Published on | 2 months ago
Programmes Digital, Industry & Space AI Continent Deployment: Best use of technologiesThe 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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Professor Inez Germeys leads the Center for Contextual Psychiatry at KU Leuven, which is a large multi-disciplinary research group focusing on the interaction between the person and the environment in the development of psychopathology. She has received a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator grant (INTERACT) and Proof of Concept grant (IMPACT). With these grants professor Germeys and her team researched a new mobile self-management therapy for patients with a psychotic disorder. The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Daily Life (ACT-DL) was further developed for the clinical environment. In line with that the Horizon 2020 IMMERSE project aims to thoroughly evaluate strategies, processes, and outcomes of implementing a digital mobile mental health solution.