GoodIT 2026 Special Track

Digital Twins and Data Spaces for Social Good

From Local Digital Twins to the CitiVerse

Promoting the EU Local Digital Twins (LDT) Toolbox, EDIC, SIMPL and the CitiVerse

2–4 September 2026
Pisa, Italy
ACM Digital LibraryFIWARELiving-in.EUCitCom.ai TEFSenseverse
About the Track

Bridging Research and Deployment

This special track focuses on the design, deployment and evaluation of interoperable Digital Twins and Data Spaces that enable measurable social good. It emphasizes Local Digital Twins for cities and communities and their interconnection through trusted data sharing, semantic interoperability and open building blocks.

Local Digital Twins

Architectures and reference implementations for city-scale digital twins enabling smarter, more resilient urban systems.

Data Spaces

Trusted data sharing, federation, and cross-domain interoperability for smart and sustainable cities and communities.

AI & Analytics

AI-driven decision-support systems, simulation pipelines, and urban resilience tools grounded in real deployments.

Governance & Trust

Sovereignty mechanisms, compliance with AI Act, Data Act and GDPR, and ethics in digital twin deployments.

Why This Topic is Timely

European cities and communities are scaling digital transformation under increasing sustainability, resilience and inclusion pressures. Digital twins are becoming operational decision-support systems, while data spaces are emerging as the backbone for trusted data sharing across public and private actors.

Relevance to Social Good

Interoperable digital twins and data spaces support social good by enabling evidence-based policy, climate action, improved public services, transparent governance and citizen participation. This track foregrounds measurable impacts and responsible-by-design practices.

Scope

Topics of Interest

We welcome contributions combining scientific novelty with practical reproducibility, including open-source components, reference architectures, reusable semantic models, governance patterns and impact evaluations.

Architectures and reference implementations for Local Digital Twins and city-scale Digital Twins

Data Spaces for Smart and Sustainable Cities: federation, catalogues, and cross-domain data sharing

Interoperability standards and APIs (NGSI-LD, semantic data models, open specifications)

Trust, identity and sovereignty mechanisms for data exchange (consent, access control, usage policies)

SIMPL-enabled middleware, integration patterns and operational tooling

EDIC-oriented governance and operational models for shared digital infrastructures

CitiVerse and immersive/3D assets as interoperable extensions of city digital twins

Compute-to-data, confidential analytics, and privacy-preserving digital twin pipelines

AI governance and compliance (AI Act, Data Act, GDPR) for digital twins and data spaces

Cybersecurity, resilience and safety-by-design for critical city services

Ethics, inclusion, accessibility and participatory approaches in digital twin deployments

Evaluation frameworks, KPIs and impact assessment for social good outcomes (energy, mobility, health, climate, equity)

Topics are indicative and non-exhaustive. Related work is also welcome.

Leadership

Track Organisers

A multidisciplinary team of European experts in digital twins, IoT, data spaces, and smart cities.

AJ

Dr. Antonio J. Jara

Libelium – CTO & Executive Board Member; EU LDT Toolbox Technical Coordinator

Dr. Antonio J. Jara (PhD) is CTO and Executive Board Member at Libelium, with long-standing experience in Internet of Things, semantic interoperability, data spaces and digital twins for smart communities. He has led and contributed to multiple European digital innovation initiatives and standards-oriented activities, bridging research, open-source ecosystems and market deployment to deliver measurable societal impact.

LinkedIn
GC

Dr. German Castignani

Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) – Digital Twin Innovation Centre Manager; Head of Group (AI Readiness and Assessment)

Dr. German Castignani leads digital twin and AI readiness activities at LIST, including the Digital Twin Innovation Centre. His work spans digital twin enablement, AI-driven analytics, and operational deployment in public sector and industrial settings, with a focus on trustworthy, reusable and interoperable components for smart and sustainable cities and communities.

FL

Dr. Franck Le Gall

EGM – CEO

Dr. Franck Le Gall is CEO at EGM and an active contributor to European interoperability and context management efforts for smart cities. His expertise covers trusted data exchange, context brokers, IoT and data space building blocks, supporting large-scale adoption of interoperable solutions across urban domains such as water, environment and mobility.

