Safe Digital Twins for the Built Environment

During this project, an “Idea Factory Event” focused on identifying cross-cutting research priorities and developing strategic roadmaps for addressing safety challenges in the development and deployment of digital twins in the built environment will be organized. While digital twins are increasingly being adopted across the conservation, construction, and infrastructure sectors, their safe implementation (ensuring accuracy, reliability, security, and resilience) remains an underexplored yet critical area. This event will provide a structured forum to convene researchers, industry practitioners, policymakers, and heritage stakeholders, fostering a holistic dialogue that captures both technical and societal dimensions of the problem.

The purpose of the event will be to (i) map existing and emerging risks in digital twin technologies, (ii) identify opportunities to harness advanced computational methods to mitigate those risks, and (iii) set out clear research and innovation roadmaps that can inform the safe and responsible adoption of digital twins in the UK. By leveraging the expertise of the University of Bath Institute for Policy Research, the event will ensure that outputs are framed in ways that resonate with policymakers, while the involvement of my research partner, Fergus Harradence, Deputy Director for Construction, Logistics, Airports & Water at the Department for Business and Trade, will ensure direct alignment with UK Government digital policies and strategies.

The CoSeC Fellowship funding is critical for making this initiative possible. It will enable the convening of a diverse, multi-sectoral audience and the creation of high-quality outputs (including a position paper or white paper) that can extend the impact of the research beyond the heritage conservation sector to the wider UK construction and infrastructure landscape. The Fellowship will also provide access to the CoSeC network and computational expertise, which will be invaluable in translating the insights generated at the event into concrete computational strategies. These may include the development of scalable simulation frameworks, data-driven models, and safety protocols for digital twins that can protect and optimise the management of both historic and modern assets.

By combining convening power, policy alignment, and computational expertise, this CoSeC Fellowship project will allow to advance the research agenda in two ways: (1) by embedding considerations of safety and resilience at the heart of digital twin research and development, and (2) by positioning this work within a national and cross-sectoral conversation that can shape future research investments and policy directions. In this way, the Fellowship will serve as a catalyst for both advancing computational approaches and contributing to the UK’s leadership in safe and sustainable digital innovation for the built environment.