[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 118 (Tuesday, June 18, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51554-51555]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-13379]
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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Networking and Information Technology Research and Development
Request for Information on Digital Twins Research and Development
AGENCY: Networking and Information Technology Research and Development
(NITRD) National Coordination Office (NCO), National Science
Foundation.
ACTION: Request for information.
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SUMMARY: On behalf of Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP),
the NITRD National Coordination Office seeks public input for the
creation of a National Digital Twins R&D Strategic Plan. The Plan will
act as an organizing national document, providing guidance for
government investments in digital twins related research and offering
valuable insights to help guide further federal R&D coordination to
advance technology and accelerate the use and early adoption of the
digital twin models to address the nation's priorities and fast-track
agency missions. The Plan is scheduled to be released in mid to late
2025.
DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before
11:59 p.m. (ET) on July 28, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in response to this RFI may be sent by
any of the following methods:
Email: [email protected]; Email submissions
should be machine-readable and not be copy-protected. Submissions
should include ``RFI Response: Digital Twins R&D Plan'' in the subject
line of the message.
Mail: Attn: Melissa Cornelius, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue,
Alexandria, VA 22314, USA. Telephone: 202-459-9674.
Instructions: Response to this RFI is voluntary. Each individual or
institution is requested to submit only one response. Submissions must
not exceed 10 pages in 12 point or larger font, with a page number
provided on each page. Responses must include the name of the person(s)
or organization(s) filing the comment and the following statement:
``This document is approved for public dissemination. The document
contains no business-proprietary or confidential information. Document
contents may be reused by the government in the National Digital Twins
R&D Strategic Plan and associated documents without attribution.''
Responses to this RFI may be posted online at https://www.nitrd.gov/.
Therefore, we request that no business proprietary information,
copyrighted information, or sensitive personally identifiable
information be submitted as part of your response to this RFI.
In accordance with FAR 15.202(3), responses to this notice are not
offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding
contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated
with responding to this RFI.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Craig Schlenoff, Melissa Cornelius,
Simon Frechette, Stacey Levine, Steven Lee, Qing Wu at [email protected] or (202) 459-9674. Individuals who use a
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8
p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday, except for U.S. Federal
Government holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering, and Medicine (The National Academies) released its report
on digital twins, Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for
Digital Twins (2024). The report makes recommendations for federal
agencies to launch crosscutting programs to advance mathematical,
statistical, and computational foundations for digital twins and
identify collaborative opportunities. In response to this, the Fast-
Track Action Committee (FTAC) on Digital Twins (DT) is developing a
National Digital Twins Research and Development (R&D) Strategic Plan
(the Plan) that lays out the Digital Twins R&D priorities within
federal agencies.
Terminology: As defined in The National Academies report,
Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins, A
digital twin is a set of virtual information constructs that mimics the
structure, context, and behavior of a natural, engineered, or social
system (or system-of-systems), is dynamically updated with data from
its physical twin, has a predictive capability, and informs decisions
that realize value. The bidirectional interaction between the virtual
and the physical is central to the digital twin. This definition will
be used for the purposes of this RFI, but respondents are welcome to
provide alternate definitions if digital twins have a different meaning
in their industry or field, along with the scientific rationale for
specific use-cases. Reference citation as appropriate.
