From vision to reality: digital twin 2025 conference & farming innovation funding opportunities

Exciting news for Digital Twin Hub members! We have two major announcements that bridge cutting-edge digital twin technology with real-world practice. First, mark your calendars for the UK Digital Twin 2025 Conference in Nottingham on 11–12 November 2025. Under the theme “From Vision to Reality,” this annual event will showcase how Digital Twin concepts are being translated into impact. Second, we highlight a new Defra Farming Innovation Programme competition – Small R&D Partnership Projects (Round 4) – aimed at driving net-zero, sustainable, and resilient UK agriculture. Both opportunities are tailored to practitioners like you in planning, engineering, infrastructure, local authorities, data/GIS and the agri-tech sector. Don’t miss these chances to innovate and collaborate!

Digital Twin 2025 Conference – Nov 11–12 in Nottingham

Nottingham is rising as a smart-city leader, and it hosts this year’s UK Digital Twin summit. Following two successful London editions, Digital Twin 2025 is moving to Nottingham – “a city rapidly emerging as a national leader in digital innovation”. Organised in partnership with Nottingham City Council, University of Nottingham, AGI-3D Network and others, the conference will spotlight Nottingham’s pioneering work applying digital twins to urban planning, infrastructure and sustainability.

We invite practitioners across smart cities and infrastructure – city planners, transport engineers, utilities experts, local authority leaders, GIS/data specialists, infrastructure managers and more – to attend. The conference offers two packed days of insight and networking:

• November 11 (Conference Day): Keynotes, panels and technical sessions featuring senior speakers from government, industry and academia. The agenda will explore the UK Government’s evolving Digital Twin strategy, showcase regional/global case studies and pilot projects, and highlight emerging technologies in smart cities and built environment. Expect to engage with central and local government leaders, industry pioneers (e.g. DfT, BGS, Esri) and cutting-edge demo projects.
• November 12 (Workshop Day): Two interactive workshops dive deep into transport and infrastructure themes:
  • “Digital Twinning and the Future of Transport Systems” (morning). Led by Dr. Christina Latsou (Cranfield University), this session will examine how digital twins can optimise transport networks and mobility systems.
  • “Cross-Sector Digital Twin Collaboration in Transport Infrastructure” (afternoon). Led by Ali Nicholl (Connected Places Catapult), this workshop will explore multi-stakeholder approaches to sharing data and models across agencies for smarter transport infrastructure.

These sessions are designed for hands-on learning and strategy in transport infrastructure, aligning with our theme of turning DT “vision to reality” through collaboration and technical know-how.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to connect with the UK’s digital twin community and learn from cutting-edge projects. Registration is open now – visit the conference agenda and registration page. (Digital Twin Hub members receive discounts via our partnership.)

Farming Innovation Programme – Apply for R&D Grants (Sept 15–Nov 5, 2025)

In parallel, innovative agri-tech projects have a funding opportunity. Defra (with Innovate UK) has opened Round 4 of the Small R&D Partnership competition under the Farming Innovation Programme. This grant competition (open 15 Sept to 5 Nov 2025) offers a £7.8 million pot to fund late-stage R&D projects (grant sizes £1–£3M, up to 30 months) that develop new farming products or services. The goal is to move agriculture toward net zero and greater sustainability – for example, by improving productivity and resilience in practical farm settings.

Key points for this competition:

• Timeline: Opens 15 September 2025; closes 5 November 2025 (11:00am).
• Budget: Up to £7.8M total grants for projects; individual project budgets of £1–3M, lasting up to 30 months.
• Focus Themes: Projects must target on-farm or land-management challenges. Solutions should improve overall productivity, sustainability and resilience in agriculture while moving sectors closer to net-zero emissions. Examples include precision farming technologies, agri-digital platforms, bioeconomy innovations (e.g. new feed or forage systems), agroforestry models, soil carbon capture, etc.
• Eligibility: Collaborative UK projects (consortia) only. The lead must be a UK business (of any size), and the project must include at least one small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) partner. Partners can include farmers, agri-tech companies, researchers or non-profits – all working together. Projects must carry out the work in the UK and aim to deliver commercial benefits to British agriculture.
• Who Should Apply: If your work involves agriculture, food supply chains, land management, bioeconomy or related fields, consider applying. Digital Twin Hub members working on agri-tech, rural planning, environmental monitoring, or precision agriculture (e.g. GIS-based crop modelling) are especially well placed. Digital twins and data-driven solutions can play a key role in modern farming – from digital soil models to smart irrigation – making this funding highly relevant to our community.

This is a rare opportunity for practitioner-driven innovation in UK farming. We encourage any members with agri-tech ideas or existing projects to apply before the deadline. For full details and to start your application, visit the official Farming Innovation competition page. (Check Innovate UK’s guidance notes for eligibility and scope.)

Get Involved!

Both the Digital Twin 2025 Conference and the Farming Innovation R&D competition offer practical pathways to turn concepts into real impact – whether building smarter cities or greener farms. We at the Digital Twin Hub are excited to champion these opportunities for our community of practitioners. Join us in Nottingham this November to network, learn and share your expertise on digital twins. And for our members in the agri-tech and rural infrastructure space, apply now to leverage Defra’s funding towards a smarter, net-zero farm future. Together, we can make the theme From Vision to Reality a reality for infrastructure and agriculture alike.