National Cyber-Physical Infrastructure ecosystem event blog
Nearly 200 delegates gathered in London and online for the launch of a new community designed to encourage a cross sector approach to the future development of cyber-physical systems in the UK and beyond. Experts were in agreement that common data-sharing standards, greater interoperability and a systems-based approach to innovation is vital to build a sustainable and productive future for the UK economy, society and environment.
Advanced AI enabled cyber-physical systems such as digital twins, the metaverse and autonomous robotics and machines, will shape the future of digitalisation and the internet. These systems will be built and connected together using common building blocks, including advanced technologies and new principles, protocols and standards. Building a multi-disciplinary approach with cross-cutting capabilities for the UK will be critical to solving systemic challenges such as climate change and building greater resilience in global supply chains.
These emerging new capabilities promise great opportunities for society, but industry partners must agree on data sharing arrangements, and new business models for interoperability and openness to maximise the value of innovations, delegates at the launch of the National Cyber-Physical Infrastructure (NCPI) ecosystem heard on 16 November.
The NCPI ecosystem is a new cross-sector collaboration that aims to build a shared vision for how we develop and connect cyber-physical systems and break down siloed innovation. It is led by Digital Catapult, Connected Places Catapult through the Digital Twin Hub, and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult; with funding and support from the UK Government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Systems and applications discussed at the event included connected digital twins, robotics and the metaverse – and it was stressed that enhancing the value of each will depend on professionals in various disciplines working together.
“We are here to listen to you, and we want your input as to how you think this programme should flow, and behave over the next 18 months,” said the Digital Twin Hub Chair, Dr Alison Vincent at the start of the session.
“Collaboration is the key to true innovation: it drives diversity of thought, removes duplication, and speeds up innovation,” she added. “As digital twins develop and monitor data from robotics, there is a growing need to collaborate to speed things up.”
The DT Hub, Alison continued, is working hard to help leaders better understand data and digital systems, improve their knowledge of legal data sharing agreements, and help professionals build business cases for connecting digital twins between sectors. “What is critical here is the interconnectivity between these different systems,” she added.
Mark Enzer, Vice Chair at the Digital Twin Hub explained that the key to unlocking the value of cyber-physical infrastructure is to recognise the importance of “making connections between people, organisation and communities”.
He added: “By making connections between digital twins, we can move towards understanding our systems better and intervene more effectively. This is not about isolated technology – the value comes from an ecosystem making connections.”
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Director for Emerging Technologies and Regulatory Innovation, Hannah Boardman told the event that developments in cyber-physical infrastructure will be driven by industry and academia, with Government support “to ensure systems are connected in a secure and trustworthy way, and demonstrate their advantages to a wider audience”.
“Collaborations are absolutely critical to achieving this, and the key question for us now is how we connect and grow this activity, and work towards a shared cyber-physical future, where the convergence of different technologies allows us to use exciting things in the real world.
“It is great to see the launch of the National Cyber-Physical Infrastructure ecosystem. I encourage as many of you as possible to get involved.”
Hannah was followed on stage by Digital Catapult’s Director of Strategy and External Affairs, Philip Young. “Cyber-physical infrastructure is a really important part of how we collectively address techno-social challenges, and we are entering a period when new capabilities are being built,” he remarked.
“When we look at innovation across the UK and globally, there is a tendency to consider investment in specific technologies, sectors or challenges. But the important thing is to build bridges across sectors: creating investment, impetus and drive towards achieving goals together.”
Philip added that he firmly believes that collaboration within the National Cyber-Physical Infrastructure ecosystem can create a “fantastic vision to change the way we approach innovation and research and development; galvanising how the country works”.
Opportunities and challenges
A panel discussion followed, involving the Head of the National Digital Twin Programme Alexandra Luck; the Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) Engagement Lead, Sarah Hayes; the LEGO Group’s Global Lead for Digital Policy, Adam Ingle; and Innovate UK’s Head of Cyber-Physical and Digital Twins, Simon Hart.
Alexandra said that that National Digital Twin Programme is developing a data sharing infrastructure, that combines technology and process, to support the creation, management and sharing of information “in ways that are trusted, secure and resilient”, as well as “developing the underpinning rules of the road, to enable people to bring together the digital twins they will need for their particular use cases”.
She added it is essential that the programme does this in a way that allows people to realise benefits through the use of these technologies and processes, at a pace which is consistent with the level of technical capability and resources which they have access to. She also stressed that the work of the programme will enable digital twins, individually and when connected, to be appropriately safe, secure, trustworthy and ethical, as well as adaptable, sustainable and interoperable.
Sarah Hayes agreed that data needs to be inter-operable among users across all sectors. “If we have that underpinning infrastructure, then it creates more of a level playing field to develop robotics, AI and Internet of Things capabilities that sit on top of it. People can then be much more creative, and not worry about how they are going to share data. Having a common understanding of data sharing infrastructure should enable competition to flourish.”
Adam Ingle spoke about LEGO’s move towards online play and interaction between users in the metaverse. “We have a growing and substantial digital portfolio. For us, the key questions are how do we build a platform that is safe for children to use – with adequate protections in place for them – and what does that look like in a digital world.”
Moving forwards, he said he would like to see a “very clear regulatory framework that enables seamless play”.
Simon Hart told the session that digital infrastructure will allow society to get the best value out of physical assets, many of which were built by the Victorians. But until now it has not always been easy. “For SMEs to develop a great product that is going to help decarbonise electricity, for instance, they need access to data.” He added: “There is an enormous appetite from the SME community to use AI to solve challenges and create products and services. One of the challenges we need to overcome is to improve access to data.”
The event saw nearly 200 participants in person and online, with discussion in a hybrid afternoon workshop on developing frameworks, guidance and standardisation, value creation, interoperability, security and resilience and skills.
The event activities, themes and outcomes will be summarised in a report, later this year.
Read the launch press release.
Benefits of federated transport digital twins for network management and incident response
Call for evidence from the DT Hub community
The Digital Twin Hub and Arup are conducting a study on the potential benefits to the UK economy of federated transport digital twins. We are focusing on the benefits realised by linking different modes (such as road and rail) or authorities to each other, especially regarding operations and dynamic management. The study aims to provide robust insights to support transport authorities, operators, government, and industry players. While the focus is on transport, we are also interested in any quantified benefits this would enable to other sectors, such as energy or manufacturing.
We are soliciting input to this work from the Digital Twin Hub community, inviting any examples or case studies that were enabled by federation or the sharing of data between different parties/organisations especially in the multimodal transport setting. We are interested in the key benefits that such sharing realised, i.e. the value that this unlocked over and above un-federated digital twins.
Please complete the short form to capture your input.
Hold Wednesday 29 November in your diaries for the National Digital Twin Programme Industry Day
From 09.30-12.30 at the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), One Great George Street, London
The National Digital Twin Programme is the centralised government-led effort committed to growing national capability in digital twinning technologies and processes throughout the country. The Programme is holding an Industry Day on 29th November 2023 at ICE, One Great George Street to showcase the work of the programme and its demonstrator programme, to discuss its forward direction and to highlight how industry partners can get involved. Places can be booked here.
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This week saw the first get together of members of the Digital Twin (DT) Hub Board, Advisory Group and Community Council at an event hosted by Connected Places Catapult. The evening was themed around the launch of the National Cyber-Physical Infrastructure (NCPI) ecosystem - to build cross-sector collaboration for digital twin, robotics and metaverse innovations.
