The UK Digital Twin Center has officially opened in Belfast, Northern Ireland, marking a major milestone in the UK’s digital innovation landscape.
Delivered by Digital Catapult and funded by the Belfast Region City Deal and Innovate UK, the project aims to drive a new wave of industrial transformation by accelerating the adoption of digital twin technology across the UK’s critical sectors.
With expert support, test environments and tools to experiment and validate, combined with shared learnings from industry use cases, the center will offer a practical route to digital twin adoption.
The center’s first six-month accelerator program, now open for pre-application expressions of interest, will support partnerships between tech SMEs and industry to fast-track digital twin adoption in maritime, aerospace and defense.
What are digital twins?
A digital twin is a dynamic virtual model of a physical asset, process or system that continuously updates with real-world data to reflect the condition, behavior and performance of its physical counterpart. Digital twins are among a number of approaches businesses use to support process excellence, transforming the way organizations manage operations, optimize efficiency and improve decision-making.
Digital twins help to solve complex operational challenges
At the center’s opening, the project’s co-investing industry partners – Artemis Technologies, Spirit AeroSystems and Thales UK – utilized the cutting-edge 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 emphasize 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 decarbonizing operations.
“Seeing real-world use cases coming to life at the UK Digital Twin Centrer is a powerful demonstration of how digital twins can deliver tangible advances for UK industry,” commented Dean Cook, executive director for place and global at Innovate UK. “It’s a testament to how we are leveraging the strengths of local innovation clusters across the UK, with Belfast bringing together it’s wealth of business and research expertise in digital technologies and advanced manufacturing.”
UK Digital Twin Center to enhance accessibility and interoperability
The center has convened capabilities across digital twins’ six enabling technology areas – intelligence, data services, immersive and user experience (UX), cyber-physical systems, integration and security – to make the technology more accessible and interoperable across sectors and suppliers, according to a press release.
The UK Digital Twin Center marks a major step for Belfast, driving innovation in high-growth sectors like advanced manufacturing, said the Lord Mayor of Belfast, councilor Micky Murray. “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.”
Participants will also gain access to mentorship, workshops and specialist support to develop proofs of concept for enabling technologies such as internet of things (IoT), data integration and simulation tools.
“The UK Digital Twin Center brings together our technical expertise, facilities and networks to unlock the power of deep technologies,” said Susan Bowen, CEO of Digital Catapult. “By connecting industries with cutting-edge technology through our programs, 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.”
Image credit Digital Catapult.
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