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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Virtual worlds are a critical enabler of Europe’s autonomy in industry, healthcare, security, culture and education. Today, the Virtual Worlds Association (VWA) officially announces its establishment as an international non-profit association. The VWA aims to accelerate the rise of European virtual worlds by uniting communities, boosting world-class research, and moving innovations from academia to real-world markets and users. It promotes responsible, ethical, human-centric models to create positive impact on the economy, society, and public policy. The Association is now open to new members.
>>A European need, a common ambition
The VWA is the result of an agreement signed on 3 June 2025, in which over twenty organizations from 8 countries (Belgium, Spain, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Poland) committed to preparing the European Partnership on Virtual Worlds with the European Commission under Horizon Europe.
Virtual worlds are rapidly becoming essential infrastructure. In industry, manufacturing, energy, mobility and construction, immersive 3D environments help shorten design-to-production cycles, improve safety, coordinate multi-site operations, and enable predictive maintenance. In education and training, they provide realistic simulations, continuous assessment and large-scale reskilling. In culture and the creative economy, they open new forms of expression, living museums, and hybrid festivals. In science, they accelerate experimentation and reproducibility by enabling collaborative simulations.
For Europe, virtual worlds mean productivity gains, new high-value jobs, and resilient value chains aligned with European values of openness, trust, and sustainability.
That is why Europe has decided to organize and orchestrate the field. In line with the European strategy for Web 4.0 and virtual worlds, policy makers and stakeholders are converging on clearer roadmaps, shared investment priorities and open standards so that prototypes turn into large-scale deployments, with trust, interoperability and inclusiveness at their core.
>>How the VWA accelerates research, innovation and adoption in Europe
Even before the association was created, its founding members contributed to the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for the European Commission. This document defines the priorities, technologies and roadmap needed to make Europe a leader in the field of virtual worlds over the next decade. It was after this first major step that the association was born.
The Association builds bridges between European industry, SMEs, universities and research organizations to speed up the development and uptake of virtual worlds. As a non-profit jointly led by academia and industry, the VWA works within the European Commission’s Virtual Worlds partnership to represent partners other than the Union and to advance research, innovation, dissemination and workforce training so that technologies move from labs to real-world use.
The Association focuses on solving real-world problems, leveraging immersive technologies, extended reality, digital twins, collaborative virtual spaces, interoperability and digital skills. Its aim is to help Europe turn prototypes into large-scale deployments that create economic and societal value while aligning with European principles of openness, trust and sustainability.
What are the missions of the VWA:
• Creating a positive impact on business, society and policy-making, with tangible contributions to the realization of Virtual Worlds.
• Energizing, uniting and supporting the communities in Europe developing the enabling technologies and content.
• Igniting world-class research for excellence & competitiveness in the domains of Virtual Worlds in Europe
• Driving the transfer from academic contexts to end-users, through the commercial sector, by raising awareness of new business models and opportunities.
• Contributing to a sustainable, ethical and human-centric European future, combining real and digital worlds.
The Association enables existing regional multi-partner cooperation, to collaborate at the European level with know-how to support the co-creation, development and experimentation of pan-European Virtual Worlds applications and services.
>>Governance and membership
The VWA is governed by a General Assembly, a Board of Directors, a Secretary General and a Treasurer, ensuring transparency and balanced representation of 4 SMEs, 3 large companies, 10 universities and research organizations.
The initial Board of Directors is composed of:
• President: Matthieu Worm (Siemens, Germany)
• Vice-presidents: Laszlo Arnould (PopulAR, Belgium), Leif Oppermann (Fraunhofer, Germany)
• Treasurer: Francisco Ibáñez (Brainstorm Multimedia, Spain)
• Members: Mariano Alcañiz (Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain), Julien Castet (Immersion, France), Frank Feinbube (SAP SE, Germany), Kaj Helin (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finland), Ruben Lieten (VoxelSensors, Belgium), Maud Marchal (CNRS, France), Mike Matton (VRT – Flemish Radio and Television, Belgium), Eric Menou (CS GROUP, France), Spiros Nikolopoulos (CERTH – Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, ITI, Greece), Bert Pluymers (KU Leuven, Belgium), Marco Sacco (CNR, Italy), Didier Stricker (DFKI – German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Germany), Stefan Van Baelen (imec, Belgium) and Krzysztof Walczak (Poznań University of Economics and Business, Poland).
The Association is now open to new members. Categories include micro-SMEs, SMEs, large industry, and institutional members such as universities and research organizations. The official signing ceremony will be held in Brussels later with the participation of its founding members, representing Europe’s leading research institutes, universities, SMEs, and major industrial players.
Matthieu Worm, President of the Virtual Worlds Association: “Virtual worlds offer more than mere entertainment - they hold immense potential to tackle real-world challenges head-on. By breaking down barriers and fostering cross-disciplinary, multilingual collaboration, we can harness the power of virtual environments to drive unprecedented gains in safety and sustainability. This democratization of technology promises significant benefits for European society as a whole.“
>>About the Virtual Worlds Association
The Virtual Worlds Association (VWA) is a European international non-profit association created in 2025. It builds bridges between industry, SMEs, universities and research organizations to accelerate the development and adoption of Virtual Worlds. The VWA’s objectives are to foster cutting-edge research, promote interoperability, enable training and dissemination, and contribute to the creation of ethical, sustainable and human-centered immersive technologies in Europe.
virtualworldsassociation.eu
linkedin.com/company/virtual-worlds-association
>>Press Contact
Julien Castet | +33 5 57 54 17 00 | communications@virtualworldsassociation.eu
Virtual Worlds Association (VWA)
Copyright: © Immersion
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Virtual Worlds Association (VWA)
Copyright: © Immersion
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