It was a chance to catch up on the latest thinking on bringing everything together, with a welcome and introduction from DT Hub Chair, Alison Vincent and a presentation on Building Sustainable Value from Justin Anderson. The event was compered by Henry Fenby-Taylor.
Justin set out future scenarios and showed how the NCPI can respond by building an ecosystem which is purpose led, by connecting cyber-physical system conveners to refine definitions, collaborate on shared building blocks, develop integration architectures and prepare to scale CPI across organisations and supply chains. And at the heart of this is giving those in different roles and at different levels of responsibility the tools to make it happen. Justin concluded with a look at the Digital Twins for Senior Leaders' course, which begins with a pilot cohort on 26 October 2023.
With networking came the opportunity to listen to a fireside chat hosted by Melissa Zanocco with HVMC's Jonathan Eyre and Cranfield's John Erkoyuncu, and to discuss across tables the different challenges and themes central to enabling industry innovation across the cyber-physical infrastructure. Topics included governance, working groups, enabling infrastructure, initiatives including the Gemini Alliance and the Apollo Protocol, and NCPI federation with centralised services.
Guest speaker, science fiction writer Stephen Oram explained how the process of applied fiction can be used to create meaningful discussion between those who make the future and those who will live in it. What is important in this context is that we take the right approach to our cyber-physical future, together, and get this right from the beginning.
Thanks to Connected Places Catapult's events team and to all our presenters and table hosts for making this a great evening of plans and possibilities.
Meet the Digital Twin Hub, its Board, Advisory Group, Community Council, and Operations Team.
A new government and industry collaboration to amplify innovations, break down silos and build a shared vision for cyber-physical system innovation in the UK.
Digital Catapult, Connected Places Catapult and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult have announced a joint collaboration to develop the emerging National Cyber-Physical Infrastructure (NCPI) ecosystem in the UK - funded and supported by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). This builds on the foundations of the UK Government’s Cyber-Physical Infrastructure Consultation published in March 2022. Further information can be found here.
In the next 10-15 years, the world will begin to see more combinations of advanced digital technologies such as AI, extended reality (XR), robotics, distributed ledger technologies and 5G/6G, that will connect physical and digital environments together into advanced “cyber-physical” systems. New capabilities that emerge from these combinations of technologies will create a wave of innovation that will transform the way we live and work.
These cyber-physical systems are developing in complexity and will fundamentally change our relationship and interaction with data, including:
Robotic and autonomous systems are already revolutionising industries like manufacturing and agriculture to enhance productivity and safety for repetitive tasks with precision and potentially within hazardous environments reducing operational costs.
Smart city infrastructure is continuing to expand usage of data driven decision making to reduce carbon footprint, optimising traffic management and town planning to increase citizen safety and quality of life, including areas such as air quality /CO2 emissions.
Digital twins are fit for purpose digital representations of physical assets, environments or processes, underpinned by a data model with synchronisation between the physical and digital elements. These are already helping to improve predictive planning, next-generation design and supply chain optimisation.
The extended reality enabled ‘metaverse’ (enabled by virtual, augmented and mixed reality) will allow us to interact with data layered over the physical world as an extension of the internet, enabling immersive experiences, learning environments and new ways to access information about our surroundings.
Connecting advanced cyber-physical systems can provide a step-change in the value individual systems can bring, enabling cyber-physical systems to break down silos in sectors and increase our understanding of systems of systems challenges. While individual applications of cyber-physical systems bring specific benefits, the networking and federation of these systems will create significantly greater value for society, economy and the environment.
Connected systems will bring together innovators in industry and academia, government and wider society to work together to solve systemic challenges, such as reaching net zero, by allowing multiple parties to collaborate, share information and make collective decisions. By allowing for better visibility of data across systems (e.g. sharing CO2 emissions across organisations), and encouraging greater interoperability, Cyber-Physical Infrastructure can improve productivity across key sectors, enable increased public spending efficiency, enhance delivery of infrastructure and health services, build national resilience, and accelerate progress in attaining national policy objectives, such as net zero. More broadly, Cyber-Physical Infrastructure can help remove time, cost and risk from the process of bringing innovation to market.
To realise this new era of advanced digitalisation, the UK requires a step change to accelerate innovation and the development of infrastructure that underpins it.
Building a cyber-physical system innovation ecosystem
In the UK and globally, it is essential that we build a collective vision for a more equitable, secure, responsible and resilient future state for cyber-physical system innovation, that will benefit everyone involved, set the frameworks to develop interoperable systems, and showcase best-in-class examples of innovation.
The NCPI will be a first step towards developing this vision in the UK. Funded by the UK Government Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the NCPI Ecosystem is jointly led by Digital Catapult, Connected Places Catapult and the Digital Twin Hub, and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (all part of the UK’s Catapult Network).
The NCPI initiative will help develop the groundwork for future initiatives in this space, establish discussions between key stakeholders and be a national and international front door for future developments in this area.
Launch event: Cyber-Physical Future Forum
The partners will launch the NCPI at a half-day hybrid event, the Cyber-Physical Future Forum, at Connected Places Catapult in London on Thursday 16 November 2023. The event will outline plans to grow the cyber-physical ecosystem and feature keynote speeches from industry guests, covering the challenges and scientific areas central to enabling industry innovation. This will be followed by an interactive workshop session for more detailed discussion on the key topics. The event is by invitation for in-person attendance due to venue size. Online registration now open.
Science and Technology Minister, George Freeman says “The technologies that power a modern economy are often underpinned by complex physical and virtual foundations which help them function – whether that be environmental sensors or wireless networks for transferring data. Building a Cyber-Physical Infrastructure is all about creating a more connected, innovative, and resilient UK, where these sophisticated systems can work seamlessly together. We look forward to seeing what the X-Catapult Consortium can do to foster more cooperation and collaboration in this space.”
Jeremy Silver, CEO at Digital Catapult says “The range of industrial initiatives in this space has grown increasingly fragmented with many bespoke initiatives. The unique position of the Catapults as technology and commercially agnostic players in the centre of the landscape, makes them ideally placed to help cross-sector industrial and tech companies collaborate. We’re excited to usher in the second generation of cyber-physical systems which will need increased openness and interoperability.”
Nicola Yates, CEO at Connected Places Catapult says “The NCPI programme is focused on our ability to bring together data from the physical world and deliver clear understanding in digital form through connected digital twins, robotics and metaverse innovations. We have the principles and foundations – with relevance across the built environment and further – and move forward with a strong mandate to combine knowledge and expertise to enable an ecosystem that will fast-track digital technology, boost economic growth and create a better world.”
Katherine Bennett, CEO at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult says “The National Cyber-Physical Infrastructure initiative is a great opportunity for interested organisations to come together to solve challenges that exist across sectors. Our world is changing and taking physical data to build digital solutions is critical to our national competitiveness. Through greater collaboration and knowledge sharing we will unlock innovation and develop guidance that will help organisations of all sizes to benefit.
NCPI on the Digital Twin Hub
The NCPI programme will have a home on the DT Hub, fully accessible to members. Watch this space!
The Cyber-Physical Future Forum is by invitation for in-person attendance due to venue size.
You can join us online.
