CFAs: Advancing Digital Twins for Climate, Environment and Security

The initiative focuses on improving security and preparedness for the Union and creating a more disaster-resilient society in the face of climate change impacts, enhancing the capacity of key users and decision-makers to anticipate, mitigate and contain risks across vulnerable societal sectors connected to climate change, environment and security, and further developing the data lab infrastructure around Destination Earth in line with the AI Continent Action Plan.

Climate change produces both direct and indirect effects that can influence environmental stability and societal security. Addressing these complex connections requires innovative tools that combine environmental data, modelling and advanced computing capabilities. Through the development of digital twins, the initiative aims to create dynamic virtual models that simulate real-world environmental systems and societal processes, helping authorities better understand risks and plan responses.

Digital twins for civil security will involve high-accuracy and fast-response models developed at local and regional levels. These models are designed to strengthen preparedness and resilience while supporting authorities in protecting citizens and increasing awareness of climate-related and environmental risks within Europe and neighbouring regions. The approach connects climate and environmental analysis with a range of security-related impact sectors including natural or human-induced disasters, health emergencies, energy sustainability and management, migration and the scarcity of key resources such as food and water.

The programme promotes cross-disciplinary solutions that integrate risk mitigation, prevention and foresight capabilities. Projects will take advantage of advances in modelling, observation systems, data fusion, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Modern processing and visualization technologies will also play an important role in creating user-friendly workflows that help stakeholders in key sectors analyse complex environmental and security data.

Projects supported under this initiative will develop new digital twins or major components of existing systems that enhance foresight and anticipation across operational, tactical and strategic timeframes. Demonstrated usability is required through Minimum Viable Products that will be applied in at least three practical application areas connecting climate, environment and security with the involvement of real users.

The initiative also encourages innovation in modelling approaches, observation technologies and data integration methods. High computational capacity will support responsive visualization interfaces capable of providing advanced visual tools such as three-dimensional environments, virtual reality and interactive simulations that assist decision-makers in understanding complex scenarios.

Another key requirement is the integration of multiple data sources within a modular architecture. Projects should combine satellite data with other sources such as statistical information, in situ observations and UAV-based Earth observation data. This architecture should allow additional datasets to be integrated progressively while ensuring secure and well-managed access to sensitive information where required.

Projects must also demonstrate a clear pathway for integration with the Destination Earth system. This includes aligning infrastructure architecture, data services and modelling capacities with the DestinE platform and contributing to the further development of its data lab ecosystem, particularly through the use of AI-enabled digital twins and data labs associated with AI Factories.

The initiative places strong emphasis on supporting informed decision-making among non-technical experts and policy makers. Generative artificial intelligence tools are expected to assist in analysing user requirements and transforming complex environmental and security data into clear and actionable insights.

Ensuring trustworthy and ethical use of artificial intelligence is an essential element of the programme. The models developed must demonstrate strong robustness, reliability and accuracy so that they can be confidently used for security-related planning and risk management.

The programme has a total funding allocation of €15,000,000, with individual projects eligible to receive between €5,000,000 and €7,500,000. Participation is open to any legal entity regardless of its place of establishment, including organisations from non-associated third countries and international organisations, provided that the eligibility conditions under the Horizon Europe Regulation are met.

For more information, visit EC.