Source: European Union 2 Published on: 2026-06-04
Picture a virtual replica of an entire city, simulating traffic flows, energy use and air quality. Imagine testing different scenarios and immediately seeing how changes ripple across the system, enabling you to see where you can optimise its processes.
This is just one example of how digital twins – virtual replicas of physical objects, processes or systems – are helping Europe build a more sustainable, competitive and resilient future. These dynamic, data-driven models enable simulation, scenario testing and informed decision-making in areas including urban planning, Earth observation, healthcare and industry.
Digital twin technology is a key enabler for European climate neutrality, industrial competitiveness and resilient infrastructure. The EU is accelerating its adoption through flagship initiatives such as Destination Earth, a highly accurate digital twin of the Earth, the Digital Europe Programme and the European strategy for data.
Discover a selection of projects, managed by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), that are employing digital twin technology across sectors to advance Europe’s green and digital transition.
Monitoring ocean biodiversity
The ocean’s biodiversity provides us with vital services: it sustains almost all known animals and supports the livelihoods of billions of people. However, climate change and human activities endanger this biodiversity, which is why it needs to be continuously monitored.
The project NECCTON, funded under Horizon Europe Cluster 4: Space, is improving the European Copernicus Marine Service using digital twin technology. The project is integrating advanced ecosystem models with real‑world observations through its new tool, the NECCTON Ocean Viewer, a powerful, cloud‑based data portal. Built on the trusted Copernicus MyOcean viewer framework, it offers intuitive tools for mapping, plotting, comparing and downloading marine data across space and time. This platform of cutting‑edge models, satellite observations and environmental indicators helps to explore how the ocean is changing, from plankton to pollutants. These models enhance the capabilities of the European Digital Twin Ocean (EDITO) to monitor biodiversity, fisheries and benthic habitats, providing critical data for climate change adaptation and policy.
The already launched tool visualises and publishes a growing collection of marine ecosystem datasets, including:
• Microscopic life at the base of the food chain (e.g. plankton and light conditions);
• Fish and marine mammal populations;
• Seafloor communities (e.g. mussels and seagrass);
• Environmental stressors such as microplastics and climate change indicators.
Making the battery value chain more efficient, reliable and sustainable
Reliability and innovation in current and upcoming battery technology are another core element of Europe’s green industrial transition.
The project DigiCell, funded under Horizon Europe Cluster 4: Industry, is transforming the manufacturing and testing processes of battery cells and packs. The project applies digital twin technology to simulate battery behaviour under various conditions and to correlate battery performance with material properties. This approach allows for real-time simulations and information exchange with actual production lines, significantly reducing material waste and enhancing battery life-cycle performance.
Due to conclude at the end of 2026, the project has already:
• Advanced the international standardisation of a novel battery test that is currently exploited by DigiCell and that was formalised as an International Electrotechnical Commission project proposal;
• Developed battery digital twins that are currently exploited by large industry, allowing for:
• Improved cell and pack productions, thereby optimising energy use, materials efficiency and waste reduction;
• Physics-based electrochemical models that can be used in embedded hardware applications, e.g., battery management systems;
• Applications ranging from automotive to stationary battery packs with power ratings of up to 120 kW, enabling efficient state-of-health (SoH) evaluations;
• Modelling of key manufacturing steps and their interconnections at mesoscale;
• Integrated physics-based models, AI surrogate models and transfer learning to decrease computational time while maintaining a high accuracy.
Driving innovation with 5G and digital twin technology
While digital twin technology also holds immense potential for automotive research, education and real-time system validation, its deployment remains fragmented due to the lack of scalable, 5G-enabled platforms that can accommodate diverse testing scenarios.
5G-BECOME is a project funded by Connecting Europe Facility: Digital that deploys a 5G Standalone Network and edge computing infrastructure at the National Technical University of Athens to support education, research and hands-on experimentation. The project has two main use cases:
• The Extended Reality (XR) hybrid learning platform;
• The automotive open platform with an integrated digital twin environment.
The digital twin use case serves primarily as a research and education platform for automotive technologies and Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM). In this context, the digital twin is built from what vehicles and surrounding environment sense in real time, using data from on-board and infrastructure-based sensors such as cameras, light detection and ranging, localisation modules, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and custom On-Board Units. The objective is to create a dynamic representation of what the vehicle and the supporting infrastructure perceive in real time, enabling experimentation with collective perception, safety-related scenarios, AI-assisted analytics, real-time monitoring, and performance evaluation of 5G-enabled CCAM services.
Fostering digital twin expertise for smarter cities
Furthermore, advanced digital twin technologies can make Europe’s cities smarter, more resilient and sustainable. Supported by the EU’s Digital Europe Programme, the DIGITWIN4CIUE project is helping build the expertise and ecosystem needed to accelerate this transition.
The project launched the Executive Master’s in “Digital Twins for Infrastructures and Cities”, which has already completed three editions and trained more than 50 professionals from 25 countries through specialised courses and industry-led capstone projects addressing real-world challenges in mobility, bridges, tunnels and smart cities. Beyond the Master’s programme, over 3 100 professionals have participated in workshops, seminars and conferences on Artificial Intelligence, Building Information Modelling, Internet of Things and smart infrastructure.
DIGITWIN4CIUE also established the European Centre of Excellence in Digitalisation of Infrastructures and Cities, as a long-term hub for education, technology transfer, entrepreneurship and networking. Through collaborations with industry, public authorities and start-ups, the project is already supporting practical digital twin applications in areas such as transport, mobility planning and infrastructure management.
The project has also published a White Paper on Digital Twins defining best practices for infrastructure digitalisation, already reaching 4 000+ downloads and 9 citations.
The EU’s industrial and digital strategies aim to ensure that the digital transformation benefits both people and businesses while supporting the transition to a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. As part of its vision for the Digital Decade, the EU is prioritising digital sovereignty and strengthening Europe’s leadership in data, technology and infrastructure. Collaboration between industry, public authorities and stakeholders is also driving tailored transition pathways across industrial ecosystems to advance Europe’s green and digital transformation.
Discover more HaDEA-managed projects building synergies to achieve the EU’s strategic objectives:
Learn more about HaDEA-managed EU funding programmes:
• Connecting Europe Facility – European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)
• Digital Europe Programme – European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)
• Horizon Europe- European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)
• EU4Health – European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)
• Horizon Europe Cluster 4: Space
• Horizon Europe Cluster 4: Industry
• Connecting Europe Facility 2
• Digital Europe Programme