Digital twin politics: Unlocking the full potential of digital twins for sustainable ocean futures

In the light of time pressure, persisting data gaps, and challenges to the implementation of global sustainability goals for ocean protection, the European Commission is currently building a prototype digital twin of the ocean (DTO).

The EU DTO is part of a larger set of substantial global and national efforts to develop highly accurate digital models of the ocean for ‘better decision-making’ and an emerging high-tech knowledge infrastructure that turns various types of ocean data into prediction tools for public and private actors with a stake in the transition towards sustainable ocean futures.However, DTOs, although needed to advance ocean science and governance, are a political issue in themselves.

Firstly, DTOs run the risk of perpetuating global inequalities because the capacities to develop, access, and use ocean data, information, and science are unequally distributed.

Secondly, DTOs may create an array of legal and political uncertainties regarding data access, ownership, security, and sharing.

Thirdly, DTOs should be embedded into a set of norms, rules, and values to prevent abuse and misuse in practice — a neglected aspect in the current ‘twin rush’.

TwinPolitics will overcome shortcomings in the study of DTOs by examining both the socio-technical making of DTOs for national scientific and political purposes and the politics of developing and using DTOs in an international setting.

TwinPolitics will re-conceptualise digital twins as socio-technical relations operating under a specific set of institutional, political, and economic conditions and within a hybrid research, data, and observation environment.

TwinPolitics will break new ground by developing a methodological approach that combines, on the one hand, qualitative and quantitative research on the practices, policies, and politics presiding over digital twins in national/regional contexts (EU, USA, China) with, on the other hand, the study of DTO use during multilateral negotiations.