Nicole Metje is Professor of Infrastructure Monitoring in the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham, focusing mainly on buried assets. She is also Deputy Director for Sensors of the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF) part of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities. NBIF is due to open in the summer of 2021. Her research focusses on mapping and assessing the condition of buried utilities through smart sensors and surface geophysics including quantum technology gravity sensors. Moreover, Nicole’s work determines the costs of utility strikes and the direct and indirect costs of utility streetworks providing an evidence base for industry change. She is the co-author of the book ‘Introduction to Tunnel Construction’ providing an introduction to tunnelling and been a judge for the NCE Tunnelling Festival in the past.