The Digital Twin Centre plans to transform how industries design, test, and optimise everything from supply chains to engineering systems by turning data into dynamic virtual models mirroring real-world operations. The centre is backed by Innovate UK and the Belfast Region City Deal. The hub is a step towards unlocking economic value and accelerating sustainability nationwide.
The Role of the Digital Twin Centre in Driving Innovation
Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Micky Murray, said: “The UK Digital Twin Centre marks a major step for Belfast, driving innovation in high-growth sectors like advanced manufacturing. Through the Belfast Region City Deal and 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.”
Co-investing Industry Partners and Digital Twin Technology
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.
Helping Businesses Adopt Digital Twin Technology
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 focus areas will include intelligence, data services, immersive and UX, cyber-physical systems, integration, and security.
The Digital Twin Centre's Accelerator Programme for SMEs
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.