CReDo Phase 2 final report: Developing decision-support use cases
The Phase 2 final report sets out the groundwork for CReDo to develop as a decision-support and cost-benefit analysis tool for the strategic resilience planning use case. In summary:
CReDo can be a helpful decision-support tool for asset operators and regulators
CReDo brings together data from different infrastructure asset operators to model the impact of extreme weather events, taking account of interdependencies within and across infrastructure boundaries. CReDo can be used by asset operators and regulators to make more informed decisions about where best to take action for the benefit of the infrastructure system as a whole (a so-called ‘connected approach’).
In Phase 1, we designed an economic evaluation methodology to simulate the potential net benefits of CReDo’s strategic resilience planning use case. We found that CReDo, as a connected digital twin, had the potential to bring a range of benefits to asset operators, their customers and wider society by enabling asset operators to identify cross-network dependencies and pool their strategic investments.
The current phase of CReDo (Phase 2) has contributed to the development of CReDo as a decision-support tool by identifying cross-network interdependencies and where coordinated investments across asset operators can achieve a given level of resilience at lower cost.
In Phase 2, CReDo has developed to better reflect realities facing asset operators
During Phase 2 of the project, we focused on developing CReDo to better reflect the realities facing asset operators. Real asset data from UK Power Networks, Anglian Water Group and BT Group was used to characterise the current resilience properties of their networks, including the costs of asset failures to their business and customers, and to reflect the incremental measures that they could undertake at the asset level to improve resilience. We then applied the economic evaluation methodology developed in Phase 1 to this data and compared the potential net benefits of different resilience strategies, from both an individual operator perspective and a system perspective. This economic evaluation is based on a set of cost models that quantify the benefits of avoiding flood-induced asset failures for infrastructure owners, customers and wider society.
The outputs from Phase 2 could help overcome coordination challenges for resilience planning
One of the key outputs from this phase of work is the CReDo measure of ‘asset criticality’. CReDo estimates the criticality of individual assets from a system perspective and an individual ‘siloed’ asset operator perspective by taking account of the total economic costs that are incurred if the asset fails as a result of direct flooding or cascading failures from other assets, whilst also accounting for existing levels of resilience in the system. This measure illustrates where and how a connected approach is likely to add value when making strategic investment decisions, compared to a world where asset operators make those decisions independently of one another. Other outputs from this phase include identifying the pathways of cascading asset outages and the budget impact of resilience investments.
We simulated a case study flood scenario in East England as an illustration of the outputs that CReDo is able to produce
To demonstrate the current decision-support functionality of CReDo, we simulated the impact of different investment decisions for a flood scenario in an area within the East of England. This case study showed that asset operators may prioritise interventions differently depending on their assessment of the criticality of their assets for their networks compared to the criticality of their assets for the system. In particular, we found that a connected approach to system planning can lead to better economic outcomes for a given level of resilience investment, as the system view can identify interventions with larger net benefits by prioritising assets with greater system criticality.
This phase of work also identified further ways that CReDo can add value to decision makers
This phase of work also identified further ways that CReDo can add value to decision-makers. For example, in the future, CReDo may be able to run numerous flood scenarios for a given intervention strategy and approximate the overall expected net benefits of that investment. Additionally, future phases may consider operational response measures, such as rediverting network flows or deploying mobile resources to affected areas, by incorporating inputs such as average response times, site access and other operational factors.
Download this report to read in full.
Read more about CReDo
The CReDo Phase 2 final report has been prepared for the project by Frontier Economics.
Join the Digital Revolution: Innovate UK Seeks Public Input for International Collaboration on Digital Twins.
Innovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency is embarking on an exciting new initiative to accelerate the development of digital twins around the world. (Digital twins are a model of an asset or a system with a two-way information flow).
To ensure the success of this venture, Innovate UK is reaching out to the public to gather valuable insights through a comprehensive survey. By participating in this survey, you will have the opportunity to shape the future of digital twin innovation and contribute to international collaboration efforts.
Innovate UK recognises the importance of international collaboration in driving innovation and ensuring that digital twin technology benefits people across the globe. By expanding their collaboration efforts, Innovate UK aims to foster partnerships and knowledge exchange among countries to unlock the full potential of digital twins.
Your input is crucial in helping Innovate UK identify the countries and areas where collaboration is most needed for digital twin innovation. By completing the survey, you will provide valuable insights that will guide Innovate UK in deciding the focus areas and countries for collaboration. This is your chance to make an impact and contribute to the development of innovative solutions that can positively transform industries and societies.
Have your say by simply clicking the link below and completing the survey. Don’t miss this chance to shape the future of digital twins international collaboration.
https://iuk.ktn-uk.org/news/join-the-digital-revolution-innovate-uk-seeks-public-input-for-international-collaboration-on-digital-twins/
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The Digital Twin Hub and Connected Places Catapult would like to pass on their thanks to all the featured organisations contributing to the latest Gemini Calls, 18 Apr 2023 - 8 Aug 2023. We appreciate the community's support, which helped us achieve some impressive milestones:
We had over 1800 total live views this season, 530+ unique viewers, and an average of 121 attendees per call. We were fortunate to have had digital twin related presentations from 34 different presenters who came from 28 companies that ranged in sector and country representation.
Thank you to all the Gemini Call speakers for their wonderful contributions this season. Eloise Thatcher, Andy Moore, Dave Gregory, Ellis D., Justin Buck, Nigel Walley, João Barros, Taco Engelaar, Andy Graham, Darren Capes FIET FIHE, Jon Wade, Melissa Zanocco OBE, Ali Nicholl, Beatrice Nassi, Oliver Mellor, MEng MBA, Andreas Mårtensson, Christopher Jackson, Jamie Smith, Nicolas Le Glatin, Maxence Coffin, Bruno Kocher, Steven Coates, John D Holden, Martin Harrington, Ed Lewis, Mark Sage, Matt Webb, Michael Avant-Smith, John Adams, Daniel Block, Peter Slater, Toby Mills, Yalena Coleman
We’re kicking off the new Gemini Call season on Tuesday (5 Sept 2023) at 10:30 BST. If you are interested in learning more or joining an upcoming Call, look no further than the Gemini Call Network
If you or your organisation has a digital twin related presentation that you would like to share with the Digital Twin Hub community, let us know by filling out this form
Over 900 guests joined the Connected Digital Twins Summit either in person or online to hear industry specialists discuss latest developments, new technologies and next steps.
Connected digital twins offer excellent opportunities to improve the delivery of infrastructure construction and maintenance through a variety of technology platforms, we heard at the Summit. But they also promise improved interactions between industry stakeholders and a better chance of engaging with the public positively over new proposals.
“By placing people at the centre, we can design and optimise systems to meet the needs of the individual,” said Dr Alison Vincent, the Chair of the Digital Twin Hub’s Strategic Board and a Non-Executive Director of Connected Places Catapult, in a keynote address to delegates at the Connected Digital Twins Summit.
“The result is a more open and collaborative digital twin ecosystem for the good of everyone, helping to improve health and wellbeing, mobility, access to essential resources, and economic opportunity.”
Platforms like the Digital Twin Hub, continued Alison, “have a role to play in bringing together people and expertise to focus on connecting digital twins, and to make sure the latest tools, guidance and programmes meet the needs of our communities.
“We are driven by our motto ‘learning through sharing and progressing by doing’ and our desire is to be the world-leading, go-to resource on digital twins. We aim to boost the strength of understanding and knowhow in the community with the drive and passion to innovate.”
