To further advance the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy and facilitate the integrated implementation of the development strategies for the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the "Belt and Road" Initiative, the Anhui International Joint Research Center for Bridge Structure Data Diagnosis and Intelligent Operation and Maintenance (Identification Number: 2020R01013) was officially established pursuant to the official approval of the Anhui Provincial Department of Science and Technology, as specified in the Notice on the Recognition of the Fourth Batch of Anhui Provincial International Science and Technology Cooperation Bases (Wanke Waimi [2020] No. 332). As a core force for Anhui Province to integrate global scientific and technological resources and enhance its international influence in the field of science and technology, the Center also undertakes the pivotal mission of spearheading innovation in bridge safety and serving as a model for international science and technology cooperation in the Wanjiang River region.

With the health of bridge structures as its core focus, the Center concentrates on frontier technologies in bridge data diagnosis and intelligent operation and maintenance at home and abroad, and systematically addresses the critical challenges pertaining to bridge safety in countries along the "Belt and Road". On one hand, it conducts in-depth research on key physical fields and load characteristics during bridge operation—including the mechanism by which temperature field fluctuations induce concrete structure cracking, real-time monitoring of stress-strain fields and precise evaluation of structural fatigue life, the coupling mechanism of wind loads and dynamic loads from vehicles/ships, and the optimization pathway for bridge seismic performance under seismic action—ultimately establishing a full-chain technical system encompassing "multi-source data collection, intelligent analysis and diagnosis, and early warning & operation-maintenance decision-making". On the other hand, it provides customized solutions to address the differentiated needs of various regions along the route: for instance, developing corrosion-resistant bridge monitoring technologies for the hot and humid regions of Southeast Asia, and delivering intelligent operation and maintenance solutions for the renovation and upgrading of aging bridges in Central and Eastern Europe, thereby promoting the transformation of international frontier technologies from the "laboratory" to practical "application scenarios".

To support the aforementioned research and technology transformation, the Center, leveraging its solid scientific research foundation, has established a high-caliber core research team (currently comprising 26 members, including 3 academicians, with over 80% holding doctoral degrees). It is equipped with instrumentation and equipment valued at over 3 million Chinese RMB in total, and occupies an experimental and office space of 600 square meters. Furthermore, the Center has achieved remarkable scientific research outcomes: it has undertaken 12 vertical research programs, including those funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, with accumulated received funding exceeding 5 million Chinese RMB; published more than 60 high-quality papers indexed in EI/SCI; and obtained over 20 authorized invention patents. Its service scope focuses on the core domains of civil engineering, covering intelligent data perception and interpretation, damage simulation and digital twin, big-data diagnosis and evaluation, as well as intelligent bridge management and performance enhancement. Meanwhile, by establishing an international operational mechanism, the Center continuously undertakes international frontier research projects and scientific tasks addressing major needs, contributing "Chinese solutions" to global bridge operation and maintenance.

Currently, the Center has built an international collaboration network centered on Central and Eastern Europe and radiating to countries along the "Belt and Road". It has established stable collaborative partnerships with renowned institutions, including the Bridge Structure Monitoring Team of Brno University of Technology (Czech Republic), the Intelligent Sensing Technology Laboratory of the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), the Wind Engineering Research Center of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania), the Earthquake Engineering Institute of the National Technical University of Athens (Greece), the Bridge Durability Research Team of the University of Zagreb (Croatia), and the Intelligent Transportation Laboratory of Warsaw University of Technology (Poland). Recently, the collaborating parties have implemented 11 joint research projects focusing on the joint R&D of bridge disease diagnosis algorithms, the co-construction of intelligent operation and maintenance platforms, and the joint monitoring of cross-border bridge safety. These collaborations have jointly yielded 28 patents and 43 high-impact academic papers, and cultivated 36 international scientific research talents—further consolidating Anhui Province’s discourse power in international cooperation within the field of bridge safety.