Digital Catapult > Get involved > Opportunities > Digital Twin Academic R&D Accelerator 2.0

Opportunity

Digital Twin Academic R&D Accelerator 2.0

Open date: Tuesday 8 September 2026 Close date: Tuesday 20 October 2026

Applications close

00 Days
00 Hours
00 Mins
00 Secs

Overview

Digital Twins have the potential to transform how complex systems are designed, operated and managed across the Maritime, Aerospace and Defence sectors and beyond. However, challenges around interoperability, data, security and trust continue to limit their adoption.

The Digital Twin Academic R&D Accelerator 2.0, delivered through the UK Digital Twin Centre, is an 11-month programme designed to turn academic research into practical outputs that can support real-world adoption of Digital Twin technologies. Building on the success of the previous accelerator, the programme brings together academic researchers, research and technology organisations and industry to address specific challenges and develop solutions with clear potential for application.

Successful applicants will have the opportunity to test and validate their research, develop demonstrable outputs and work with Digital Catapult experts and industry partners to move ideas from research towards practical impact.

Industry Challenges

Applicants must focus on one of two industry-defined challenges:

Challenge Area 1: Complex Live Digital Twin Interoperability

The challenge

Many Digital Twins continue to operate as isolated systems, relying on bespoke integrations and proprietary interfaces. As adoption grows, Digital Twins will need to exchange data, share services and collaborate across organisational and sector boundaries to support coordinated, near real-time decision-making.

This challenge explores how we can move towards connected, scalable and interoperable Digital Twin ecosystems.

What we’re looking for

Research that investigates new methods, architectures or technologies for connecting Digital Twins across technical, organisational and sector boundaries.

Areas of interest include

Federated Digital Twins
Semantic interoperability
Shared information models
Open standards
Real-time orchestration
Service integration
A2A communication
MCP-enabled Digital Twin services

Proposals should aim to demonstrate how multiple Digital Twins can work together to support a practical, end-to-end outcome.

Potential outputs

Projects could deliver demonstrators, reference architectures, open-source components, standards recommendations, technical methodologies or guidance that can be reused across the wider UK Digital Twin ecosystem.

Challenge Area 2: Digital Twins for Social Innovation

The challenge

Digital Twins have traditionally focused on physical assets, infrastructure and operational processes, with less consideration of the people, communities and organisations within these systems.

Complex challenges such as climate resilience, community wellbeing, public service transformation and place-based regeneration require participation, collaboration and collective decision-making. This challenge explores how Digital Twins can support these processes and create wider public value.

What we’re looking for

Research that explores how Digital Twins can become more human-centred, participatory and focused on social innovation. This could include approaches such as co-design, participatory design, service design, systems thinking and social innovation.

Projects could explore applications including

Participatory and community-centred Digital Twins
Public services
Climate and community resilience
Place-based innovation
Stakeholder collaboration
Collective intelligence
Responsible or inclusive Digital Twins.

Potential outputs

Projects could deliver new participatory approaches, frameworks, demonstrators, stakeholder engagement methodologies, public value assessment tools or reusable assets that show how Digital Twins can support collaboration, resilience, social innovation and positive societal outcomes.

Successful applications will receive up to £225,000 to conduct feasibility studies, product methodologies and develop a PoC to address one of these challenges.

Join the programme

APPLY NOW

Programme benefits

During the eleven month programme, participants will be supported by Digital Catapult and the UK Digital Twin Centre partners through:

Up to £225,000 funding

Access to the state of the art, UK Digital Twin Centre in Belfast

Support from Digital Catapult’s technology experts in our enabling technology areas

Opportunities to co-develop with industry, gaining access to real-world insights from the Maritime, Aerospace and Defence sectors

A platform to translate research into tangible impact, moving from theory to demonstrable, scalable innovation

Build cross-sector connections and accelerate the adoption of digital twin technologies

Who should apply?

We welcome applications from:

UK-based universities and research & technology organisations (RTOs)
Research groups working in Digital Twin related areas such as:
- AI and Machine Learning
- Data Science
- Cybersecurity
- Systems Integration
- Industrial engineering

Applicants should demonstrate:

Proven research excellence and technical capability
Ability to deliver practical demonstrable outputs, not just theoretical research
Projects must address a one of the specific challenges listed above
Projects must be executed in the UK (including Northern Ireland)