State of the Nation event to explore critical role of data in decarbonising transport

Transport data professionals and decision-makers are being invited to join a high-level event in London to explore the critical role of ontologies in digitally twinning and decarbonising the UK’s transport system.

Ontologies are used to formally describe meaning and relationships in data, and are essential for disparate systems and data streams to interoperate and speak to each other.

The event, called Transport Ontologies: State of the Nation, takes place on Thursday 3 September at 1 Great George Street in London, is being co-hosted by two national UK research hubs focused on transport decarbonisation and resilience. These are the DARe National Hub for Decarbonised, Adaptable, and Resilient Transport Infrastructures and TransiT, which is using digital twins – digital replicas of the physical world – to identify the fastest, least-risky and lowest-cost pathways to transport decarbonisation in the UK.

Paul Harvey, a TransiT co-investigator and expert in autonomous and adaptive systems based at the University of Glasgow, will open the event and explain why ontologies are key to digitally twinning the UK’s road, rail, air and maritime systems.

He said: “Digital twins are essential for the transport sector to decarbonise. But our transport system is not as joined up as, for example, a national energy system or telecoms network. It consists of many different stakeholders from logistics providers, manufacturers and transport operators to local councils and regulators – across multiple transport modes. To decarbonise the transport system as a whole, we need to find a way for individual digital twins in these different sectors to all share information, context, knowledge and decisions in a way that’s comprehensible and consistent. This is what ontologies provide.”

The event will include an introduction to ontologies in transport, ontology tool demonstrations and three workshop sessions for participants to share their own views and experiences. Topics will include what ontology means, the value of ontologies now and in the future and what a shared UK transport ontology framework across road, rail, maritime and air might look like.

Participants in the event are expected to include delegates from the UK government’s Department for Transport and the National Digital Twin Programme, a UK government-led programme to grow national capability in digital twinning technologies and develop related standards, frameworks and tools.

The event runs from 10am to 3.30pm. Places are limited but some space remains. To reserve a spot, visit our Eventbrite page here.

DARe is a collaboration of five universities and more than 40 project partners led by Newcastle University. Its work is focused on developing a set of open-source resources to help local, regional and national decision-makers evaluate infrastructure performance and stress-test adaptation options.

TransiT is a collaboration of eight universities and almost 70 industry partners, jointly led by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow.

Both hubs are supported by the UK Research and Innovation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the main funding body for engineering and physical sciences research in the UK, and by the UK government’s Department for Transport.