Connected Places Catapult and Glasgow Airport (GLA) have launched a digital twin funding competition valued at up to 70,000 GBP.
This funding is being made available for companies developing digital twin technologies for a live aviation environment.
The Living Lab Digital Twin Competition will advance digital twin technology solutions tailored for the aviation sector, specifically at Glasgow Airport.
These solutions aim to overcome challenges that businesses currently face when creating and integrating digital twin technologies in aviation.
Connected Places Catapult’s Interim Ecosystem Director for Air Mobility & Airports, Andrew Chadwick said:We're delighted to introduce our inaugural Digital Twin Competition, hosted within the dynamic setting of the Connected Airport Living Lab at Glasgow Airport.
This innovative facility fosters advancements in passenger experience and accelerates decarbonisation through electrification, hydrogen utilisation, automation, data analytics, and integrated surface-level access solutions.
Made possible by the strategic support of Connected Places Catapult, this competition aims to spark innovation by integrating digital twins into the aviation sector, with a focus on optimising operations at Glasgow Airport.
A digital twin is a computer model that provides a digital representation of a physical asset. It maintains a dynamic data connection with its physical counterpart and is updated accordingly.
Businesses taking part in the Living Lab Digital Twin Competition must address one of three industry challenges to help bring digital twin solutions to market:
- Provide an improved understanding of asset replacement needs
- Develop solutions to better observe, forecast and influence passenger movement to help with journeys
- Offer ways of reducing energy consumption and operational costs
Jon Matthews, Group Head of Capital Investment and Planning at AGS Airports, which owns Glasgow Airport, said:As the UK’s First Connected Airport Living Lab, it is an exciting time at Glasgow as we look at how we to harness new technologies, not only to enhance the passenger experience and our operations, but to create the next revolution in aviation through zero-emission flight.
I would urge innovators working with digital twin technologies to get in touch to see how their work could find solutions and create opportunities within the aviation industry.
The competition will be carried out in two phases. The first phase will provide up to five organisations with the opportunity to present their digital twin concepts at Glasgow Airport. Here, they will showcase how their technologies could be applied to the challenges. This will be supported by up to 3,000 GBP in funding.
The submitted use-case proposals will then be assessed and one organisation will be chosen to advance to phase two. This phase will involve a full-scale deployment of their digital twin solution at Glasgow Airport, accessing up to 70,000 GBP in funding.
Throughout this process, participants will also engage with established players in the aviation industry and will receive technical support from specialists at Connected Places Catapult and Glasgow Airport.