The Connected Digital Twins Summit was opened by Transport Technology and Decarbonisation Minister, Jesse Norman who launched the Transport Research and Innovation Board online Transport Digital Twin Vision and Roadmap to 2035.
In addition, a new partnership with Cranfield University was announced to launch a CPD course in digital twin skills in October.
Providing the public with compelling stories
Several speakers throughout the day echoed the sentiments of Dr Alison Vincent around the need to use digital twins to bring people together.
Janet Greenwood, the Director of KPMG’s Infrastructure Advisory Group said that digital twins “have a massive role to play, particularly around storytelling” when it comes to explaining new proposals for the built environment for the benefit of the general public.
“What we are facing in the future are massive environmental and social changes. Being able to articulate a future vision and set out possible interventions to mitigate risks and make the most of opportunities are where digital twins have a key role.”
Janet later said that digital twins can help people to imagine what a future vision for an infrastructure development would look like, adding: “It is incumbent upon us as industry experts to be able to articulate a future vision.”
During a later session on digital skills and building capability within the DT Hub Working Group, Anglian Water Services’ Chief Data Officer, Matt Edwards spoke of the need to better communicate digital goals within organisations.
“Storytelling is such an important skill in our world, to help build business cases,” he said. “What we would really like to do is create guidance that helps any number of organisations learn how to become more comfortable communicating about opportunities through digital twins.”
Effective communication around the importance of using digital twins, he added, can help to “drive digital investment and engage the workforce at all levels. It is our job as leaders to make it happen.
“We are missing a trick if we aren’t showing business communities the art of the possible and showing them a window on the future.” Digital twin storytelling, added Matt, is about “making the narrative and the technologies accessible”.
Another advocate of promoting digital twins more thoroughly was Melissa Zanocco OBE of the Infrastructure Client Group and Co-Chair of the DT Hub Community Council. She told the Summit: “The power of storytelling is just as important as the digital skills. It is about being able to win hearts and minds and put everything into a language that others can understand.”
She added that digital professionals need to ensure they can “talk boardroom language, so that board-level people have the right information to make the decisions they need.”
Digital Twin Hub Director, Justin Anderson spoke of the group “fostering a collaborative space for members to exchange knowledge about digital twins and creating safe spaces to share knowledge about digital twins.
“Our role involves chronicling insights from various sources like community calls, work groups and panel discussions,” he said. “All of these insights are freely distributed among our members, creating a well-stocked repository of valuable resources.”
World Bank Senior Consultant and GeoEnable Director, Steven Eglinton agreed. “Communication is absolutely the single biggest thing for me.” People, he added, have varied skill sets and expertise about how to implement digital technology for infrastructure. “How we use digital twins incrementally will be the challenging part.” Connecting digital twins together, Steven added, promises to bring people together too.
Delegates to the Summit also heard from Innovate UK’s Head of Digital Twins, Simon Hart who spoke about six new cyber-physical infrastructure projects to accelerate innovation in the UK. He encouraged SMEs to engage with Innovate UK’s new ‘Innovation Hub’ and a newly launched ‘Moonshots for the UK’ initiative. Simon asked the audience to submit ideas for ‘moonshot’ projects that could help to accelerate research and development in the UK around digital twins. “We want to hear from the public if they have identified any gaps,” he said.
Transparency is the new gold
During another session on unleashing the power of connected twins, Kjell Eriksson of DNV remarked that while many people see ‘data as the new gold’, “maybe moving forwards transparency is the new gold”. In future, he added, “there will be increased demand for sharing what is going on”.
Fellow panellist Miranda Sharp of Metis Digital added: “The definition of transparency has moved. If you are not sharing data and if you regard it as ‘gold’ and maintain it in your organisation alone, it does nothing but attract cost. So people who are able to share data effectively will create more value than those who hoard it.”
Miranda added: “We are all learning together, and there isn’t going to be one big winner in this space.”
She spoke about the challenge of adopting a digital twin approach: “We are doing fantastic research and collecting some interesting use cases, but if all we do is collect a whole host of isolated digital twins that are unconnectable, we will have failed in both a technical and social way.”
Fujitsu UK’s Centre for Cognitive Advanced Technologies’ Managing Director, Keith Dear remarked that digital twins could become “as profound a revolution as to how we interact with information as the introduction of the internet, and that will need a business model that doesn't yet exist".
Also at the event, Sarah Hayes, Engagement Lead for the Climate Resilience Demonstrator digital twin project CReDo remarked that climate change is the biggest challenge we face, but that we are not ready for extreme weather events caused by climate change.
However, she said that sharing data and collaboration across sectors will help to increase the resilience of critical infrastructure in response to climate change.
Sarah set out three industry challenges: the co-ordinated understanding of infrastructure interdependencies; data sharing across sectors; and co-ordinated strategic resilience planning and investment.
“This is all part of our journey towards connected digital twins, so we can share data through some sort of ecosystem distributed architecture we all need to develop," she said.
Discover more about the Summit, videos, podcasts and more.
The use of digital twin technology has the potential to transform the UK transport sector to deliver better outcomes for the user, more reliable cross modal services, and advance the transition to net zero. There is a need to better coordinate research, development and investment in digital twin technology.
The Transport Research and Innovation Board (TRIB) has therefore awarded Connected Places Catapult (CPC) a grant to develop a shared 2035 Vision and Roadmap. This TRIB-commissioned 2035 vision aims to drive a common understanding of the potential value of federated network of transport digital twins, and the roadmap sets out a prioritised list of activities required to achieve this.
Overview and Aims of the Transport Digital Twin Vision and Roadmap
The Transport Vision and Roadmap outlines the activities that TRIB members and other broader stakeholders need to take to focus investment, drive coordination, address skills gaps and align research, development, and innovation in transport. There are many definitions of digital twins, but the UK’s National Digital Twin Programme defines a digital twin as a digital model with real- or right-time two-way information flows, enabling the implementation of autonomous decision making. This can provide autonomous optimisation, and remote and autonomous operation.
Federated networks of digital twins can play a key role in supporting TRIB members and the wider transport sector to realise ambitious targets for transitioning to net zero, improving the user experience, increasing resiliency, furthering safety, and accelerating innovation. For example, the roadmap could drive an improved understanding of the opportunities digital twins offer on decarbonisation, with insights from transport use cases informing long term strategic decisions for zero carbon solutions.
This shared Vision and Roadmap is intended to support TRIB members, government, wider industry and academia to work together effectively and efficiently on the future development of digital twins. The 2035 Vision is therefore accompanied by 2025 and 2030 visions. The roadmap provides timelines and key activities, mapped to outputs and outcomes.
Read about the Vision
Potential Benefits of Connected Digital Twins in Transport
Using digital twins as a tool to improve our knowledge of transport system infrastructure and operations will allow the transport system to be better modelled, understood, and simulated. This deeper understanding can in turn create financial and time efficiencies in solution identification, design, and implementation of new products. The operational, environmental and safety predictions that can be made based on the resulting insights can inform the introduction of new and enhanced modes across the transportation sector. New opportunities to explore data standardisation will also enable efficient data sharing across asset owners and operators.
View the Roadmap
Our Shared Understanding: a circular economy in the built environment unites the industry for a sustainable future, where we live within our planet’s capacity to provide resources and handle waste.
