Digital Catapult
Digital Catapult is the UK innovation agency for advanced digital technology, developed in conjunction with Innovate UK (former Technology Strategy Board) as part of the Catapult centres. 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.
Type | Non profit |
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Founded | 2013 |
Headquarters | , |
Key people |
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Number of employees | 230+ (2022) |
Website | www.digicatapult.org.uk |
Chief executives
Neil Crockett January 2013 to June 2016
Jeremy Silver June 2016 to date
Jeremy Silver is an investor, author and digital entrepreneur. He specialises in digital media, music and immersive technologies. He is CEO of Digital Catapult and Board director of Imaginarium Studios, HammerheadVR and Chair of FeedForward.AI. He is also member of the Creative Industries Council for which he serves as Chair of the Innovation Working Group. He is a member of the British Library Board and on the Experts Panel advising the Made Smarter Commission. He is also an advisor to a number of early stage technology businesses and author of Digital Medieval. He has just written a new book that will be released soon. Digital Catapult will be promoting it over the coming days.
Previously he was Executive Chairman of Semetric Ltd (a company providing social media big data and real-time analytics for the entertainment industry, sold to Apple) and was the founder CEO of the Featured Artists Coalition (a music industry membership and lobbying organisation). He was CEO of Sibelius Software (a music notation software company) which sold to Avid Technology in 2006. He was worldwide Vice President of New Media for EMI Music Group in London and in Los Angeles. Silver co-founded the pioneering service Uplister, (a Spotify-like playlist- sharing music subscription service), based in San Francisco which was venture backed by August Capital. He was also an early advisor to Shazam Entertainment, sold recently to Apple.
In the early 90s, Silver was Director of Media Affairs at Virgin Records where he worked closely with many artists including Genesis, Meat Loaf, Brian Eno, Massive Attack and the Future Sound of cats.
Function
Digital Catapult focuses on how digital technologies are applied in areas including supply chains, digital infrastructure and cyber-physical systems, acting in a similar way to a business incubator. It's technology expertise includes artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, distributed systems, immersive technology (AR, VR), telecommunications (5G), quantum computing and the Internet of things.
It offers organisations accelerator programmes, consultancy, collaborative research & development, and the setup and operation of testbed facilities.
Locations
Digital Catapult has centres supporting regions across the UK, based in London, Sunderland, Belfast and Bristol.
London
Digital Catapult[1] is located in the London Borough of Camden, at 101 Euston Road, opposite the British Library and close to St Pancras railway station.
North East Tees Valley
Digital Catapult NETV[2] is based out of Sunderland in North East England, and runs the NETV Immersive Lab[3] at PROTO[4] in Gateshead.
Northern Ireland
Digital Catapult Northern Ireland[5] is in the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast.
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.
Immersive labs
Labs based in Belfast, Gateshead and London that offer augmented and virtual reality equipment to businesses of all sizes, academia and researchers.
SONIC Labs
A collaboration between Digital Catapult and Ofcom that offers Open RAN interoperability testing[7].
See also
- British Automation and Robot Association
- Innovation and Networks Executive Agency of the EU
- National Centre for Computing Education at the University of York
- Tech Partnership, former e-skills UK, a sector skills council for the digital industry