NOVA

The NOVA project provides the coordination and governance backbone that will enable Europe to lead the development of Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0. Its main objective is to launch and operationalise the European Partnership on Virtual Worlds, while supporting the EU Initiative on Web 4.0, so that these technologies evolve as open, interoperable, trustworthy and human-centric systems aligned with European values. To achieve this, NOVA will (1) co-create two community-endorsed Strategic Research and Innovation Agendas (SRIAs), one for Virtual Worlds and one for Web 4.0, through inclusive multi-stakeholder processes that embed inclusivity, ethics and accessibility, linking them through a Joint Synergies Matrix that identifies overlaps and shared building blocks; (2) translate these agendas into practical instruments, namely a Virtual Worlds Roadmap with sectoral deployment pathways in health, education, culture, industry and cities, a Web 4.0 Implementation Agenda with architectural frameworks, standards and protocols, and an SME and Startup Competitiveness Blueprint; (3) deliver policy recommendations, programming inputs for future funding and a European standardisation strategy that strengthens Europe’s role as a global rule-shaper; and (4) build a pan-European stakeholder community through the Virtual4Collab digital collaboration platform, capacity-building programmes, hackathons and community events. This strategic framework will be continuously updated through an agile process, ensuring that Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0 are not only technologically advanced, but also inclusive, trustworthy and ready for large-scale deployment across Europe.

ITI-CERTH, a founding member of the Virtual Worlds Association and co-author of the first SRIA on Virtual Worlds, leads the NOVA task on community events, organising the three editions of the Annual Virtual Worlds Forum, the project’s flagship event with plenaries, policy dialogues and demonstrations, as well as webinars, brokerage events and thematic workshops, and is responsible for the community events proceedings. In addition, ITI-CERTH contributes to the development of the Virtual4Collab digital collaboration platform, to the co-creation of the Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0 SRIAs and their implementation roadmaps, and to the national representation mechanisms of the Partnership, bringing its expertise in extended reality (XR), 3D and volumetric content, computer vision and AI-driven immersive technologies.

Consortium

PNO Innovation S.L., Spain
Virtual Worlds Association, Belgium
Brainstorm Multimedia S.L., Spain
Ethniko Kentro Erevnas kai Technologikis Anaptyxis, Greece
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rennes, France
CS Group – France, France
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH, Germany
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V., Germany
Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum, Belgium
Immersion, France
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain
The AR Company SRL, Belgium
Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Poznaniu, Poland
SAP SE, Germany
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Germany
VIRCE – Kompetenzzentrum virtuelle Realität und kooperatives Engineering, Germany
Fundación Centro de Tecnologías de Interacción Visual y Comunicaciones Vicomtech, Spain
VoxelSensors, Belgium
De Vlaamse Radio en Televisieomroeporganisatie NV, Belgium
Teknologian Tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy, Finland