Hot on the heels of announcing it was to participate in a European Union (EU)-funded initiative aiming to advance the development and deployment of 6G technologies and deliver smarter, faster and more sustainable connectivity, Digital Catapult has revealed it has delivered the UK Digital Twin Centre in Belfast.
Funded by Belfast Region City Deal and Innovate UK, the UK Digital Twin Centre has the stated mission of actively enabling “industry and innovators to safely embrace, explore and realise the dynamic power of digital twins”.
Operating from Northern Ireland’s main city, the Centre has launched with co-investment from three industry partners – Artemis Technologies, Spirit AeroSystems and Thales UK – and will look to drive what is regarded as the next wave of industrial transformation by accelerating the adoption of digital twin technology across the UK’s critical sectors. This is projected to reach £62m in GVA for the economy over the next decade.
Since funding for the project was announced, Digital Catapult has brought together the partners it says are needed to identify adoption barriers and strategic interventions. The Centre will fundamentally look to accelerate the adoption of digital twins to drive global competitive advantage for UK businesses.
Programmes delivered by the UK Digital Twin Centre will look to help businesses across the UK demystify, demonstrate and deploy digital twins. With expert support, test environments and tools to experiment and validate, combined with shared learnings from industry use cases, the Centre believes it can offer a practical route to adoption. It has convened capabilities across digital twins enabling six technology areas – intelligence, data services, immersive and user experience, cyber-physical systems, integration, and security – to make emerging technology more accessible and interoperable across sectors and suppliers.
By creating the conditions for digital twins to be better understood, more easily developed and more meaningfully applied, the Centre believes it will give businesses real-time capabilities to make smarter decisions and achieve better outcomes, enabling the potential of digital twins to be realised, not theorised.
In addition, through partnerships with what it calls industry pioneers, the Centre says it will demonstrate how digital twins can responsibly revolutionise critical industries in maritime, aerospace and defence, and advance the products, services and systems of the future.
At the Centre’s opening, Artemis Technologies, Spirit AeroSystems and Thales UK – who will develop the initial six use cases – used the facilities, including a 360-degree immersive space and advanced technology lab, to demonstrate how digital twins are helping to solve complex operational challenges.
These early stage use cases are said to be designed to emphasise the power of cross-sector collaboration to create scalable, practical solutions while building expertise that can be shared across industries, ultimately improving product design, building supply chain resilience and decarbonising operations.
“The UK Digital Twin Centre marks a major step for Belfast, driving innovation in high-growth sectors like advanced manufacturing,” said the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Micky Murray. “Through the Belfast Region City Deal and with Digital Catapult’s UK-wide reach, we’re connecting our SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] to a powerful network, unlocking access to new markets, collaboration opportunities and cutting-edge technologies. This will boost local businesses, create high-skilled jobs and drive real economic impact for the region.”
Digital Catapult CEO Susan Bowen added: “The UK Digital Twin Centre brings together our technical expertise, facilities and networks to unlock the power of deep technologies. By connecting industries with cutting-edge technology through our programmes, we are enabling businesses to harness the full potential of digital twins – driving operational efficiencies, advancing sustainability and sharpening the competitive edge of UK businesses.”
The Centre’s first six-month Accelerator Programme is now open for pre-application expressions of interest to support partnerships between tech SMEs and industry to fast-track digital twin adoption in the maritime, aerospace and defence sectors. Alongside Innovate UK funding, participants will also gain access to mentorship, workshops and specialist support to develop proofs of concept for enabling technologies. These include internet of things, data integration and simulation tools.
“Seeing real-world use cases coming to life at the UK Digital Twin Centre is a powerful demonstration of how digital twins can deliver tangible advances for UK industry,” said Dean Cook, Innovate UK executive director for place and global. “These cutting-edge tools will solve complex business challenges in aerospace, maritime and defence.
“It’s a testament to how we are leveraging the strengths of local innovation clusters across the UK, with Belfast bringing together its wealth of business and research expertise in digital technologies and advanced manufacturing,” he added. “In turn, this will have a positive impact on economic growth in Northern Ireland and across the UK.”