With contributions from over 100 industry leaders from across more than 80 organisations, it sets out why all sectors and disciplines must work together to enable a circular economy in the built environment. This global effort is in recognition that we will not stop exceeding the limits of our finite planet without a common goal and coordinated action.
Our Shared Understanding brings together the best thinking from both the circular economy and built environment communities to identify the core concepts that will guide the transition to a circular economy.
It calls for collective action to put circular principles at the heart of how we design, manage, build and use our existing buildings and infrastructure. This will have a significant impact on addressing our global systemic challenges, such as achieving net zero emissions, providing climate resilience, protecting biodiversity, and enabling social equity.
Visit the website and read Our Shared Understanding
For further information please contact, Melissa Zanocco contact@circularbuiltenvironment.com
The DT Hub has collaborated with the Open Data Institute (ODI) to create a suite of online learning resources focusing on data and digital twins.
With connected digital twins becoming an even more important tool to overcome shared challenges, it is vital that we work together to fulfil their potential built on a strong foundation of the ethical considerations arising from the Gemini Principles, and the vision and roadmap towards an ecosystem of digital twins explored in the Gemini Papers. This online learning course seeks to provide a greater understanding of the challenges and ethics of Data and Digital Twins with these principles in mind.
These resources are designed to help unlock the full value of data in the digital twins ecosystem through 6 modules:
Module 1
The data landscape and connected digital twins
Module 2
Maximising reuse of data through licensing and sharing
Module 3
Working with data from third party sources
Module 4
What makes data interoperable?
Module 5
Applying data ethics
Module 6
Ethics and personal data
Each module has been designed to provide key information on different areas around the use of data, both generally and specifically applied to digital twins. Real-world examples and case studies provide useful context for the concepts covered throughout the course.
You can either follow the resources in order or take each module according to your order of preference, testing your understanding of each topic along the way. Your progress between modules will be saved, so feel free to dip into the resources in bite-size sessions.
To begin your 'Realising the potential of digital twins' online learning journey, click here.
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Together, we made the inaugural Connected Digital Twins Summit a huge success.
The Summit convened over 900 attendees including senior-level policymakers, corporate asset owners, solution providers, academics, and investors. From the Ministerial Address by Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP (Minister of State for Transport, UK) through to the stellar line-up of keynotes, SME showcases and immersive case studies demonstrating the power and ROI of digital twins in different contexts – we had it all!
A date for your diary - Thursday 20 June 2024 - we look forward to seeing you next year!
In figures
900+ community attendees
67 industry speakers
27 event partners
8 new case studies exploring wider industry applications of digital twins
6 new online learning modules launched to help build understanding and capability
4 live/immersive demonstrations from solution providers in the ecosystem
3 streams of content
Ministerial Address by Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP (Minister of State for Transport, UK) to announce a Transport Vision and Roadmap to 2035 enabling a trusted ecosystem of connected digital twins for multi-modal UK transport networks.
Watch out for our full collection of videos and other media from the event - coming very soon.
Catapult_Digital_Twin_Summit_dhzkua.mp4
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Optimising traffic flows, providing live updates on EV chargers, and reducing infrastructure maintenance are just three ways in which digital twins are revolutionising transport. Transport Minister Jesse Norman, today unveiled a Vision and Roadmap to align efforts and supercharge this revolution.
22.06.23, LONDON, In his keynote speech at the inaugural Connected Digital Twins Summit, hosted by Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and place leadership, and the Digital Twin Hub, the UK’s Transport Technology and Decarbonisation Minister launched the TRIB Transport Digital Twin Vision and Roadmap to 2035. The Vision and Roadmap were developed by the Catapult for the Department for Transport’s Transport Research and Innovation Board (TRIB).
The Roadmap sets out a series of activities to 2035 that key stakeholders within the transport ecosystem need to undertake. The roadmap details the steps required to deliver the vision for connected digital twins across four key areas: strategy and innovation; enabling environment; people, skills and culture; and technology and data. It will be a tool for engagement and alignment around common strategic priorities.
The Roadmap’s accompanying Vision aims to:
“Enable a trusted ecosystem of connected digital twins for multi-modal UK transport networks. This will facilitate effective decision making to optimise solutions and deliver efficient, safe, and environmentally conscious mobility for people and goods.”
Federated networks of digital twins can play a key role in supporting the UK transport sector to realise the government’s ambitious targets for achieving net zero, improving the user experience and growing the digital economy throughout the country. Networks of Digital Twins can increase resilience, improve safety, accelerate innovation and improve collaboration with the transport sector. The potential value of technologies like digital twins, AI and robotics increases as they start to converge to form a cyber-physical infrastructure where new products and services can be developed which can lead to the seamless connection of autonomous vehicles and transport.
Research from McKinsey Digital, published last year, shows that 70% of C-suite technology executives at large enterprises are already exploring and investing in digital twins, with market research firm Markets and Markets estimating digital twin investments of more than $48 billion by 2026.
As part of the Vision and Roadmap, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology sponsored six innovative SMEs to develop use cases, illustrating the ways in which digital twin technology can provide value to the transport sector, including:
Slingshot Simulations, which has developed a digital twin called Compass Engine to predict the impact of introducing changes to the highway network in urban areas, such as closing certain roads to reduce emissions
Digilab is building a digital twin called twinAir which monitors air pollution from road traffic in real time. The company has created what it calls a ‘physics informed surrogate’ for the city of Exeter that collects air quality data from the roadside. It then scales this information to provide a more accurate picture of traffic related pollution right across the city.
OpenSpace is helping railway station operators harness digital twins to put passengers at the heart of decision-making. Its digital twin solution fuses real-time passenger detection, virtual spaces, analytics and visualisation to provide intelligence to help boost the customer experience, increase revenues and reduce costs.
In his keynote speech, Minister Norman also announced the winners of the UKRI competition to select a Research Leader for Digital Twins to Decarbonise Transport. These include Professors Philip Greening of Heriot-Watt University and David Flynn of the University of Glasgow with their TransiT project, who will now work with stakeholders to the create a proposal for a national research hub that, if successful, will be supported by a UKRI investment of up to £20m over five years.
Transport Technology and Decarbonisation Minister Jesse Norman said:
"The UK is a global leader in transport technology partnering with industry.
“The Vision and Roadmap for Digital Twins shows how the Department for Transport is supporting innovative digital twin technologies for a cleaner, greener and more efficient transport system.”
Paul Wilson, Chief Business Officer at Connected Places Catapult and member of the Transport Research and Innovation Board, said:
“Connected digital twins are well placed to deliver significant economic, social and environmental impact and drive the UK as a science and technology superpower.
“This roadmap shows how we can go from pockets of excellence with this technology, to wider implementation across our towns and cities. Only then will we be able to realise this technology’s potential to deliver greener, multi-modal transport at scale.”
To view the TRIB roadmap and vision, you can use the following link: Transport Research and Innovation Board - Vision and Roadmap and 2035
We’re delighted to announce that Decarbonisation and Technology Minister, The Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP will launch the Transport Research and Innovation Board’s online Vision and Roadmap to 2035 at the Connected Digital Twins Summit on Thursday 22 June 2023. The Minister’s attendance will underline the government’s priority to back advanced technologies that can deliver decarbonisation and improve services.
