Vanessa Giaretton Cappellesso, obtained a Bachelor and Master in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. She performed her Bachelor's thesis on the use of crystalline admixtures to reduce concrete permeability, and her Master's thesis on self-healing of cracked concrete with different types of cement. She has a background in concrete deterioration, durability of reinforced concrete structures and concrete penetrability, as well as laboratory testing, and development of special concrete types. In the SMARTINCS project, she focusses on ‘Self-healing in realistic (extreme) conditions’. It is a joint PhD with Ghent University (BE) and KU Leuven (BE), with secondments at Micropore (UK) and Concrefy (NL). The main objective is the production of a selection matrix for self-healing methodologies, that can be tailored to specific real environments. In order to fulfill this, the goal is to move beyond the current practice of testing self-healing technologies under ideal lab conditions. A strategy will be outlined to select an optimal self-healing method for each specific aggressive environment.