WS2 Piloting Activities - Creation of LDTs Based on Common Needs
Brief Overview
This Work Strand focuses on supporting key policy scenarios and addressing common needs such as urban mobility, climate change mitigation, optimising energy grids, mitigating air pollution, managing waste, and enhancing water resource management. The aim is to help cities and communities develop new Local Digital Twins (LDTs) that directly respond to real urban challenges.
Key facts:
- 6–8 pilots will be selected
- Start of the pilots: May/November 2026
- Duration: 18 months
- Funding: 50% co-funding required
- Opening of Open Call 2: February 2026
- Opening of Open Call 3: May 2026
What is the goal?
- Build new LDTs around pressing policy priorities (mobility, climate, energy, environment, waste, water).
- Enable cities to model and manage infrastructure and services more effectively.
- Share and replicate solutions across communities facing similar challenges.
- Create a focused market for innovative solutions that have clear demand and impact.
Who Are We Looking For?
We invite applications from:
- Cities, municipalities, groups of municipalities, or regions seeking to develop new LDTs.
- Municipalities, groups of municipalities, or regions gathered around at least one common use case, who wish to solve a common challenge together.
- Technology providers, academic and research institutions ready to work with public authorities to ensure that solutions are scalable and replicable.
Minimum consortium composition:
- At least 2 public entities
- Plus 1 other partner from the following:
- Private entity (e.g., service provider)
- Private association (legal status)
- Trusted third party
- Representative of a use-case sector
WS2 Resources
This section provides a set of non-technical and technical resources that are directly targeted to the WS2 scope. These resources are designed to support pilots in preparing their proposals, planning their implementation, and ensuring compliance with interoperability and governance requirements.
Non-Technical Resources
| Title | Small Description | Source / Link | Thematic Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Digital Twin of the City of Zurich for Urban Planning | Offers a practical example of integrating 3D spatial data and digital twins into urban planning. By releasing 3D spatial data under Open Government Data, Zurich facilitates the development of applications and promotes understanding, aiding in collaborative decision-making. | Link | Local Digital Twins |
| Unravelling the Use of Digital Twins to Assist Decision- and Policy-Making in Smart Cities | Provides a systematic literature review that lays the foundation for developing frameworks to support decision-making in smart cities using digital twins. This can guide the design of LDTs by highlighting the role of digital twins in policy formulation and governance. | Link | Local Digital Twins |
| NN2NZ (North Northamptonshire to Net Zero) — Digital Twin Consortium Group | Showcases a regional initiative focused on achieving net-zero emissions through the application of digital twin technology. Engaging with such consortiums can provide insights into best practices, standards, and collaborative efforts. | Webinar link | Local Digital Twins |
Technical Resources
| Title | Small Description | Source / Link | Thematic Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simpl Open | An open-source software stack powering data spaces and cloud-to-edge federation initiatives. | Simpl Open | Data Spaces |
| Smart Data Models | Shared, standard and open-licensed data models & validation. | Website · GitHub | Interoperability MIMs |
| NGSI-LD | Information model and API for publishing, querying and subscribing to context information. | NGSI-LD | Interoperability MIMs |
| Stellio | NGSI-LD compliant context broker. | GitHub | Local Digital Twins (LDTs) |
| Scorpio | NGSI-LD compliant context broker. | GitHub | Local Digital Twins (LDTs) |
| Orion-LD | NGSI-LD compliant context broker. | GitHub | Local Digital Twins (LDTs) |
| Apache Kafka | Distributed event streaming for real-time data pipelines. | Kafka | Local Digital Twins (LDTs) |
| Apache Airflow | Orchestration platform for batch ETL, simulations, AI workflows. | Airflow | Local Digital Twins (LDTs) |