Concrete, a mix of aggregate and cement, is one of the most widely used building materials throughout the world, being used for both private and public construction including roads, buildings, bridges, airports, maritime and industrial plants. Globally, 30 Billion tonnes of concrete are used each year. However, concrete is prone to cracking and degradation which in turn can compromise structural integrity and safety if left untreated. Building and infrastructure collapses have been linked to untreated cracking e.g. a recent Florida pedestrian bridge collapse \[New Civil Engineer, 2019\]. Consequently, overengineered solutions and expensive, intensive monitoring, repair and replacement regimes are in place to minimise threats to public safety. The UK spends approximately £51 Billion per year on maintenance including repair and replacement of its predominantly concrete built infrastructure assets \[ONS, 2020\].

Furthermore, concrete production is responsible for 4 - 8% of global carbon emissions via cement production. Technologies and strategies to lower the carbon associated with both concrete production and its concrete intensive repair and replacement are absolutely vital.

Self-healing concrete whereby cracks are automatically healed as soon as they are formed can lengthen concrete lifetimes and minimise the maintenance regimes required to maintain infrastructure. These benefits will translate into both cost and carbon savings as newly installed concrete requires lower levels of repair/replacement.

**Mimicrete Ltd, a start-up founded in 2021, have developed a self-healing concrete innovation. Our technology works by embedding a network modelled on the vascular systems of plants and animals into the pre-fabricated concrete blocks.** The network is filled with a healing agent that can be deployed when the crack forms to heal the crack autonomously.

We aim to develop and test our vascular networks via manufacture and testing of a full scale network, including development of manufacturing and design recommendations. We will conduct accelerated stress testing of the concrete to trigger cracking and healing. Results will demonstrate the performance at scale, define manufacturing parameters, quantify costs and lifetime extension facilitated by our self-healing system to support our innovation journey towards commercialisation.