ENRICH project: enhancing the resilience of Italian healthcare and hospital facilities

Nonstructural elements have gained significant attention in the field of structural and earth-quake engineering, as it was proven their critical seismic response and their major influence on seismic risk and losses. In the last two decades, several studies investigated the seismic response of nonstructural elements, implementing observational, experimental, theoretical, and numerical investigations, and this significantly expanded literature knowledge and de-sign/assessment methods. The next challenges in the field involve moving beyond individual structural or seismic evaluations to embrace more holistic and comprehensive approaches that integrate multiple aspects of assessment and improvement. This includes considering theinterplay between structural and nonstructural elements, operational functionality, and sys-temic resilience. The present study summarizes the research innovations carried out in the framework of the ENRICH project, a national relevance Italian project (PRIN) aiming at assessing and en-hancing the resilience of healthcare facilities, with a focus on both seismic risk and functional adaptivity, directly accounting for nonstructural elements and organizational aspects. Launched in 2022 and concluded in 2025, ENRICH involved five research units, including University of Naples Federico II, University of Salento, University of Sannio, National Insti-tute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), and Construction Technologies Institute (ITC) of National Research Council (CNR). The project takes a multi-criteria approach, combining various methods: field data collection in hospitals, non-destructive in situ tests, laboratory experiments, analytical and numerical simulations, statistical analyses, data management and the development of BIM tools and communication strategies. Theoretical, experimental, nu-merical, and observational methods were implemented in the project in order to assess seis-mic vulnerability/risk, flexibility associated with pilot healthcare facilities, aiming at estimating a simplified but meaningful measure of resilience. Communication strategies were also developed to raise stakeholder awareness and enhance systemic healthcare resilience. ENRICH findings demonstrate significant contributions to both research and practical appli-cations, benefiting public safety and the economy while laying the groundwork for future re-search funding. The outcomes are expected to have broad applicability across regions, with their implementation likely to deliver substantial social and economic benefits in Italy and internationally.