Guidance

What a digital twin is and how you can contribute

Updated 12 January 2024

© Crown copyright 2024

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-a-digital-twin-is-and-how-you-can-contribute/what-a-digital-twin-is-and-how-you-can-contribute

1. What a digital twin is

A digital twin is a virtual model of an object, a system, or a process. It is connected to its real-world counterpart by a 2-way flow of right-time data, meaning it mimics it in all aspects. This helps us test decisions before we make them and understand how different actions might affect the real world. However, it is essential that at all times, the real-world counterpart is able to continue to operate safely and securely without its digital twin.

Digital twins have applications across all sectors, including:

  • water
  • energy
  • transport
  • health

2. What the National Digital Twin (NDT) is

The National Digital Twin (NDT) will not be a single digital twin of the UK. Instead, it will provide the mechanisms  that will allow people to bring together the information and models that they require to help answer specific problems or use cases. The NDT will be able to encompass  digital twins of the natural environment, the built environment and infrastructure, and the delivery of services.

The National Digital Twin Programme (NDTP) will develop and assemble the standards, guidance, frameworks, policies and tools that will support these mechanisms.  This will include security measures that control access to sensitive information.

3. NDTP mission

Our mission revolves around:

  • facilitating the collection, management, and sharing of data and information at the right time  and in a way that provides the appropriate level of trust, security and resilience

  • providing capabilities for visualisation and analysis of data and information to meet different user needs and support better decision-making

  • enabling digital twins to be developed and used in a way that is safe, secure, trustworthy, interoperable, adaptable, sustainable and ethical

  • promoting access to digital twinning technology and processes for organisations of all sizes, from all sectors

  • supporting the development of skills and a culture that will support  adoption of digital twin technologies and processes

4. Integration architecture (IA)

The NDTP is developing a solution that will support managing and sharing information across organisations. This IA combines technology and policy to allow the right information to be made available to the right people, at the right time. It also enables the user to understand the quality of the information they receive. This is important as it allows the user to decide whether the quality is appropriate for their need.

The IA is being developed to be open source. This means that any organisation wishing to take part in the NDT can deploy the IA with no expenditure for the software itself and can adapt and extend it as necessary without the original developer’s involvement. 

The IA will be a distributed system. This means each stakeholder can operate their own IA, called an IA node, which is able to share and consume data from other IA nodes. This will allow information to be assembled  from multiple relevant sources. This sharing will be controlled by legal frameworks and protected by security controls which limit access to sensitive information.

An NDT management node will manage node registration, catalogue data, and control the data standards and reference data used in the IA.

5. How you can get involved

Industries, companies, and individuals can participate in the NDTP in these ways:

  • partnership: work together on projects, regardless of the size of your company - your unique insights can help shape the future of digital twin technology
  • innovation: propose forward-thinking solutions or ideas that can improve the development or delivery of our demonstrator programme
  • participation: get involved in events, establish connections with other stakeholders and engage in discussions
  • advocacy: help raise awareness about the NDTP and its mission – this helps us bring in more contributors and partners

You can stay updated by attending events, engaging in consultations and checking the NDTP collection page for the latest news and opportunities.

You can contact us by emailing ndtp@businessandtrade.gov.uk.

Back to top