We are proud to announce that Answer Digital has been selected by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to deliver a critical phase of the National Digital Twin Programme (NDTP).

This new £1 million contract, running until April 2026, will see our team enhancing the Information Architecture (IA) that underpins the UK’s digital twin capabilities. This partnership represents a significant step forward in how the UK manages its built environment, moving from isolated data silos to a resilient, interconnected ecosystem.

Building the backbone of national infrastructure

The National Digital Twin Programme is not about building a single, massive 3D model of the UK. Instead, it aims to create an ecosystem of connected digital twins, virtual representations of assets, processes, and systems that can interact securely across traditional sector boundaries.

For this ecosystem to function, disparate twins, from energy grids and water networks to transport systems, need a standardised, secure, and scalable way to "talk" to one another. This is the role of the Information Architecture (IA).

Under this new contract, Answer Digital will be responsible for designing, developing, and deploying the services that make this architecture a reality. Our work will focus on:

• Enhancing IA Capabilities: Strengthening the technical framework that facilitates better decision-making through advanced data visualisation and analytics.
• Robust Security: Implementing the stringent security measures required for resilient information sharing across critical national sectors.
• Scalability: Ensuring the architecture can grow and adapt as more organisations adopt digital twin technology.

A commitment to open standards

Crucially, this initiative is driven by a commitment to democratising technology. The award notice explicitly highlights the need for an open-source solution that prevents vendor lock-in and encourages widespread adoption.

In accordance with Government Digital Service (GDS) advice, our team will contribute to the NDTP's goal of releasing as much of the developed codebase as possible under the MIT license.

By building an open, adaptable architecture, we are ensuring that organisations of all sizes can deploy, adapt, and extend these tools. This approach fosters a truly collaborative national ecosystem where innovation can flourish without technical barriers.

Why Answer Digital?

As a Leeds-based tech consultancy, we have a proven track record of delivering complex, data-driven transformation in the public sector. Our expertise in data engineering, software architecture, and interoperability positions us perfectly to support the DBT’s vision.

We understand that a Digital Twin is only as powerful as the data that feeds it. By strengthening the Information Architecture, we are helping to build a foundation that will allow the UK to optimise infrastructure performance, improve resilience, and drive economic growth.

"The Answer Digital team are hugely excited to work with the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) on a their high-profile, complex and transformative National Digital Twin Programme (NDTP). It's a fantastic opportunity to help develop the foundational Information Architecture (IA) for this UK initiative.

For those that don't know a Digital Twin is essentially a live, virtual copy of something real (like a bridge, a water system, or a city), fed by real-time data to help test ideas and predict outcomes before making costly changes in the physical world.

The NDTP is about creating a secure network of connected digital models across the UK and its mission is to build the rules, standards, and secure pathways that allow individual digital twins to safely and ethically talk to each other.

Here at Answer Digital are currently leading the charge on two key NDTP goals; developing the NDTP Data Catalogue and delivering best-in-class user interface (UI) design and development for the Data Catalogue and Data Management nodes. We look forward to delighting DBT and forging what we hope will be a long term strategic partnership". - Kate Cleal, Delivery Manager

We look forward to working with the Department for Business and Trade over the coming months to deliver a legacy of high-quality, open-standard code that will underpin the future of UK infrastructure.

Read more about our data capability:
https://answerdigital.com/capability/data-services/

Explore the original UK Authority annoucement: https://www.ukauthority.com/articles/department-for-business-and-trade-strengthens-national-digital-twin-programme