Bringing reality back in focus
Nicolas Waern
“Probably the best digital twin expert in the world. Zlatan might be a lion, but I'll get you in control of the savanna.”
The future is already here. But is it here with you?
Nicolas Waern is a reality researcher and longevity entrepreneur, fifteen-plus years at the intersection of manufacturing, AI, edge computing and interoperability. He co-chairs the Digital Twin Consortium's Manufacturing and Telecommunications Working Groups — working alongside CTOs from Microsoft, Dell and NVIDIA — and leads the Q-SMART quantum-secure testbed. He is a former University of Oxford guest lecturer on digital twins, XR and AI, an EU Expert Evaluator for Horizon Europe, and the creator of the SMILE methodology — inspired by NASA JPL's Extreme Collaboration practice, adapted for spatial-web principles.
He holds an MSc in IT Management (Gothenburg) and a BBA in International Management (Jönköping International Business School), with exchange studies at the University of St. Gallen and Yonsei University. He built WINNIIO with no external funding into a global practice delivering millions in value across energy, telecom, manufacturing, real estate and government — a reality researcher with 50,000+ hours invested in solving the most complex challenges in ways that pass the test of time, leading distributed teams across Europe, APAC and Africa.
He is a reality researcher and entrepreneur who founded Life Atlas, the longevity-focused digital-twin platform, to let people live lives without limits. He has published 50+ articles on smart buildings, developed self-learning systems with EU funding, run award-winning digital-twin consultancy in London, published two peer-reviewed papers, hosted the Beyond Buildings podcast for 35+ episodes, and gives guest lectures at Amity University to 300+ students — while delivering global consultancy and reality services worldwide.
- Co-Chair, Manufacturing WGDigital Twin Consortium (2021–present)
- Co-Chair, Telecommunications WGDigital Twin Consortium — standards alongside the largest technology companies in the world
- Co-Chair, Quantum Working GroupDigital Twin Consortium — quantum-secure twins
- EU Expert EvaluatorHorizon Europe · ID EX2026D1413450
- Q-SMART Testbed leadDigital Twin Consortium (2025) — accepted testbed, announced publicly
- Senior Researcher (Cat. B)Frascati career stage
- Contributing Editor, 50 articlesAutomatedBuildings.com (2018–2022)
- Host, 36 episodesBeyond Buildings podcast (2020–2021)
- Guest Lecturer, University of OxfordDept for Continuing Education — VR/XR/AI for knowledge transfer
- Author, SMILE methodologyDigital-twin readiness scoring · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21268264
- Recorded talksDTC: lifecycle twins for manufacturing · BrightTALK: self-learning smart-heating twins
- Peer-reviewed publicationsZenodo · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.17462962 & .17464804
- Nokia Bell LabsDynamic digital twins · physical AI research
Keynotes, lectures, workshops.
Where physics-grounded twins beat dashboards — and how to tell the difference before you buy.
What Ant, Xiaomi, Telstra and BMW already run on — and what it takes to get there.
Inspired by the NASA JPL practice, adapted for spatial-web principles — humans, agents and experts in one loop.
Agent fleets that do the work — grounded, supervised, auditable, live in production.
The human body as a twinnable system — Life Atlas and the sovereign digital twin of you.
Why 92% of digital-twin value is scaffolding, not AI — and how to land it in the org, not the slide deck.
In the field, anonymized where it must be.
- Digitalization strategy for a multi-billion-value real estate portfolio.
- Convened and led a cross-industry National Digital Twin initiative for infrastructure planning and energy efficiency, from concept through funded-pilot discussions with a tier-1 telecom research lab.
- Digital-twin resiliency strategy for a Nordic hydropower operator.
- Dynamic digital twins and physical AI with Nokia Bell Labs, including a Caribbean cell-tower digitization program that set the template for scaling to 16,000+ towers.
- Resilience strategies contributed in support of Ukraine.
- Led a Swedish Energy Agency-funded program scaling self-learning, edge-native heating control from one room to fifty across municipal school buildings — showcased by the Digital Twin Consortium and LF Edge.
- Self-learning systems taken from prototype to deployed production.
- EU grant work on both sides of the table — as applicant and as Horizon Europe Expert Evaluator.
12+ talks and podcasts, 9+ verified press mentions — the full highlight reel and press archive in one place.
I love to see you win — fast.
Not sure where to start with AI? Want a second opinion — or a first? Give me a call. I'll fly with you.