Frequently asked. Clearly answered.

TwinstOS is a platform that brings the knowledge of your research institute together in one place: team, competencies, machines, projects and partners. This is your digital twin – a model of your institute that holds not just individual facts but also how they connect: Who has which competencies? Which machines, project experience and partners fit a topic? Who is responsible for what?

This creates an institute overview that provides orientation and serves as a basis for collaboration, analyses, funding research and new research projects.

No. TwinstOS does not replace project management, file storage or LIMS. Project data, reports, test results and documents stay where they are maintained today. TwinstOS complements these systems with the connection between people, machines, competencies, projects, partners and responsibilities.

For research institutes, university institutes, university chairs and comparable research institutions in which teams, machines, projects, partners and competencies work together. TwinstOS makes the biggest difference where knowledge is currently spread across many places – lists, file storage, systems and people's heads – and needs to become findable in one place.

Getting started is guided and pragmatic. The aim is not to map everything completely straight away, but to quickly build a usable institute foundation. You begin with one concrete use case and expand step by step. Completeness indicators show where information is still missing. During the pilot we support setup, data structure and first use together with your team.

No, not manually. The AI import recognises projects, partners, machines and funding bodies in your documents and sorts them in a structured way; only what you approve is adopted. Structured lists such as Excel or CSV files can be imported directly. Whatever is still missing, you can add manually in the system at any time.

In the pilot phase you start free of charge, with full functionality and personal support, with no obligation to continue afterwards. Your institute tests TwinstOS in real everyday life, tries out relevant use cases and helps shape further development.

We agree the duration together. As a rule, around 8 to 12 weeks is suitable. You test TwinstOS without any risk, with our support and with room for your own wishes.

Continued paid use is voluntary. Costs depend on scope, operating model, modules and duration; pilot institutes receive fair follow-on terms.

If you continue with TwinstOS, the institute structure you built during the pilot carries straight over into regular operation. If you decide against it, the pilot ends without obligation, and the data you contributed is deleted on request.

AI is an assistance layer on your institute's digital twin. It recognises connections, provides impulses for project ideas, suggests suitable funding programmes and prepares applications in a structured way.

You do not have to use it: even without AI, TwinstOS is a full-fledged working basis for orientation, collaboration, statistics and analyses.

The AI assistant helps to recognise connections between competencies, machines, project experience and partners, to derive new project ideas from them, to classify suitable funding programmes and to prepare funding applications. In data import it reads your documents and sorts the content.

Yes. The AI works on the basis of the information you have built up in TwinstOS and with the context you have selected or approved. You decide which data basis is used for an analysis or preparation. The better the institute foundation is maintained, the more relevant the results become.

With managed hosting we run TwinstOS for you, and the data is stored on servers in Germany. This is the simplest and fastest way to start. Alternatively, TwinstOS can be operated at your site – see the next question.

There are three operating models. You decide how much control over operation should lie with you:

• Managed hosting: We run TwinstOS on servers in Germany. The fastest start and our recommendation to begin with.
• Self-hosted (Connector): The application runs with us on servers in Germany; your database and your files stay in your infrastructure. Both sides are connected through a lean connector service at your site. Access to your data runs exclusively through it.
• Self-hosted (Isolated): TwinstOS runs entirely in your environment, with application, database and files. You keep full control over operation and data.

Protection works on several levels:

• You decide who sees what: Roles and permissions control who can view and change what. Two-factor authentication (TOTP) can add another layer of protection to logins.
• Everything traceable: The audit log records every security-relevant action with timestamp, IP address and the acting person. Your institute can view it itself.
• Protected transmission: All connections run exclusively encrypted via HTTPS (TLS 1.2+).
• Protected credentials: Passwords are stored only as bcrypt hashes. Sensitive fields are stored encrypted with AES-256 and protected with HMAC integrity checks.
• Protected backups: With self-hosted (Isolated), local backups are encrypted with AES-256 (OpenSSL). The key stays with your institute.

You decide where your data lives: with managed hosting in Germany or in your own infrastructure. Our documentation for your IT or data protection department describes all measures in detail. Request documentation →

Yes: our data protection and information security concept. It describes the technical and organisational measures for processing and protecting personal data, prepared for compliance review. We are happy to provide it to your IT or data protection department.

Request documentation →

There are three consecutive plans: Basic, Professional and Intelligence. Managed hosting in Germany is included in the plans; self-hosted variants we agree individually. In addition there is the Lab & test field module and enterprise offers for multiple institutes.

Plans in detail →

Only if you want to manage day-to-day operations around machines and the test field: booking machines, managing inventory, handling orders for workshop and test field, and keeping usage histories. This typically pays off with extensive equipment.

The overview of your machines with master data, locations and responsible persons is already included in every plan.