The Connected Digital Twins Summit brings together policy makers, asset owners, solution providers, academics and investors to exchange perspectives on the value of connected digital twins. They will hear about the latest outputs and tools for collaboration across industries; explore digital twin applications across sectors; share views on barriers to connecting digital twins; learn how to assess ROI and empower business decisions and network with the digital twin community.
Register to watch the Minister’s launch and take part in the event online: https://lnkd.in/eYvYsTaD
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We're delighted to welcome Justin Anderson as he begins his role as Director of the Digital Twin Hub at Connected Places Catapult.
Justin is dedicated to fulfilling the DT Hub's mission by aligning and amplifying the #digitaltwin ecosystem and accelerating adoption of innovative solutions to address system-level challenges.
Prior to his role at the DT Hub, Justin served as the Global Head of Technology, Centre of Excellence at KPMG International, where he was responsible for assessing the impact of technology on various industries, supporting the company's #digitaltransformation programme, and providing training on #emergingtechnologies to a global team of 80,000 consultants.
His passion for technology and its intersection with policy, business, and society is evident in his establishment of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence, which serves as the authoritative voice within UK Parliament on all matters related to #AI.
Justin has played a key role in developing BSI PAS 212, a standard for #datainteroperability that has been widely adopted in #SmartCity programmes worldwide. He also serves as a member of the BSI Innovation Committee, contributing his expertise to further advancements in #technology and #innovation.
Justin says 'I am delighted to assume and announce stewardship of the Digital Twin Hub; an inclusive, diverse, international ecosystem addressing knotty and societal-level challenges.'
We're looking forward to learning more about his vision. Look out for an update, coming very soon.
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The Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) project has been awarded close to £1m to investigate the effects of extreme heat on water infrastructure and offer solutions.
Connected Places Catapult and partners involved in the Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) programme are among the winners of a Water Breakthrough Challenge announced today by the water regulator Ofwat.
The project – designed to show the benefits of using connected digital twins to improve infrastructure resilience – has been awarded £913,000 and is one of 16 solutions sharing a fund worth £40 million.
Ofwat’s innovation competition aims to find solutions with the potential to deliver transformational change at scale around challenges such as achieving net zero, protecting natural ecosystems and reducing leakage.
CReDo will work alongside the water industry to help build resilience into infrastructure assets, focusing in particular on addressing the impact of extreme heat on water networks.
Connected Places Catapult’s Ecosystem Director for Integrated Infrastructure, Chris Jones says: “This crucial funding will help infrastructure providers to better understand how extreme heat affects their assets, so that timely investments can be made to improve resilience.”
Partners in the Water Breakthrough Challenge award include Anglian Water, CMCL Innovations, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (part of UKRI), UK Power Networks, United Utilities Group, Affinity Water Limited and a number of universities.
“One aim of CReDo is for water and associated infrastructure to become more resilient to a changing climate,” Chris adds. “Our models help to find where the weak points are, and identify how they affect interdependent infrastructure, such as power networks.”
Ofwat Chief Executive David Black said: “The water sector has faced mounting pressure over systemic challenges related to the environment and society, while the climate around us continues to drastically change shape. That’s why we’re funding ground-breaking innovations with potential to help us save and reuse water and wastewater products, while supporting wider society.”
Find out more about CReDo.
The Gemini Call is a vital part of the Digital Twin Hub, and we are excited to have concluded our 2023 Spring season, 10/1/23-28/3/23. With the support of the DT Hub Community, we were able to achieve some impressive milestones:
425 people joined the Gemini Call with 61% of viewers attending multiple calls
Viewers from 24 different countries
We averaged 121 viewers per call, with over 1250 live views
We had presentations from 22 companies, featured in the attached image.
We have viewers from 31 different sectors with our largest sectors being:
Technology Sector
Education Sector
Tied for 3rd: Renewable Energy Sector, Electricity Sector, Construction Sector
Engineering Sector
Tied for 5th: Water Sector, Buildings Sector
The Digital Twin Hub operational team is constantly trying to improve the Gemini Call, so if you have any feedbacks or ways you believe we can improve the Gemini Call, please reach out to myself at john.holden@cp.catapult.org.uk.
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Join us at our Connected Digital Twins Summit Thursday 22 June 2023, 09:00-17:30
Why do we need to connect digital twins and what impact will this make?
Welcome to our Connected Digital Twins Summit – a unique opportunity for the digital twin community to showcase significant advances in connected digital twins both in and across different industry sectors.
We are delighted to announce that at 09:45am, Decarbonisation and Technology Minister, The Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP will launch the Transport Research and Innovation Board's online Vision and Roadmap to 2035. The Minister's attendance will underline the government's priority to back advanced technologies that can deliver decarbonisation and improve services.
We'll be streaming the event from Connected Places Catapult’s Urban Innovation Centre in London and featuring VIP keynotes, panel discussions, the Gemini Call live, interactive working groups, demo's and showcase of digital twin innovation from the Digital Twin Hub community.
The Connected Digital Twins Summit is bringing together policy makers, asset owners, solution providers, academics and investors to:
Explore digital twin technologies across multiple sectors
Learn about the latest outputs and tools to enable collaboration across industries
Share views on overcoming barriers to connecting digital twins
Discover how to assess ROI and empower business decisions
Network with community members to spark ideas and business opportunities.
The event will also introduce the DfT Transport and Innovation Board Programme and present a showcase of SME-led use cases for digital twins.
PROGRAMME
Stream 1
MAIN STAGE: How can connected digital twins address industry challenges?
Chaired by Henry Fenby-Taylor, Athenophilia
Explore how businesses are taking advantage of the numerous benefits offered by digital twins, and how can connecting virtual systems of physical assets inform better decision-making, creating impact for business and society.
09:25 - 09:30 Housekeeping and introduction to in-person delegates (Henry Fenby-Taylor, Athenophilia and DT Hub Community Council)
09:30 - 09:45 Welcome to everyone (Dr Alison Vincent, Chair, DT Hub Board and Justin Anderson, Director, DT Hub) 09:45– 10:00 Launch of the Transport Research and Innovation Board online Vision and Roadmap to 2035 (The Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP 10:00 – 10:25 Keynote: Why Connect Digital Twins? (Alison Vincent, Chair, DT Hub Strategic Board) 10:30 – 11:00 Networking and Exhibition 11:00 – 11:20 Cyber-Physical Infrastructure Challenges for Industry: Landscape review (Simon Hart, Head of Digital Twins and Cyberphysical Infrastructure, Innovate UK) 11:25 – 11:55 Panel: Breaking Through the Digital Divide: Conquering barriers and unleashing the power of connected twins (Chaired by Justin Anderson, Director of the Digital Twin Hub, Connected Places Catapult) with David Wagg, The Alan Turing Institute, Miranda Sharp, ODI/Metis Digital, Keith Dear, Fujitsu, Gemma Beard IOTICS and Kjell Eriksson, DNV) 12:00 – 12:25 Panel: Digital Twin Financing: The future of investment and the key to unlocking unprecedented asset value (Chaired by Mark Coates, Int. Director of Public Policy, Bentley Systems) with Steve Turner, Cities Commission for Climate Investment, Janet Greenwood, Infrastructure Advisory Group and Kjell Eriksson, DNV) 12:30 – 13:30 Lunch, Networking and Exhibition 13:30 – 15:00 Gemini Call Live (Hosted by Simon Evans, Global Digital Energy Leader, Arup), featuring DNV, CACI, OnePlan, IOTICS, Decision Lab, 1Spatial, Fujitsu and Advanced Infastructure) 15:05 – 15:30 Virtual Energy System - Decarbonising the energy sector with connected digital twins (Caroline Tortora, Head of Innovation and Digital Strategy, National Grid and Simon Evans, Global Digital Energy Leader, Arup and DT Hub Strategy Board) 15:30 – 16:00 Break 16:00 – 16:20 Climate Resilience Demonstrator (Sarah Hayes, Engagement Lead, CReDo) 16:20 – 16:40 Space, time and digital twins (Charles Kennelly, Chief Technology Officer, ESRI UK) 16:40 – 17:00 Fireside chat: Harnessing BIM to realise digital twins with Robert Bray, VP Global Marketing, Autodesk and Adam Matthews, Head of Strategy and Engagement, Digital Construction International) 17:00 – 17:10 Final Words (Alison Vincent, Chair, DT Hub and Justin Anderson, Director of Digital Twins, Connected Places Catapult)
Stream 2
SUPPORTING STAGE: How is the UK championing innovation in connected digital twins? Chaired by Chris Jones, Connected Places Catapult and Jonathan Eyre, High Value Manufacturing Catapult
Digital twin research and development and the journey towards a cyber-physical infrastructure. This session features key projects and programmes across the Catapult Network, UK Government, and UK research councils, to stimulate systems-level innovation nationally.
