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Date: 22 Jan 2025
Category: Digital Innovation
£270,000 of funding has been awarded to Manfreight, Retinize and Stena Line to support them to harness the power of 5G and digital technologies to deliver enhanced operations and business growth.
The Belfast 5G Innovation Region competition provided grants of up to £100,000 to support projects making innovative use of 5G to deliver economic, social and environmental impacts.The competition is part of the Belfast 5G Innovation Region (5GIR) programme led by Belfast City Council’s City Innovation Office in partnership with five other councils in the Belfast region. Belfast 5GIR is working directly with businesses, academia, and the public sector to support the adoption of 5G to drive growth in the region’s digital economy.
Chair of Belfast City Council’s Strategic, Policy and Resources Committee, Councillor Ryan Murphy said: “The Belfast 5GIR programme is about ensuring that local businesses and organisations are well placed to benefit from advanced wireless connectivity.
“We know that 5G connectivity will underpin innovation across many sectors including advanced manufacturing, transport and logistics, creative industries, and public services. So we want to make sure that, as a region, our businesses are getting early opportunities to explore its potential in their own sector.”
Professor Liam Maguire, Chair of the Belfast Region City Deal Digital Advisory Board and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at Ulster University, added: “This is a great opportunity for businesses to leap ahead and deliver innovative use cases that can deliver a return on investment by combining the benefits of 5G with technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, and immersive applications.”
The three projects being funded by the competition are:
- Manfreight – Logistics company Manfreight is using 5G connectivity, connected cameras, machine learning, scanning and Push-to-Talk technology to enhance its chilled distribution hub operations at Belfast Harbour by optimising the movement and storage of lorries, trailers and product across its warehouse facility. The funding is supporting their journey to developing an intelligent logistics yard and warehousing environment that will set new standards for the logistics industry and provide enhanced services to their customers across Northern Ireland, including those in the agri-food industry.
- Retinize – As one of Europe’s fastest growing immersive tech studios, Belfast company Retinize is harnessing 5G to enhance its Animotive virtual reality platform which enables real-time and collaborative 3D animation, performance capture and virtual directing, bringing advanced motion capture technology to educational institutions and production companies
- Stena Line - Leading ferry company Stena Line transports over 500,000 freight units through Belfast Port for customers across the UK and Ireland each year. It will be using 5G connectivity, connected cameras, Push-to-Talk and advanced tracking technologies to deliver more efficient operations at its Belfast Harbour based freight trailer yard by optimising the movement of trailers to and from the ferry.
Local companies interested in adopting 5G can register for a free workshop ‘Harnessing 5G for your business’ being facilitated by Digital Catapult on 18 February 2025 at The MAC.
To find out more about the Belfast 5GIR programme and workshop, visit www.smartbelfast.city
The Belfast 5GIR programme is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology as part of its UK 5G Innovation Regions programme which aims to drive economic growth and innovation by unlocking the opportunities presented by advanced wireless connectivity and digital technologies.