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Belfast is now home to the UK Digital Twin Centre, giving businesses a straightforward way to take advantage of this promising technology.
The centre is being delivered by Digital Catapult, a government-backed organisation that aims to accelerate the use of technology in UK businesses. However, the money is coming from a mix of Belfast Region City Deal and Innovate UK funds.
“The UK Digital Twin Centre brings together our technical expertise, facilities, and networks to unlock the power of deep technologies,” said Susan Bowen, CEO of Digital Catapult in a statement.
“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.”
Digital Catapult describes a digital twin as “a dynamic virtual representation (‘twin’) of a physical asset, process or system, bridging the physical and digital worlds”.
For example, we have written about how the world’s largest ports are using and digital twins “to keep the global supply chain humming”.
We’ll let Digital Catapult describe the key benefits: “They turn data into real-time insights that can optimise performance, reduce costs and predict outcomes before they happen.”
Digital Twins are by no means new, although they are being accelerated by advances in AI (both hardware and software). Here, the UK Digital Twin Centre will bring support, test environments and tools – plus share lessons across industries.
It focuses on six “enabling technology” areas: intelligence, data services, immersive and UX, cyber-physical systems, integration and security.
“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, Executive Director for Place and Global at Innovate UK.
“These cutting-edge tools will solve complex business challenges in aerospace, maritime and defence.”
He added: “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.
“In turn this will have a positive impact on economic growth in Northern Ireland and across the UK.”
Here’s what the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Micky Murray, had to say.
“The UK Digital Twin Centre marks a major step for Belfast, driving innovation in high-growth sectors like advanced manufacturing,” read his statement.
“Through the Belfast Region City Deal and with Digital Catapult’s UK-wide reach, we’re connecting our SMEs 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.”
If you’re interested in taking advantage, the centre is now welcoming expressions of interest from “tech SMEs and industry leaders to collaborate on real-world challenges”.
Which we’ll translate as no tyre-kickers please.
Express that interest at on the Digital Catapult website here.
