Catapult consortium publishes first National Cyber-Physical Infrastructure ecosystem report

Driving cyber-physical innovation in the UK

Catapult consortium partners Digital Catapult, Connected Places Catapult and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult have published a report on their work so far to develop a National Cyber-Physical Infrastructure (NCPI) ecosystem.

The NCPI ecosystem will bring organisations together to develop common goals to address systemic challenges and opportunities across sectors such as net zero. This will ensure we collectively take steps that offer mutual benefits, aligned to greater industry demands, better societal outcomes and continuous improvement. 

The UK has substantial expertise in establishing the building blocks for the future in open, interoperable and secure ways – with our history building the world wide web, and our deep science, technology and innovation expertise, we are well equipped to build a cyber-physical infrastructure for the future. 

By convening experts into the NCPI ecosystem, we can create a vision and a programme that will share learnings, amplify best practices and create synergies towards joined-up cross-sector, cross-technology and cross-disciplinary innovation for how we design, build, develop and connect capabilities such as digital twins, spatial computing / metaverse and robotic / autonomous systems over the next ten or more years.

The programme is planning a series of events and activities in the coming months. This began with the Cyber-Physical Future Forum held in November 2023. Themes and learnings from this event, coupled with key enablers will shape four new workshops to be held across the UK. At the same time, the team is mapping the NCPI landscape by distributing a survey to ask those involved in cyber-physical initiatives and/or representing organisations about their research topics and areas of work.

Workshops

The workshops will involve experts across advanced systems, discussing priorities within their domains and identifying crossover. More information will follow.

Themes and outline schedule 1. Cyber-physical infrastructure: Key challenges, April 2024 2. Security and resilience, May 2024 3. Interoperability, June 2024 4. Frameworks, standards and guidance, July 2024

This work builds towards an NCPI strategic roadmap for publication in 2025. Complete the stakeholder mapping survey

Download and read the NCPI report

The NCPI ecosystem programme supported by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.