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Centre for Digital Built Britain completed its five-year mission and closed its doors at the end of September 2022

This website remains as a legacy of the achievements of our five-year foundational journey towards a digital built Britain
 

The Gemini Principles paper, released in 2018, proposes principles to guide the national digital twin and the information management framework that will enable it. 

What are the Gemini Principles?

Gemini Principles[Download the report]

As an industry we are beginning to understand that data needs to be valued, managed effectively and shared securely. We now need a common set of definitions and principles that can be adopted across the sector to underpin the development of the national digital twin. The Digital Framework Task Group is bringing together stakeholders from government, industry and academia to build a consensus on these definitions and values, which it has called the Gemini Principles.

The Gemini Principles report was published by the Centre for Digital Built Britain in December 2018 to begin enabling alignment on the approach to information management across the built environment, as establishing agreed definitions and principles from the outset will make it easier to share data in the future.

These principles are effectively the conscience of the information management framework and the national digital twin. To ensure that these two initiatives are – and remain – for the public good, they need strong founding values to guide them.

Enshrined in these values is the notion that all digital twins must have clear purpose, must be trustworthy and must function effectively. All the Gemini Principles flow from this. They are deliberately simple, but their implications are far-reaching and challenging. They are descriptive of intent, but agnostic on solutions, to encourage innovation and development over time.

The Gemini Principles will continue to evolve as the National Digital Twin evolves and we seek ongoing input into their development from across the sector.

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The National Digital Twin and the Gemini Principles

Find out more about the background to the Gemini Principles

Glossary

Digital twin: A realistic digital representation of something physical. What distinguishes a digital twin from any other digital model is its connection to the physical twin.

Information management framework: All that is necessary to enable effective information management across the built environment. It addresses secure, resilient interoperability, which is fundamental for creation of a national digital twin.

Gemini Principles: Values to guide the development and use of the information management framework and the NDT.

NDT: National digital twin – an ecosystem of digital twins that are connected by securely shared data.