11:00 – 11:55 Transport Research and Innovation Board Programme: Overview and SME use case presentations (Wolfgang Schuster, Executive Director, Innovation and Yalena Coleman, Director of Applied Data and Technology, Connected Places Catapult. With OpenSpace, Evotrack, Slingshot Simulations) 12:00 – 12:25 Digital Operations and Maintenance Environment (DOME) for Offshore Wind (Ben George, General Manager, Humber, Offshore and Renewable Energy Catapult) 12:30 – 13:25 Lunch, Networking and Exhibition 13:30 – 14:05 High Value Manufacturing Catapult (Jonathan Eyre, Senior Technical Fellow for Digital Twins, Connected Places Catapult) 14:10 – 14:40 Energy Systems Catapult (Richard Dobson, Practice Manager, Data Systems, Energy Systems Catapult) 14:45 – 15:20 Unlocking the insight and value of a dynamic digital twin for the Fawley IMIC (Emma Hitchman, Head of Commercial Pursuits, Satellite Applications Catapult, David Bradley, Senior Associate Director of Asset Management Advisory and Peter Matthews-Dixon, Associate Director and Information Management Lead, Jacobs) 15:30 – 16:00 Networking and Exhibition 16:00 – 16:55 Interoperability Workshop (Justin Buck, Senior Marine Data Manager, British Oceanographic Data Centre with Anasol Pena-Rios, Research and Networks Strategy, BT Group, Sindu Manickam, Senior IIoT Technologist, Digital Catapult, Ben Ford, Technology and Innovation Manager-Operations, Network Rail and James Byrne, Research and Software Engineer, British Antarctic Survey)
Igloo immersive space experience (in-person only) See digital twins and connected systems in action using latest interactive technology, with TEKTowr, Royal HaskoningDHV, OnePlan and KPMG
Stream 3
AUDITORIUM: How our community is coming together to enable connected digital twins Interactive Training/Working Group Sessions Chaired by John Holden, Digital Twin Hub
Understand key issues, open standards and more through hands-on working groups with members from the Digital Twin Hub Strategic Board and Advisory Group. These sessions focus on specific areas of interest as identified by the Digital Twin Hub community.
11:00 – 11:25 Stimulating Innovation in Digital Twins through R&D Funding (Mark Gasgarth, Head of Digital Security and Resilience, EPSRC and DT Hub Advisory Group) 11:30 – 11:55 DT Hub Working Group: Governance Model and Trust (Anne-Marie Friel, Partner, Pinsent Masons, Sarah Cameron, Legal Director Pinsent Masons LLP, Joseph Otoo, Senior Legal Counsel and Associate Director, ARUP, Angela Baker, Data Assurance Programme Lead, ODI) 12:00 – 12:25 DT Hub Working Group: Open Standards and Interoperability (Ben Ford, Technology and Innovation Manager - Operations, Network Rail, Charles Kennelly, CTO, Esri UK, Mark Enzer, Vice Chair, Digital Twin Hub) 12:30 – 13:30 Lunch 13:30 – 14:05 DT Hub Working Group: Business Case and Demonstrating Value (Liz St Louis, Assistant Director of Smart Cities, Sunderland City Council, Davin Crowley Sweet, Chief Data Officer, Network Rail)
14:10 – 14:45 DT Hub Working Group: Digital Skills and Building Capability (Mark Coates, International Director of Public Policy, Bentley Systems and Matt Edwards, Chief Data Officer, Anglian Water Services) 14:50 – 15:25 Gemini Alliance: Shaping the future of digital innovation (Justin Anderson, Director, Digital Twin Hub, John Erkoyuncu, Professor of Digital Engineering and Head of CDEM, Cranfield University, Melissa Zanocco OBE, Infrastructure Client Group and Co-Chair, DT Hub Community Council and Stuart Pearson, ODI. 16:00 – 16:55 Interactive Training Session: Realising the potential of digital twins (David Tarrant, Academic Lead, Open Data Institute, Matt Edwards, Chief Data Officer, Anglian Water)
Learn more
Register to attend online via Airmeet
Commercial Partnerships brochure
Connected Digital Twins Summit_Commercial Partnerships Brochure (5).pdf
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Announcement
The government has published its response to the Cyber-Physical Infrastructure consultation, which explored the opportunities and challenges posed by the increasing interconnection of the cyber-physical systems, such as robotics and digital twins.
The response sets out how the UK could lead in the development of Cyber-Physical Infrastructure through its strength in cyber-physical systems and the leading role of innovators in the private sector, industry and academia, who will ultimately build CPI.
As part of this, the government is launching a £200,000 grant funding competition for an organisation or consortium to build a Cyber-Physical Infrastructure ecosystem capability to help advance the agenda and stimulate a diverse UK ecosystem. For more information and how to apply, see here.
Cyber-Physical Infrastructure Consultation response
The 2022 Cyber-Physical Infrastructure consultation response been published. It shows a strong endorsement for the Cyber-Physical Infrastructure agenda set out and outlines how the UK can lead in convergence of cyber-physical systems.
Read it on the DT Hub.
Read the UKRI blog on How we created cyber-physical infrastructure to catalyse innovation by Simon Hart, Head of Cyber-Physical and Digital Twins, Innovate UK
We're pleased to share the full recording of the Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) showcase event hosted at Connected Places Catapult on 7 March 2023.
Learn more about CReDo: What is CReDo?
Get involved in our next phase: CReDo Taking Action page
View the full Showcasing CReDo document here: Showcasing CReDo
Contact us: credo@cp.catapult.org.uk
The Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) team and project partners have launched a new film to show how a novel approach to cross-sector datasharing in a connected digital twin is key to safeguarding critical infrastructure as we tackle the effects of climate change.
CReDo is combining datasets from Anglian Water, BT and UK Power Networks into one system model to develop a cross-sector picture of impact of extreme weather events. It uses a distributed architecture to share data and insights across sectoral and organisational boundaries, demonstrating how we can safely collaborate on a national network of connected digital twins to create resilient infrastructure.
