Our Principles
The NDTP operates on a set of guiding principles that shape its approach, ensuring that its work delivers real-world benefits, aligns with national priorities, and resonates with stakeholders across government, industry, and academia.
During early 2023, the programme undertook extensive engagement to understand how best to deliver meaningful impact. Over 40 organisations, spanning the public and private sectors, academia, and industry, participated in these discussions. Through continuous engagement, collaboration, and feedback, a set of core principles was distilled — acting as the programme’s North Star in decision-making. These principles provide a consistent reference point, ensuring that every strategic decision and initiative remains aligned with the programme’s overarching mission and stakeholder needs.
They are divided into two groups – the first govern how the programme is run, and the second form the key development attributes which digital twins should be capable of delivering. These principles provide a consistent reference point, ensuring that every strategic decision and initiative remains aligned with the programme’s overarching mission and stakeholder needs.
The NDTP principles reflect key commitments to openness, inclusivity, collaboration, and value delivery. They guide not only the development of digital infrastructure resources and supporting frameworks and guidance, but also how the programme engages with partners, fosters innovation, and establishes governance structures for the future. These principles ensure that the NDTP remains adaptable, accountable, and focused on long-term sustainability as it continues to evolve.
The full set of NDTP Principles is outlined below:
- 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 page National Digital Twin and ownership of the artefacts developed, as well as establishing the future structures and models for their maintenance, management and evolution.
These principles continue to guide the NDTP’s approach, ensuring that digital twins are secure, scalable, and beneficial across all sectors. As the programme progresses, these commitments remain fundamental to shaping the future of digital twin adoption and interoperability in the UK.
Programme Overview
The NDTP is the centralised government-led effort committed to growing national capability in digital twinning technologies and processes throughout the country. This national commitment ensures alignment with the broader strategic imperatives of the UK Government.
A key purpose of the programme is to develop the standards, frameworks, guidelines, methodologies, and tools that will be critical for building the foundation of a functioning market in digital twins and creating a springboard for growth in this area. The programme will enable digital twins to be created that individually, and when connected, are appropriately safe, secure and trustworthy, as well as ethical. It will also ensure that digital twins can developed in a way that means they are interoperable, can adapted over time, and can developed, used and maintained in a way that is sustainable.
The programme recognises that it is essential that digital twins can be underpinned by technology and processes that are accessible to any organisation, whether from the public or private sector, irrespective of size. This will maximise the tangible benefits that digital twins can deliver, whether for business, society, government, or the environment.
What is a Digital Twin?
A digital twin is an extension of a virtual model of a real-world entity, environment or process, to include a right time two-way data flow into, and out of, the real world. This means that the digital twin mimics, in right time, its real-world counterpart in all aspects and can be used to assess functionality, degradation and impact.
These properties will allow decisions to be tested before they are implemented, and the implications and unintended consequences of different actions to be understood. This will enable optimisation of the performance and resilience of individual assets, processes and services, as well as that of the wider ecosystem.
A more detailed definition is available on the Resources page.
What is the National Digital Twin?
The National Digital Twin (NDT) will be an ecosystem of multi-domain, multi-sector digital models including digital twins, connected via securely shared, interoperable data and information of a known quality. It is not a single digital twin of the UK, rather it will allow users to bring together the information and models they require to answer specific user cases, subject to security controls to restrict access to sensitive information to those with a genuine need-to-know, and legal frameworks which specify how information can be used. The standards, guidance, frameworks, methodologies and tools developed by the NDTP will underpin and enable the creation of a NDT that encompasses the built and natural environment and the services provided by, or from them.
The NDT will amplify collaboration by encouraging the appropriate sharing of data, information and models, and supporting interoperability to unlock significant benefits and amplify data-driven decision-making capability.
History of the NDTP
2018
2018
Tranche 1
The NDTP was initiated in 2018 with funding from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which commissioned the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB) to develop the vision and principles for a National Digital Twin (Tranche 1).
At the end of March 2022, when Tranche 1 concluded, the programme was transitioned into direct government management to align more closely with national policy objectives. Following departmental restructuring in 2023, the NDTP became part of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), where it continues to be managed.
2022
2022
Tranche 2
Between April 2022 and March 2025 (Tranche 2) the NDTP’s focus shifted to developing initial capability through the first iteration of some of the guidance, frameworks and tools required to support the creation of an NDT. Over this time the NDTP has significantly evolved, focusing on:
- Developing and deploying the first version of the open-source Integration Architecture (IA) to enable trusted, secure, and interoperable data sharing.
- Expanding the Information Exchange Standard (IES) to facilitate interoperability across multiple sectors.
- Delivering demonstrator projects that test digital twin capabilities in real-world applications, including energy systems, infrastructure resilience, and emergency response.
- Strengthening engagement with industry, academia, and government, driving adoption and real-world implementation.
2025
2025
Tranche 3 – Current status
At the end of March 2025, the programme reached a critical phase as it came to the end of Tranche 2 and progressed into Tranche 3, with a strong focus on scaling and operationalising key components of the NDT. The current priorities include:
- Development of the IA Node Net (N2) as a cluster of deployed nodes under the control of a Management Node and the progression towards the National Node Net (N3) to enable multi-sector interoperability.
- Completing the operating frameworks (legal, security, safety, ethics, sustainability and commercial) essential for a fully functional NDT.
- Strengthening collaborations with critical government initiatives, such as the Virtual Energy System (VES) and Ministry of Defence’s Odyssey Programme, ensuring alignment with net zero, national security, and economic growth strategies.
2025
2025
Tranche 4 – Looking forward
Looking ahead, the NDTP will transition into its fourth and final Tranche in April 2030, which will last until March 2035. This phase will focus on wider adoption, implementation, and long-term governance. By the programme’s conclusion, a sustainable governance framework will be in place to ensure that digital twin technologies continue to drive economic, social, and environmental benefits for the UK well beyond 2035.
