Guidance

National Digital Twin Programme (NDTP) principles

Updated 12 January 2024

This document sets out the principles for how the National Digital Twin Programme (NDTP) is delivered. You should use these principles when contributing to the programme.

The NDTP will grow national capability to deliver digital twins, which will enable the delivery of measurable benefits.

NDTP principles

The NDTP will:

1. Deliver value demonstrated through measurable, tangible benefit

Iterative and incremental  approaches are used to deliver measurable benefits, aligned with national strategic priorities, which demonstrate how digital twins can enable faster and more informed decision-making processes, improve efficiency, and unlock value.

2. Develop and promote open, reusable assets, released incrementally

The programme commits to developing and promoting open-source reusable assets, released at regular intervals, and, in its role as the national programme, to fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation.

3. Promote a culture of honesty and transparency

The Programme is committed to a culture of honesty and transparency on its approach, progress and of the maturity of developing assets. It encourages dialogue and feedback to ensure alignment with user and industry requirements through continuous testing and refinement.

4. Prioritise accessibility and inclusivity

The programme seeks to ensure that digital twins are realistically deployable and useable by all organisations, irrespective of size, with low barriers to adoption to minimise disruption.

5. Bridge the digital skills and cultural gap

The programme supports skills and career development within the existing workforce and the next generation. It also facilitates the cultural change that will underpin the adoption of digital twins.

6. Establish the rules of the road

The programme is developing standards, guidance, frameworks, processes and tools that underpin the creation of individual and connected, federated digital twins that work at different scales. This will directly contribute to market opportunities for investment, export, and growth.

7. Establish strategic ownership and governance

The programme holds the responsibility for the direction of the National Digital Twin and ownership of the artefacts developed, as well as establishing the future structures and models for their maintenance, management and evolution.

Requirements your digital twins must follow

Digital twins, individually and when connected, must be:

1. Safe

Capable of maintaining the required state of relative freedom from threat or harm caused by random, unintentional acts or events.

2. Secure

Capable of maintaining the required state of relative freedom from threat or harm caused by deliberate, unwanted, hostile or malicious acts, delivering the appropriate and proportionate levels of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

3. Trustworthy

Able to provide sufficient confidence that the system is behaving as intended, with appropriate measures around transparency, accessibility, and control. Transparency of provenance and quality of the data and/or models will allow users to determine fitness for purpose in relation to their decision-making requirements.

4. Ethical

Adhere to, and promote, individual rights, privacy, non-discrimination, and non-manipulation.

5. Sustainable

Are affordable economically, socially and environmentally in terms of the resource consumed, at the point of development and over time.

6. Adaptable

Are robust and resilient - able to perform under both ordinary and unusual conditions, as well transform, renew and recover in a timely way in response to adverse events. These two aspects work in tandem to deliver reliability.

Extendable in use - allowing for extension, customisation, and flexible modularity, to accommodate diverse user needs and applications.

Extant - can be maintained, updated and supported throughout their lifecycle the ensure they are up-to-date, relevant, and available.

7. Interoperable

Able to be connected and integrated with various systems, technologies, and platforms, enabling exchange of data and information across without loss of quality.

Benefits you should measure your digital twins against

Benefits must be measurable and delivered to:

1. Business

Providing a robust, reliable, and accessible source of high-quality data and insights that will enable business to realise value in the immediate and longer term - facilitating timely decision-making, improved resource utilisation and cost reductions.

Facilitating the identification of market opportunities, further stimulating economic growth and resilience.

2. Government

Providing timely, data-driven insights to enable faster, more informed decision-making at all levels of government.

Increasing transparency, accountability, and efficiency of policy formulation through to operational management.

Becoming a critical component of the government’s strategy to position the United Kingdom as a global technology superpower.

3. Society

Improving public service delivery that benefits quality of life, health, safety, security and overall societal wellbeing by ensuring cross-sector access to information.

Empowering individuals to make more informed decisions.

4. Environment

Enabling improved management and preservation of both the natural and built environments to drive sustainability and resilience.

Providing insights into biodiversity, climate change, and natural resource usage, enabling evidence-based environmental stewardship.