The UK’s critical national infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather and other effects of climate change, such as sea level rises. Major power outages, landslides onto roads, buckling train lines and flooding of infrastructure sites: these are all realistic scenarios, and can lead to cascading risks affecting other sectors. Different infrastructure sectors are highly interdependent, so the shutdown of one operator may cause knock-on effects for multiple sectors.
“Asset owners really need to know who they are dependent on – it’s crucial both for the integrity of assets but also for the service you give your customers. Understanding the risks in advance and how we can mitigate them is key.” Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge
The new film features Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge and Chair of the Adaptation Committee, along with David Riley, Head of Carbon Neutrality at Anglian Water, Paul O’Brien, Director of AI, Cybersecurity and Operations at BT and Barry Hatton, Director, Asset Management at UK Power Networks.
It shows how infrastructure owners can share information in a safe and secure way, allowing visibility of those aspects that help everyone to understand dependencies and make better decisions.
CReDo has been designed so that it can be extensible to other asset owners, new sectors, wider geographic regions and a range of extreme weather events. The wider benefit is that it improves overall resilience. Barry Hatton, UK Power Networks
The film, produced by Econ Films London, premiered at the CReDo showcase event on Tuesday 7 March 2023.
About CReDo
The CReDo project launched in November 2021 to create a proof-of-concept connected digital twin using shared data. The scenario was a severe storm causing surface water flooding across the energy, water and telecoms networks in a specific area. The CReDo digital twin looked at interdependencies across the infrastructure system and modelled when assets failed due to high water levels. It propagated knock-on failures through the combined system. The impact on primary and secondary assets and the cascade of resulting failures were captured in an interactive visualisation.
Phase two of the work is maturing the system into a working prototype that is scalable and extensible to new asset owners, larger geographical areas and new climate scenarios. It is using a distributed data architecture to maximise the data retained under an individual asset owner’s private systems and security. This opens the door for future collaboration with other digital and data initiatives, the co-development of standards and solutions and ultimately, connected intelligence through an interoperable digital ecosystem.
22 June 2023, 09:00-17:30 – hybrid event
Urban Innovation Centre, 1 Sekforde Street, London EC1R 0BE
UK and international Digital Twin Hub community members will convene to explore the latest cross-industry, business applications of digital twins that are creating impact and ROI.
Join 350+ senior-level policymakers, corporate asset owners, solution providers, academics, and investors to experience live demonstrations and interactive showcases, and gain access to new tools to enable business decisions.
Read our event brochure
Partnership opportunities
Please see our Connected Digital Twin Summit Commercial Partnership brochure below:
Connected Digital Twins Summit_Commercial Partnerships Brochure.pdf
The DT Hub is at this year's Futurebuild exhibition at the ExCel, London - come and find us on the Digital Stage! 13:30-14:15, Thursday 9 March 2023
Closing the gap between design and reality
Our exciting panel topic Digital twins... fake news for net zero features DT Hub Strategic Board members Melissa Zanocco, Mark Enzer and Simon Evans in lively discussion with Henry Fenby-Taylor about the practicalities of turning design ideas into reality, and the future impact of digital twins in the race to net zero.
The DT Hub is proud to present the best of the best when it comes to digital twins. This panel of industry experts will cover what we all want to know - whether digital twins are the answer and the significance of connected digital twins, community focused systems solutions, the circular economy and more.
We're also delighted to announce that 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗽𝘂𝗹𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗘𝗿𝗶𝗻 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗵 will be the host of the 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 on the day.
Find out more about our speakers and attend the session.
Look out too for Digital Twin Hub representatives at Futurebuild
Bola Abisogun, DT Hub Advisory Group, speaking on 7/3 at 10:30-11:15
Emilia Cardamone, DT Hub Advisory Group, speaking on 7/3 at 16:30-17:15
Dan Rossiter, DT Hub Community Council, speaking on 8/3 at 16:30-17:15
Sarah Hayes, CReDo speaking on 8/3 at 14:30
About Futurebuild
Better future for the built environment. As the industry’s premier event, Futurebuild provides the stage for inspiring ideas, innovative solutions and knowledge sharing to drive sustainable construction and help us reach our goal of net zero. The exhibition brings together the entire supply chain to showcase, debate and understand the advancements in sustainable construction and the emerging technologies that will make net zero possible. Futurebuild is about driving positive change. Click here to learn more about Futurebuild.
Sign up here!
The DT Hub is a Futurebuild partner for 2023.
Showcasing the Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo)
The Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) team recently welcomed the UK Parliament's Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy report Readiness for storms ahead? Critical national infrastructure in an age of climate change where the project was noted for its work looking at the impact of flooding on energy, water and telecoms networks. CReDo is combining datasets from Anglian Water, BT and UK Power Networks into one ‘system model’ to develop a cross-sector picture of extreme weather events on the infrastructure system. In bringing together data and insights across sectorial and organisational boundaries, the project shows how we can collaborate on a national network of connected digital twins to create resilient infrastructure. After a successful first phase, the CReDo team can't wait to take you through the latest activities and achievements.
Don't miss the CReDo Phase 2 webinar!
We would be delighted if you could join us online for the CReDo webinar Showcasing the Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) – Increasing climate resilience through cross-sector data sharing in a connected digital twin on Tuesday 7 March 2023 from 10:00-12:00.
This event runs in place of the usual Digital Twin Hub Gemini Call.
Digital twins and data sharing initiatives can face many challenges. We will be looking at:
How to break down data siloes for cross-sector data sharing and bring the data together in a way that is scalable and extensible to other organisations, sectors and regions
How to unlock the strategic use case for planning and investment in climate resilient infrastructure.
We'll also be running a live demo of the latest version of CReDo and showing clips of the new film. The CReDo team will be ready to answer your questions.
NEW Event programme
𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘀, Arup and DT Hub Strategic Board
𝘊𝘙𝘦𝘋𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝟤 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺: 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝗛𝗮𝘆𝗲𝘀 and 𝗟𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻, CReDo (Connected Places Catapult)
𝘊𝘙𝘦𝘋𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘴: 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝗦𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗼𝗻, Frontier Economics; 𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝘂, CReDo (Connected Places Catapult)
𝘛𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘶𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: 𝗝𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼 𝗔𝗰𝗸𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗱, CMCL Innovations
𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘘&𝘈: moderated by 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘀, with 𝗔𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿, Milestone Infrastructure; 𝗡𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗹 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗼𝗻, Northumbrian Water; 𝗝𝗶𝗺 𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗹, National Infrastructure Commission; 𝗧𝗼𝗺 𝗕𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗼𝘆𝗻𝗲, Anglian Water; 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁 𝗪𝗲𝗯𝗯, UK Power Networks; 𝗟𝗼𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗞𝗿𝘂𝗴, BT/Openreach; 𝗡𝗶𝗸𝗸𝗶 𝗩𝗮𝗻 𝗗𝗶𝗷𝗸, Mott MacDonald
𝘊𝘙𝘦𝘋𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱𝘴: 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗝𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀, Connected Places Catapult
𝘊𝘙𝘦𝘋𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘘&𝘈: moderated by 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘀, with 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝗛𝗮𝘆𝗲𝘀, 𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝘂 and 𝗟𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻, CReDo (Connected Places Catapult); plus 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝗦𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗼𝗻, Frontier Economics; 𝗝𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼 𝗔𝗰𝗸𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗱, CMCL Innovations; 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗝𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀, Connected Places Catapult
𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴: 𝗬𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻, Connected Places Catapult
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