Belfast Harbour set to become £15m zero-emission transport test site. October 15, 2026 Belfast Harbour is set to become a live test site for zero-emission transport and energy systems, after Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald announced a £15m investment from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on Thursday 15 October. The money backs the Zero Emissions Transport and Energy Cluster, known as ZETEC, a project led by Belfast-based Artemis Technologies that will link electric vessels, high-power marine charging, autonomous transport and energy systems through secure digital twin technology. At a glance. * Funding: £15m from UKRI's Local Innovation Partnerships Fund. * Where: Belfast Harbour, used as a working, operational port test bed. * Who: led by Artemis Technologies, with Belfast Harbour, Digital Catapult / UK Digital Twin Centre, the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMIC) and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) as delivery partners. * Context: it is the second project announced from the £30m allocated to the Belfast-Derry Innovation Corridor. A port that doubles as a lab. The idea is to test the technologies together in a real port rather than in isolation, gathering evidence on how they perform as one integrated system and helping to clear the barriers to commercial adoption, according to the Department for the Economy. Dr Iain Percy, the double Olympic sailing champion who is chief executive of Artemis Technologies, told BBC News NI the aim is a digital network that can "optimise" both transport and energy use. "What does that mean for most people? It means your bus turns up at the right time in terms of transport," he said. On the energy side, he said the network could tell vessels, and eventually the harbour itself, when to draw power from the grid on windy days and when to hold back. "It means we don't have to shut down windfarms and ultimately lower energy prices," he added. Artemis is no stranger to the harbour: the company has already launched its eFoiler electric pilot boat. The Irish News reports that ZETEC follows a £33m UKRI grant awarded to an Artemis-led consortium in 2020 to develop zero-emission ferries. In their words. Announcing the funding, Ms Archibald said: "This £15m investment is a significant boost for our growing zero-emission transport and energy sector. By bringing together expertise in advanced manufacturing, clean energy, digital technologies and cyber security, ZETEC will help turn cutting-edge innovation into practical, commercially viable solutions." UKRI chief executive Professor Sir Ian Chapman said the project would help "bring clean transport to market faster by reducing risks and supporting the adoption of electric and autonomous technologies". Dr Percy added: "Through ZETEC, we're collaborating with leading partners to demonstrate how electric vessels, charging infrastructure and digital technologies can work together to support the transition to cleaner, more efficient transport." What's next. The partners hope the lessons learned in Belfast can be repeated elsewhere. "We already have real buy in from Foyle Port and other regions within Northern Ireland," Dr Percy told the BBC. The digital twin side of the project ties in with the UK Digital Twin Centre in Belfast, one of the delivery partners. For more on the city's growth sectors, see our Belfast business guide.

Inside Singapore's push for proactive defence against cyberthreats. Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies chief executive Darren Teo said there has been a more proactive sharing of "weak signals", or data that is suspicious but not yet proven to be malicious. Published Oct 09, 2026, 01:01 PM Updated Oct 09, 2026, 05:09 PM SINGAPORE - Singapore's cyberdefenders have continued to encounter attacks by advanced persistent threat (APT) groups since it was publicly revealed in July 2025 that state-sponsored cyberespionage group UNC3886 had infiltrated the city-state's critical information infrastructure (CII). But these attacks are being detected and dealt with more effectively than before through more proactive information-sharing between CII operators, cybersecurity firms and government agencies, said Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT) chief executive Darren Teo. This greater willingness to collaborate on suspicious network activity that may not cross the threshold into an actual attack - so-called "weak signals" - is crucial as APT groups continue to refine their methods to stay hidden within victims' networks, he added. Teo was speaking to The Straits Times ahead of TechCon 2026 on Oct 9, an annual closed-door conference hosted by CSIT, an agency under MINDEF focused on developing advanced cybersecurity capabilities to safeguard the Republic's digital infrastructure. At the previous TechCon in Oct 2025, Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam had announced the setting up of a new digital defence unit within CSIT focused on countering sophisticated cyberthreat actors such as APT groups. One year on, the Digital Defence Hub (DDH) has increased the willingness of the various stakeholders to exchange weak signals early and conduct joint investigations, said Teo. This is a stark change from previous practice, when each part of the industry "more or less stayed in our own lane", he said. For instance, a CII operator used to reach out to its IT vendor only when it encountered a cyber problem.

NTT DATA and NTT Security Holdings today entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT) to collaborate on strengthening Singapore's national cyber defense and to further explore areas of emerging digital technologies.