TransiT - Digital Twinning Research Hub for Decarbonising Transport

Started

Energy Efficiency(Transport)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Geography and Environmental Studies)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Town and Country Planning)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Computer Science and Informatics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment)

Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Other Systems Analysis)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy

Dr P K Greening
Sch of Management and Languages
Heriot-Watt University

Standard

EPSRC

01 July 2024

30 June 2029

60 months

£20,332,443

Info. & commun. Technol.

Scotland

Digital Security and Resilience

Dr P K Greening, Sch of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University

Dr B Archibald, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow
Dr M Blaha, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University
Professor M Calder, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow
Professor D Cebon, Engineering, University of Cambridge
Professor DW Corne, Sch of Mathematical and Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University
Dr J M Easton, Electronic, Electrical and Computer Eng, University of Birmingham
Professor J Erkoyuncu, Sch of Aerospace, Transport & Manufac, Cranfield University
Dr M Farsi, Sch of Aerospace, Transport & Manufac, Cranfield University
Dr D Flynn, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
Dr A W Gripton, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University
Dr K Guruvayur Venkateswaran, University of Birmingham
Dr P Harvey, Aerospace Engineering, University of Glasgow
Dr M A Imran, Centre for Communication Systems Research (CCSR), University of Surrey
Dr C C Latsou, Sch of Aerospace, Transport & Manufac, Cranfield University
Dr T Lim, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
Dr GR Marsden, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds
Dr X Na, Engineering, University of Cambridge
Dr B Namoano, Sch of Aerospace, Transport & Manufac, Cranfield University
Dr KJ Pangbourne, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds
Dr D Pezaros, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow
Dr N Rehmatulla, Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources, University College London
Dr C Roberts, Electronic, Electrical and Computer Eng, University of Birmingham
Professor K Sang, Sch of Social Science, Heriot-Watt University
Dr C Searle, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University
Dr M Sevegnani, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow
Professor S Shepherd, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds
Dr T Smith, UCL Energy Institute, University College London
Dr A M A Taha, Aerospace Engineering, University of Glasgow
Dr C C Tealdi, Sch of Social Science, Heriot-Watt University
Dr Z Tian, Electronic, Electrical and Computer Eng, University of Birmingham
Dr D S Utomo, Sch of Social Science, Heriot-Watt University
Dr G H Walker, Sch of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University
Dr D Zhao, Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University

Our vision for the TransiT Hub is to harness the transformative power of Digital Twinning, and associated digital technologies, to solve the most pressing problems of our age - the rapid and radical decarbonisation of transport , holistically, across all modes - Road, Rail, Air and Maritime, and at a national scale. The TransiT Hub will create a new interdisciplinary challenge-led national digital twinning capability to deliver scalable solutions of the integration and decarbonisation of transport, providing the thought leadership and coordination it requires. This is an urgent response to the climate emergency that will advance understanding of a complex and adaptive system, reducing uncertainty and risk for time-critical investments into sustainable, ethical and affordable decarbonisation. It will be centred on expert problem articulation of the challenges, ensuring planners, operators, and policy makers, will use this new capability to deliver national transformation and realise good climate, economic and social outcomes across the stakeholder community, as well as providing a blueprint for other sectors. While past approaches utilised small-scale, real-world trials and progressive scale-up, the need for rapid transition to a low-carbon economy, combined with the increasingly complex interaction between transport modes precludes this approach. This situation is currently holding back private and public investment and risking the UK's leadership in tackling climate change. Scalable digital twinning offers a way of quickly assessing and narrowing the decarbonisation options for the complex whole transport system.To  realise our vision we will co-create 9 Federated Transport Digital Twins across modes and passenger/freight types, culminating in a Federated Transport System of Systems (FTSoS). These FTDTs will use novel capabilities to support the design, development, delivery and operation of a reliable, secure, resilient, inclusive, decarbonised transport system at lowest cost and delivering best value. We will use an active and agile learning-by-doing approach, that can adjust to stakeholders, withstand scrutiny, and feedback new knowledge to the next iteration.The creation of the FTSoS will address a new paradigm of Whole System Digital Twinning - bringing together, coordinating and extending existing DTs in the sector, delivering capabilities currently unachievable within siloed mode specific DTs. Our approach addresses the challenges in interoperability, security and resilience, human-centred design, data management, policy delivery, and new business models, whilst leveraging existing DTs, and Cyber Physical Infrastructure, and growing national digital twinning expertise and capability. This will be shared with, and benefit from, wider national DT programmes, including NDTP and Energy System DT (ENSIGN), and other strategic investments such as DARE and the EPSRC Transport DT Network+, as well as linking with representative bodies and collaborations such as DfT's TRIB and the DT Hub. The Hub will bring together seven distinguished higher education institutions, UofG, HW, UoL, UoB, CU, UoC and UCL that reflect a careful balance across modelling transport modes and the cross cutting themes essential for federated digital twinning including human factors, cyber security,  connectivity, policy, economics, and digital twinning tools. Furthermore, significant in kind support has been committed by external partners across government and industry partners, including the Department for Transport and over 40 organisations across the transport sector. Our foundational work will be explored through application focused use cases developed with our industrial and academic partners providing practical anchoring of the research; knowledge transfer through bi-directional secondments and the generation of evidence to support robust polic

14/08/24