Connecting people, places, and the data.
Collab Digital Twins is a non-profit organization developing a shared infrastructure for digital twins, so institutions, communities, and researchers can document, understand, and manage the buildings, neighbourhoods, and landscapes they share.
Two decades of research and practice, grounded in community.
Collab Digital Twins is an independent not-for-profit organization, set up by the core research team at Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS), the research group whose work has shaped how Canadian institutions adopt BIM, GIS, AR/VR, immersive media, digital fabrication, digital storytelling, and heritage digitization since the early 2000s.
Applied research with national reach and international standing.
Founded at Carleton University's Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism, CIMS is one of Canada's leading applied research labs at the intersection of architecture, heritage conservation, and advanced visualization. Its work on Heritage BIM, photogrammetry, and immersive documentation has contributed to international standards and shaped a generation of practitioners.
For nearly two decades, the CIMS research team has delivered digital innovation on Canada's most significant projects, including the rehabilitation of Parliament Hill, partnering with the National Research Council, Public Services and Procurement Canada, the Department of National Defence, the Senate of Canada, and Global Affairs Canada, alongside major industry partners. Collab Digital Twins continues this approach in digital twin technologies: independent, open, and at scale.
Award-winning, internationally recognized.
Industry applauds our open-source, open-standards approach to digital twin infrastructure.
bSI openBIM Awards: Professional Research (2025)
Winner of the Professional Research category at the buildingSMART International openBIM Awards, selected from 129 submissions across more than 50 countries. It is the first bSI openBIM Award won by a Canadian team since the program launched in 2014.
Building Transformations Innovation Spotlight Awards (2024)
Winner of both the Research Award and the Best in Innovation Award, recognizing overall excellence across all categories at the 2024 Innovation Spotlight Awards.