Digital Catapult is the UK innovation agency for advanced digital technology, developed in conjunction with

Innovate UK Innovate UK is the United Kingdom's innovation agency, which provides money and support to organisations to make new products and services. It is a non-departmental public body operating at arm's length from the Government as part of the UK Res ...

(former Technology Strategy Board) as part of the

Catapult centres Catapult centres are a network of nine organisations set up by Innovate UK, an agency of the British government, to promote research and development (R&D) and to exploit market opportunities. Catapult centres promote R&D and innovation through ...

. Digital Catapult works with startups, industries, investors, public sector and academia to accelerates the adoption of new and emerging technologies, with the aim of driving regional, national and international growth for UK businesses across the economy.

Chief executives

Neil Crockett was Digital Catapult's founding CEO, serving from January 2013 to June 2016. He was succeeded by Dr Jeremy Silver in June 2016, who served as chief executive officer for nearly eight years. The current CEO is Susan Bowen, who took over from Silver in March 2024.

Function

Digital Catapult focuses on how digital technologies are applied in areas including

supply chains A supply chain is a complex logistics system that consists of facilities that convert raw materials into finished products and distribute them to end consumers or end customers, while supply chain management deals with the flow of goods in distr ...

, digital infrastructure and cyber-physical systems, acting in a similar way to a

business incubator A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with venture ...

. It's technology expertise includes

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

(AI),

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

distributed systems Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems, defined as computer systems whose inter-communicating components are located on different computer network, networked computers. The components of a distribu ...

immersive technology In virtual reality (VR), immersion is the perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. The perception is created by surrounding the user of the VR system in images, sound or other stimuli that provide an engrossing total enviro ...

( AR, VR),

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

( 5G),

quantum computing A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...

and the

Internet of things Internet of things (IoT) describes devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. The IoT encompasse ...

. It offers organisations accelerator programmes, consultancy, collaborative

research & development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage of d ...

, and the setup and operation of

testbed A testbed (also spelled test bed) is a platform for conducting rigorous, transparent, and replicable testing of scientific theories, computing tools, and new technologies. The term is used across many disciplines to describe experimental research ...

facilities. Staff are kept up to date and informed of changes via a so called PULSE meeting which is held from time to time. Trust was a theme of the latest update. The reorganisation still continues with new jobs appearing on their website regularly.

Locations

Digital Catapult has centres supporting regions across the UK, based in London, Sunderland, Belfast and Bristol.

London

Digital Catapult is located in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

, at 101

Euston Road Euston Road is a road in Central London that runs from Marylebone Road to Kings Cross, London, King's Cross. The route is part of the London Inner Ring Road and forms part of the London congestion charge zone boundary. It is named after Euston ...

, opposite the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

and close to

St Pancras railway station St Pancras railway station (), officially known since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a major central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus for Eurostar services from Belgium, F ...

North East Tees Valley

Digital Catapult NETV is based out of

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

North East England North East England, commonly referred to simply as the North East within England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of County DurhamNorthumberland, , Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and part of northern North Yorkshire. ...

, and runs the NETV Immersive Lab at PROTO in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

Northern Ireland

Digital Catapult Northern Ireland is in the Ormeau Baths Gallery in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

South West

Digital Catapult South West is located in Cathedral Square near the centre of

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

Testbeds and labs

Digital catapult has set up a number of testbed facilities across the UK where organisations can experiment with digital technologies, including:

Advanced Media Production facility

Operated with Target3D, a space for exploring the evolution of media production, using AI, 5G, cloud rendering and

edge computing Edge computing is a distributed computing model that brings computation and data storage closer to the sources of data. More broadly, it refers to any design that pushes computation physically closer to a user, so as to reduce the Latency (engineer ...

Immersive labs

Labs based in

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

that offer

augmented Augment or augmentation may refer to: Language *Augment (Indo-European), a syllable added to the beginning of the word in certain Indo-European languages * Augment (Bantu languages), a morpheme that is prefixed to the noun class prefix of nouns ...

and

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

equipment to businesses of all sizes, academia and researchers.

SONIC Labs

A collaboration between Digital Catapult and

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

that offers

Open RAN Open RAN, or Open Radio Access Network architecture is based on 3GPP standards for Radio Access Networks (RAN) but contains many extensions, disaggregates RAN components and makes their interfaces open, aiming to improve flexibility and interoperabi ...

interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader de ...

testing.SmartRAN Open Network Interoperability Centre (SONIC) Labs
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References

External links

Digital Catapult

Tech Nation
{{Authority control Catapult centres Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom Organisations based in the London Borough of Camden Science and technology in Northern Ireland Science and technology in Tyne and Wear