in preparation, RAF-102 L1 also taught here, RAF-113 L1 also taught here, RAN-316 L2 also taught here, RAN-318 L2 also taught here, RAN-321 L2 also taught here, RAS-414 L2 also taught here.
Reliability, safety and resilience engineering at a glance
  • Open, 0
  • In preparation, 1
  • Also taught here, 6
  • Subtopics, 8
Course codes from the curriculum; study levels L1 to L4.
Courses
In development
Levels
L3 Advanced
Labs
Network lab, Map lab, Exposure lab
  • Reliability analysis and failure rates
  • Fault tree and event tree analysis
  • Failure modes and effects analysis
  • Safety cases and safety integrity
  • Design for graceful degradation
  • Redundancy, diversity and recovery
  • Asset management and ageing infrastructure
  • Inspection, maintenance and monitoring
03The discipline

The field and its scope

For reliability, safety and asset engineers, safety case authors and regulators who need to quantify failure rates, build fault and event trees, set safety integrity targets and plan inspection and maintenance of ageing assets.

04Measures

Quantities and units

05Methods

Methods and their limits

Each method is listed with what it assumes and where it fails.

06Debates

What the field debates

07Bodies and data

Bodies that set practice, and the data they publish

Bodies and standards are named so learners can find and apply their published work; the Academy teaches their use and links to the publisher, and no affiliation is implied.

08Simulator

Run the discipline's simulator

Reliability, safety and resilience engineering's own model, as a live chart: move each parameter and read how the outputs respond.

09Maps

Maps and the globe for any place

Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow reliability, safety and resilience engineering on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.

The boundaries, names and designations shown do not imply any judgement on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Countries: Natural Earth (public domain).

10Nexus Standards

Nexus Standards it teaches and relies on

The Nexus Standards the discipline teaches toward, grouped by master standard, with the disciplines that teach each.

11Research hub

Research hub: papers, preprints and datasets

Open scholarly sources searched with the subject terms of Reliability, safety and resilience engineering.

Search termsReliability, safety and resilience engineering; Reliability analysis and failure rates; Fault tree and event tree analysis; Failure modes and effects analysis; Safety cases and safety integrity; Design for graceful degradationDerived from the Risk Academy page on Reliability, safety and resilience engineering.

  • OpenAlexlisted for reference; not queried
  • Crossreflisted for reference; not queried
  • DataCitelisted for reference; not queried
  • Zenodolisted for reference; not queried
  • arXivlisted for reference; not queried
  • Europe PMClisted for reference; not queried
  • OpenAIRE Graphlisted for reference; not queried

No source is enabled for live display on this site yet: the sources are listed for reference and none is queried. Once the publisher of record enables a source after its terms are reviewed, recent works are listed here. Metadata and links only: title, authors, venue, year, type, open-access status and licence as each source records them; works are listed for orientation, not reviewed or endorsed.

12Hub

Research and tools

Research and preprints as they are published, by discipline, with the faculty's other tools.

The hub lists the newest research and preprints for Reliability, safety and resilience engineering, each with its source and date. Open the research hub

13Methods and standards

Methods, frameworks and hazards

From the Academy's risk taxonomy: the discipline's own entries and those of its primary courses, with how many courses teach each.

Methods and practice

  1. Network and systems analysis1 course

Hazard families

  1. Critical infrastructure outage1 course
14What is changing now

What is changing now

Recent developments in reliability, safety and resilience engineering, each with its source; sources checked on 16 October 2026.

15Courses

Courses in this discipline

Courses for this discipline are in development; until they open, study it through the connected courses and open lessons below.

Courses with this primary disciplineIn development

  1. RAS-407Critical Infrastructure Interdependency and Resilience EngineeringIn developmentSystems, L3 Advanced, 12 hours (estimate)
16Also taught here

Courses from connected disciplines that also teach this field

Each course has its primary discipline elsewhere and teaches this field as part of its scope.

17Labs

How the subject is practised in labs

LabWhat you do in itCourses using it
Network labBuild dependency graphs, find critical nodes, trace cascades4
Map labRead hazard, exposure and boundaries on real maps3
Exposure labOverlay people and assets with hazard footprints3
18Technology in this area

How technology helps and what risk it brings

AspectIn this area
Technology that helpsDigital twins, sensors and robotics for inspection.
Risk technology createsCascading cyber-physical failure and vendor lock-in.
  • RAT-263 Digital Twins for Risk: Design, Validation and Limits In development
  • RAT-261 OT/ICS and Critical Infrastructure Cyber Resilience In development
  • RAS-407 Critical Infrastructure Interdependency and Resilience Engineering In development
19Achievements

Achievements in this discipline

20Pathways

Pathways that teach it

21Where this is practised

Where the subject is practised

Field platforms of the ecosystem where the subject is studied and applied.

22Practised in

The three Nexus Foundry systems where it is practised

  • Nexus FoundryLabs systemReliability tests as reproducible experimentsExperiments room
  • Apps systemDiagnosis and restoration after failureRecovery room
  • GRIx systemFailure propagation in coupled systemsCascades room

Nexus Foundry system pages describe what each system and its rooms are designed to do; the courses teach the methods these systems apply.

23Across the ecosystem

Across the ecosystem

25References

Core references and where to begin

Start with Rausand, then Zio, then Apostolakis.

NRNexus Reports gateway · GW-ACADEMY

Contribute to Nexus Reports from this page.

Nexus 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.

Risk Academy
Reliability, safety and resilience engineering

Start with an open course

The catalogue lists each course with its outcomes, labs, hours and level.

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