Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• Emergence of new science-based digital twin infrastructures to be gradually integrated in Destination Earth^[1];
• Establishment of new digital standards for software (including simulation and simulation-observation data fusion) and data for Destination Earth;
• Standards- and science-based approach for modelling, predicting and assessing the Earth systems and their socio-economic impact.

Destination Earth, for which the operational capacity building is funded from the Digital Europe Programme, aims to develop a high precision digital model of the Earth to model, monitor and simulate natural phenomena and related human activities. As part of European Commission’s Green Deal and the Digital Strategy, Destination Earth (DestinE) will contribute to achieving the objectives of the twin transition, green and digital.

As part of the build-up of Destination Earth, continuous preparatory scientific and technical developments need to be carried out to ensure integration of new digital twins, covering new areas, into the Destination Earth digital twin framework.

The aim is to develop new digital twin infrastructures that the core simulation, data fusion and supporting software infrastructures for high-performance computing and data handling can be seamlessly integrated with the Destination Earth platform components. These infrastructures should optimally support the scientific and technical performance of the entire digital twin ecosystem of Destination Earth.

The intended integration can be performed at different levels, for example: (i) directly integrated in the existing Destination Earth simulation and data fusion system (i.e. full integration mode), (ii) integrated in a sequential workflow where new digital twins operate their own simulation and data fusion tasks interfacing with the existing Destination Earth digital twins (i.e. coupling mode) or (iii) as data post-processing applications without own Earth-system component simulation tasks (i.e. post-processing mode).

Proposals should address all the following aspects:

• development of additional and/or improved, advanced, very high-resolution, complex Earth-system model components representing, for example, atmosphere, ocean, land surface, hydrology, cryosphere and biosphere in the Earth-system simulation framework of Destination Earth;
• collecting advanced Earth observation data from satellites, established airborne and ground-based observatories as well as novel technologies (for example drones, buoys, IoT sensors) linked for use in the data fusion framework of Destination Earth for simulation and observation;
• ensure appropriate representation of uncertainty to produce reliable estimates of both monitored and predicted states of the new components;
• development of scientific components of impact models associated with the new topical components for the management of user specific applications in areas such as renewable energy, food, water and health;
• development of software and data handling infrastructures that use and enhance the extreme-scale computing and data handling infrastructure of the Digital Twin Engine of Destination Earth; support and enhance both the workflow management established by the existing Digital Twin Engine and its operation through the DestinE Core Service Platform and the data handling established by the existing Digital Twin Engine and its operation through the DestinE Data Lake.

Proposals should take advantage of the opportunities and developments offered by existing Horizon Europe research and innovation actions (RIA) developing new simulation and observation capabilities, emerging ICT infrastructures (e.g., EuroHPC), research infrastructures and related projects, and HPC^[2] Centers of Competence and Excellence (such as ESiWACE for weather and climate prediction and ChEESE for solid Earth applications) and the work towards the European Digital Twin of the Ocean^[3]. Where the implementing entities of Destination Earth (European Space Agency (ESA), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)) and other key organisations in the field (e.g. Mercator Ocean) are not members of the consortium, the proposals should demonstrate how they intend to collaborate with or involve them. In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

[1] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/destination-earth

[2] High Performance Computing

[3] https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe/eu-missions-horizon-europe/healthy-oceans-seas-coastal-and-inland-waters/european-digital-twin-ocean-european-dto_en