The UK Digital Twin Centre has officially opened in Belfast, 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 is set to drive the next wave of industrial transformation by accelerating the adoption of digital twin technology across the UK’s critical sectors, projected to reach £62million in GVA for the economy over the next decade.
A Digital Twin is a dynamic virtual representation (‘twin’) of a physical asset, process, or system, bridging the physical and digital worlds. They turn data into real-time insights that can optimise performance, reduce costs, and predict outcomes before they happen. Since funding for the project was announced, Digital Catapult has brought together industry and innovators to identify adoption barriers and strategic interventions.
At the Centre’s opening, the project’s co-investing industry partners – Artemis Technologies, Spirit AeroSystems, and Thales UK – utilised the cutting-edge facilities, including the 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 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.
Programmes delivered by the UK Digital Twin Centre will help businesses across the UK to 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, it offers a practical route to adoption. The Centre has convened capabilities across digital twins six enabling technology areas - intelligence, data services, immersive and UX, cyber-physical systems, integration, and security - to make this emerging technology more accessible and interoperable across sectors and suppliers.
“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, Councillor 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.”
The Centre’s first six-month Accelerator Programme, 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 defence. Alongside Innovate UK funding, participants will also gain access to mentorship, workshops, and specialist support to develop proofs of concept for enabling technologies—such as IoT, data integration, and simulation tools— bringing their solutions closer to real-world deployment.
“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. “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.”
Dean Cook, Executive Director for Place and Global at Innovate UK, added, “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. 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 it’s 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”
Expressions of interest are now open for tech SMEs and industry leaders ready to collaborate on real-world challenges on the first UK Digital Twin Centre accelerator programme at:
digicat.org.uk/UK-Digital-Twin-Centre
About the UK Digital Twin Centre
Delivered by Digital Catapult, funded by Belfast Region City Deal and Innovate UK, the UK Digital Twin Centre will actively enable industry and innovators to safely embrace, explore and realise the dynamic power of digital twins.
Operating from the heart of Northern Ireland, the Centre will accelerate the adoption of digital twins to drive global competitive advantage for UK businesses. By creating the conditions for digital twins to be better understood, more easily developed and more meaningfully applied, the Centre 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.
Through partnerships with industry pioneers, the Centre 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. The Centre has launched with co-investment from three industry partners – Artemis Technologies, Spirit AeroSystems and Thales UK – who will develop an initial six use cases.
Visit digicatapult.org.uk/programmes/programme/uk-digital-twin-centre/ for more information.
About Digital Catapult
Digital Catapult is a deep tech innovation organisation driving business value by accelerating the application of advanced technologies.
Partnering with government, industry and academia, we focus on significant challenges and opportunities facing the UK’s economy and society, where technology can play a major role in providing solutions. We break down barriers, de-risk innovation, open up markets and responsibly shape the products, services and experiences of the future.
Digital Catapult is part of the Catapult Network that supports businesses in transforming great ideas into valuable products and services. We are a network of world-leading technology and innovation centres established by Innovate UK.
Visit www.digicatapult.org.uk for more information.
About Innovate UK
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is the UK’s innovation agency. It works to create a better future by inspiring, involving and investing in businesses developing life-changing innovations. Its mission is to help companies to grow through their development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services, supported by an outstanding innovation ecosystem that is agile, inclusive and easy to navigate.
