The UK Digital Twin Centre was formally opened in Belfast on 2 Might. Delivered by Digital Catapult and funded by the Belfast Area Metropolis Deal and Innovate UK, the undertaking is meant to speed up the adoption of digital twin expertise throughout the UK’s important sectors, projected to achieve £62million in GVA for the financial system over the subsequent decade.
Digital twin expertise will “drive the subsequent wave of business transformation”, mentioned the announcement.
On the Centre’s opening, the undertaking’s co-investing trade companions – Artemis Applied sciences, Spirit AeroSystems, and Thales UK – utilised the cutting-edge amenities, together with the 360-degree immersive area and superior expertise lab, to show how digital twins are serving to to unravel complicated operational challenges. These early-stage use circumstances emphasise the ability of cross-sector collaboration to create scalable, sensible options whereas constructing experience that may be shared throughout industries, finally bettering product design, constructing provide chain resilience, and decarbonising operations.
Programmes delivered by the UK Digital Twin Centre will assist companies throughout the UK to demystify, show, and deploy digital twins. With skilled assist, check environments and instruments to experiment and validate, mixed with shared learnings from trade use circumstances, it presents a sensible path to adoption. The Centre has convened capabilities throughout digital twins six enabling expertise areas – intelligence, knowledge companies, immersive and UX, cyber-physical methods, integration, and safety – to make this rising expertise extra accessible and interoperable throughout sectors and suppliers.
“The UK Digital Twin Centre marks a significant step for Belfast, driving innovation in high-growth sectors like superior manufacturing,” mentioned the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Micky Murray. “Via the Belfast Area Metropolis Deal and with Digital Catapult’s UK-wide attain, we’re connecting our SMEs to a strong community, unlocking entry to new markets, collaboration alternatives, and cutting-edge applied sciences.
This may enhance native companies, create high-skilled jobs, and drive actual financial affect for the area.”
The Centre’s first six-month Accelerator Programme, now open for pre-application expressions of curiosity, will assist partnerships between tech SMEs and trade to fast-track digital twin adoption in maritime, aerospace, and defence. Alongside Innovate UK funding, contributors may even acquire entry to mentorship, workshops, and specialist assist to develop proofs of idea for enabling applied sciences—reminiscent of IoT, knowledge integration, and simulation instruments— bringing their options nearer to real-world deployment.
“The UK Digital Twin Centre brings collectively our technical experience, amenities, and networks to unlock the ability of deep applied sciences,’ mentioned Susan Bowen, CEO of Digital Catapult. “By connecting industries with cutting-edge expertise via our programmes, we’re enabling companies to harness the total potential of digital twins-driving operational efficiencies, advancing sustainability, and sharpening the aggressive fringe of UK companies.”
Dean Prepare dinner, Govt Director for Place and International at Innovate UK, added, “Seeing real-world use circumstances coming to life on the UK Digital Twin Centre is a strong demonstration of how digital twins can ship tangible advances for UK trade. These innovative instruments will clear up complicated enterprise challenges in aerospace, maritime, and defence. It’s a testomony to how we’re leveraging the strengths of native innovation clusters throughout the UK, with Belfast bringing collectively it’s wealth of enterprise and analysis experience in digital applied sciences and superior manufacturing. In flip this can have a optimistic affect on financial development in Northern Eire and throughout the UK.”
A Digital Twin is a dynamic digital illustration (‘twin’) of a bodily asset, course of, or system, bridging the bodily and digital worlds. They flip knowledge into real-time insights that may optimise efficiency, scale back prices, and predict outcomes earlier than they occur. Since funding for the undertaking was introduced, Digital Catapult mentioned it has introduced collectively trade and innovators to determine adoption obstacles and strategic interventions.
Expressions of curiosity are actually open for tech SMEs and trade leaders able to collaborate on real-world challenges on the primary UK Digital Twin Centre accelerator programme at: digicat.org.uk/UK-Digital-Twin-Centre
