CDBB launches the Digital Twin Hub
The Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB) has launched the Digital Twin Hub (DT Hub), a new online community to promote best practice in digital twins for infrastructure and as a testbed for the Information Management Framework for the built environment to enable the future National Digital Twin.
CDBB’s DT Hub is a collaborative, web-enabled community for those who own, or who are developing digital twins within the built environment. Members will use the Gemini Principles and Information Management Framework as a shared foundation for digital twins. This balance between standardisation and innovation will enable industry to be aligned on standards but compete on delivery.
Digital twins can dramatically improve decision-making, performance and productivity in infrastructure. However, there is a risk that investments in Digital Twins will not align with market requirements and will not deliver the anticipated benefits. The DT Hub was set up on the principle of ‘learning by doing and progress through sharing’. Lessons learnt from early pilots and projects will feed into an evolving view of “what good looks like” and inform the need for future standards and guidance developed by the National Digital Twin Programme and its partners.
DT Hub activities, facilitated by BSI on behalf of CDBB, focus on collaboration between members, to gain greater understanding and catalyse progress towards realising the potential benefits of digital twins. It will capture and share what works well, and lessons learnt from early pilots and projects and then refine this thinking as it continues to be tested in real-world implementations.
Samuel Chorlton, DT Hub Chair said:
“A consensus view from industry of ‘what good looks like’ will help to de-risk investments and instill greater confidence to increase adoption. The DT Hub will take the first steps towards this through sharing of knowledge and lessons learnt that will inform the development.”
Mark Enzer, Chair of the National Digital Twin Programme said:
“The establishment of the DT Hub enables the growing National Digital Twin community to collaborate and communicate securely on the topic of connecting digital twins” “By working together, the DT Hub community will inform and shape not only the national, but also the global standard for connecting digital twins in infrastructure and create more efficient, more resilient and more sustainable systems that result in genuine public good.”
Scott Steedman, Director of Standards, BSI said:
“Digital twins are central to the transformation of the built environment, but success will depend on industry working together. The DT Hub has a vital role to play in fostering cross-sector collaboration, capturing insight, addressing common challenges, and shaping good practice that can lead to future digital twin standards. We’re delighted to be working with CDBB and the DT Hub members to facilitate the Hub.”
The DT Hub is funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy via InnovateUK. Pre-launch activity was supported by the Construction Innovation Hub with funding provided through the Government’s modern industrial strategy by Innovate UK, part of UK Research & Innovation.
The website https://digitaltwinhub.co.uk/ is now live.