Working with city partners, we successfully applied to join to the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilience Cities – a global programme that supports cities to become more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges of the 21st century.

As part of our membership the city has just appointed its first ever Commissioner for Resilience who will work with public, community and private sector partners over the next two years to develop a long term resilience strategy and implementation plan.

Membership of 100 Resilient Cities also brings a wealth of resource, expertise and new learning to the city. Belfast will have access to international toolkits, service providers and partners from the private, public and NGO sectors.

This is a significant gain for Belfast and the timing could not be better. There are opportunities to embed resilience thinking into long term planning as the City Council develops its first Spatial Plan.

A small number of UK cities are already members of the program including London, Manchester, Bristol and Glasgow.

Belfast was also chosen to take part in 100RC’s 2018 CityXChange summit. The event brought together a small number of cities to work with leading tech companies and a number of innovative start-ups to collaborate on a range of city challenges.

Belfast Innovation Commissioner, Adrian Johnston

New Belfast Innovation Commissioner appointed

Dr Adrian Johnston MBE has been appointed as Belfast's new Innovation Commissioner.

Using satellites to study urban air pollution

We're part of a UK Space Agency Space for Smarter Government project that’s using satellite technology to help our planners and residents understand urban air pollution.

Man wearing virtual reality headset

Augment the City – £575,000 fund for innovation in immersive tech

Major new funding competition to support local SMEs to innovate in immersive technologies to enhance the visitor experience.