SH

Sophie Houzet

Director of Fabric'O (Smart Cities & Intelligent Territories), Cerema (France)

Sophie Houzet is Director of Fabric'O at Cerema, a cross-cutting, multi-partner unit that supports cities and regions on "smart territories" by structuring data governance, fostering interoperability, and enabling the reuse and evaluation of territorial data in service of sustainable and resilient transitions. She contributes to Cerema's engagement in European smart-city and digital-twin ecosystems and supports standardisation-oriented approaches.

Reviewers

Program Committee

Each paper receives at least three independent reviews. Committee members are selected for expertise matching across relevant European digital twin and data space ecosystems.

Ernesto FaubelValencia City
Patricia TamaritNunsys
Tamara De Swertimec
Dimitri Schuurmanimec / Ghent University
Vincent J. BottiVRAIN, UPV
Petra DalundeRISE
Alex JonssonRISE
Line Nykjaer JohansenWe Build Denmark
Markku NiemiBusiness Tampere
Thomas de Meesterimec
Niels WiersmaCity of Eindhoven
Thomas TamisierLIST
Remi RegnierLNE
Agnieszka WendlandWarsaw University of Technology
Luca MottolaPolitecnico di Milano
Rodrigo GonzalezLibelium Lab
Juan Francisco InglesLibelium Lab
Nuria ArchillaLibelium Lab
Alex GluhakDunavnet Ltd.
Srdjan KrcoDunavnet Ltd.
Kai MeinkedeltaDAO AG
Frederic SchwilldeltaDAO AG
Minu TegethoffDrees & Sommer SE
Helmut StrobelDrees & Sommer SE
Christopher StanfieldDrees & Sommer SE
Margarida CampolargoOASC
Arnaud VerstraeteOASC
Dr. Martin SerranoNUIG
Inma MolinaLibelium

LDT4SSC Ecosystem (Technopolis and Partners)

Adriana BadauTechnopolis Group
Anna DenaisTechnopolis Group
Laura GalanteTechnopolis Group
Morten RasmussenTechnopolis Group
Santiago DonatTechnopolis Group
Paresa MarkianidouTechnopolis Group
Owen McColganTechnopolis Group
Alessia IannacciTechnopolis Group
Adrienne EvansTechnopolis Group
Elmar CloostermanTechnopolis Group
Jan Willis NillessenTechnopolis Group
Patrick Jeremy SmithTechnopolis Group
Ahmed AbidEGM
Jason FoxFIWARE
Alberto AbellaFIWARE
Andrea DettiCNIT
Giuseppe TropeaCNIT
Seongyun KimKETI
Marco CavalliSFERA Innovazione

Additional members will be invited to ensure sufficient reviewing capacity and domain coverage.

Timeline

Important Dates

This special track follows the same submission timeline as the main GoodIT 2026 conference.

Paper Submission Deadline

May 17th, 2026

Check goodit2026.di.unipi.it for extensions

Notification of Acceptance

June 7th, 2026

Authors notified alongside main track

Camera-Ready Deadline

Same as GoodIT 2026 main conference

Final version required for proceedings

Conference

2–4 September 2026

Pisa, Italy – Onsite presentation required

Please check the official conference website for confirmed dates: goodit2026.di.unipi.it

Submissions

Call for Papers

We invite submissions combining scientific novelty with practical reproducibility, including open-source components, reference architectures, and real-world deployments.

Original Research

Submissions must present original, unpublished work not under review elsewhere.

Peer Review

Each paper receives at least three independent reviews from the track Program Committee.

ACM Digital Library

Accepted papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library as part of GoodIT 2026 proceedings.

Onsite Presentation

At least one author must register and present the work onsite in Pisa, Italy.

Submit Your Work

Submissions must follow the same criteria and format requirements as the main GoodIT 2026 conference. Please visit the official conference website for formatting guidelines and the submission portal.

Follow ACM formatting guidelines for conference papers

Indicate "Digital Twins and Data Spaces for Social Good" as your special track selection

A journal special issue may be explored post-conference for selected high-quality papers

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