Information Requested: Responsible innovation in digital twins
could provide significant benefits for the American people. This RFI
seeks input to shape a whole-of-government effort on research and
development related to digital twins across domains. Examples include
but are not limited to biomedical sciences, climate change, smart
cities, and scientific discovery. This RFI is soliciting R&D topic
areas in which the strategic plan should focus, as well as details that
should be considered when/if the topic area is elaborated in the
strategic plan. Example topics are included below, but we welcome other
topics as appropriate. Respondents may provide information related to
one or more of the topics outlined below and should indicate the topic
to which they are responding by using the keyword in bold. Possible
topics include (listed in alphabetical order):
[[Page 51555]]
Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI and Digital Twins:
Possible focus areas: integration of digital twins with artificial
intelligence (AI); leverage generative AI for digital twin modeling &
simulation with the consideration of the potential impact on a digital
twins' physical counterpart
Business: Business Case Analysis: Possible focus areas:
foundational research cost; evaluate value/return on investment; cost
and time to implement
Data: Encourage Adoption of Data Management Best
Practices: Possible focus areas: governance methods for data
collection, curation, sharing and usage; shared public datasets and
repositories; real-time data integration
Ecosystem: Establish a National Digital Twin R&D
Ecosystem: Possible focus areas: collaborations across agencies to
identify and address foundational research gaps and opportunities that
spans areas such as biomedical sciences, environmental ecosystem,
sustainability & climate change, smart and connected communities,
scientific discovery, agriculture, military & mission planning, as well
as common mathematical, statistical, and computational foundations
International: International Collaborations on Digital
Twins: Possible focus areas: global scale digital twins across foreign
markets; global issues and digital twin development consensus
standards; opportunities for international collaboration (e.g.,
European Union's Horizon 2020 program funding digital twin projects)
Long Term: Identify Long Term Research Investments:
Possible focus areas: novel approaches for interactive data-driven
modeling and simulation, both crosscutting and fit for purpose;
research enabling the bidirectional flow between the virtual and the
physical assets; creating test environments for digital twins ensuring
sufficient resources and sustainable high-performance computing
Regulatory: Regulatory Science Challenges associated with
the use of Digital Twins
Responsible: Promote Responsible Development & Use of
Digital Twins: Possible focus areas: ethical use of digital twins;
identifying ethical issues, mitigating and biases with respect to data
ownership, intellectual property and privacy
Standards: Promote Development of Evaluation Tools,
Methodologies and Consensus Standards for Digital Twin Development and
Testing and Interoperability: Possible focus areas: community of
practice, ontology and data exchange protocols; encryption standards;
taxonomy; address challenges related to evaluation of data-driven
Digital Twin components; continuous and multi-modal data sources;
personalized applications derived from Digital Twins; transferability,
generalizability and robustness of Digital Twins
Sustainability: Design and Develop Systems and
Architectures for Digital Twin Sustainability: Possible focus areas:
sustainment as the operating systems and computational models on which
they are based evolve and the data which they ingest are updated;
intentional organizational effort and purpose-built modeling ecosystems
energy-awareness; early consideration of computational requirements and
effective workflows; develop approaches for the design, development,
and deployment of Digital Twins; the ability to create interoperable
Digital Twins with evolving technology and standards
Trustworthy: Realize Secure and Trustworthy Digital Twins:
Possible focus areas: develop solutions to assure the security, cyber
resilience, and trustworthiness of digital twins (taking into account
all components of DTs such as their code base, data and data
processing, operational environments, networking and connectivity with
the physical counterpart); develop capabilities to utilize DTs to
improve the security and cyber resilience of the physical counterpart,
such as through threat analysis, attack modeling, risk analysis,
security testing and similar analyses conducted on the Digital Twins
VVUQ: Develop Rigorous Methods for Verification,
Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification for Digital Twins: Possible
focus areas: foundational and cross-cutting methods as well as domain
specific; integration of VVUQ into all elements of the full digital
twin ecosystem
Workforce: Cultivate Workforce and Training to Advance
Digital Twin Research and Development: Possible focus areas: diverse
talent recruitment; incentivize cross-disciplinary STEM research
programs across educational institutions
We encourage responses to be organized according to the preceding
outline, although we also welcome responses that address only a subset
of the items. Submitters are encouraged to address the topics of this
RFI clearly and concisely.
References
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
2024. Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital
Twins. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26894.
A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine-
appointed ad hoc committee, Committee Members and Sponsors, Events,
Publications.
Digital Twins--The Networking and Information Technology
Research and Development (NITRD) Program.
Submitted by the National Science Foundation in support of the
Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD)
National Coordination Office (NCO) on June 13, 2024.
(Authority: 42 U.S.C. 1861, et seq.)
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2024-13379 Filed 6-17-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P