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Europe’s Virtual Worlds Strategy

Published on | 1 year ago

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Digital, Industry & Space AI Continent Deployment: Best use of technologies

The Openverse project hosted last week a high-impact workshop, “National Initiatives and the European Partnership on Virtual Worlds,” aligning stakeholders around the European Commission’s Virtual Worlds strategy. The initiative, rooted in the July 2023 Communication on Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds, aims to build sustainable, inclusive, and trustworthy virtual environments across Europe.

Key stakeholders include Siemens, SAP, VRT, KU Leuven, CNRS, CNR, Fraunhofer, and DFKI.  The mission of the Openverse project is to coordinate public-private efforts under a co-programmed Horizon Europe Partnership model, fostering technological development, supporting Digital Decade objectives, and guiding a €150 million Horizon Europe funding pipeline through a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).

Openverse is establishing a Virtual Worlds Association, headquartered in Brussels, targeting 200–350 members from European companies, research institutes, startups, and public services.

For Flemish actors (universities, research institutions, technology providers, media companies, and public bodies) Openverse presents a strategic opportunity, as there is room to align well-positioned use cases from your own roadmap with a cross-sectoral innovation ecosystem.

Connection points include contacting VRT or KU Leuven (as they are founding members), submitting use cases via the official template, participating in community consultations, and engaging in SRIA drafting working groups. Early involvement will be critical to shaping standards, driving interoperability, and influencing funding priorities in virtual worlds’ development.

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The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Implementation Phase (EHRI-IP) project was funded under Horizon Europe call topic HORIZON-INFRA-2023-DEV-01-02. The project duration was two years and came to an end in February 2026. The main objective of the EHRI-IP project was to undertake all necessary legal, financial and strategic work to have a permanent organisation or ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) fully operational by the end of the implementation phase. The project consortium consisted of 14 partners from 13 countries. Read more about the project and the contribution of Flemish partner Kazerne Dossin in this testimonial.