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November 3, 2026

2nd International Workshop on XR for Challenging Environments

This is the second edition of the XR for Challenging Environments (XR4CE) workshop series, building directly on the successful CHI 2026 workshop in Barcelona. That first gathering brought together 22 position papers and a vibrant community spanning emergency response, aviation, healthcare, industrial operations, and military contexts. The upcoming workshop in Valencia (Nov 3, 2026), a satellite event of EuroXR 2026 and VWP Annual Forum 2026, will deepen that work. Extended Reality combined with Artificial Intelligence holds transformative potential for professionals in Challenging Environments (CEs) — contexts defined by complexity, risk, and unpredictability that push human decision-making to its limits. Yet XR research still struggles to meet the unique demands of embodied, mission-critical work. The workshop is co-organized by AIT (Austrian Institute of Technology), the University of Zagreb, Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, and Leif Oppermann (Fraunhofer FIT & Vice-President of the Virtual Worlds Association).

Introduction

Virtual Worlds, solving real world problemsVirtual Worlds (VW) represent a transformative convergence of physical and digital realities, creatingimmersive environments where users can interact, work, learn and play in unprecedented ways. ThisStrategic Research and Innovation Agenda identifies the required foundational concepts andtechnological advancements driving VW, highlighting their potential to revolutionise various sectors,including industry, entertainment, education, and commerce. By examining the interplay betweenAugmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), or Mixed Reality (MR) and other emerging technologies likeDigital Twins (DT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of VWs'prospects and associated research and innovation gaps. A deeper exploration of VWs' impact on societyand the economy gives context to the application and technology perspectives.VW are persistent, immersive environments, based on technologies including 3D and extended reality(XR), which make it possible to blend physical and digital worlds in real-time, for a variety of purposessuch as designing, making simulations, collaborating, learning, socialising, carrying out transactions orproviding entertainment1. They encompass a wide range of digital experiences, from fully i

Call for Participation

Challenging environments such as emergency response, public safety, advanced manufacturing, or space missions demand high levels of human performance under stress. This workshop investigates how XR-based training, assistance and augmentation can support people working in high-stakes, uncertain, and demanding contexts. To successfully address this challenge, enabling and nurturing active collaboration among actors (practitioners, researchers, technologies, systems) on different levels is essential.

Topics of Interest

We welcome 2–4 page position papers featuring novel concepts, empirical findings, provocative statements, or case studies addressing topics including:

  • The Augmented Professional: Cognitive load, skill evolution, and human agency in mission-critical XR use.
  • Human-AI Teaming: Moving beyond AI as a tool toward AI as a team member — shared situational awareness, role negotiation, and real-time coordination in high-stakes XR environments.
  • Multi-Agent Coordination: Design challenges for environments where humans, robots, and AI agents share the same operational and information space without stepping on each other.
  • Multi-Stakeholder Design: Co-designing XR for challenging environments with operators, managers, regulators, and end-users as active participants rather than informants.
  • XR as a Collaboration Medium: Using XR to support shared awareness and communication among distributed or co-located teams in challenging environments.
  • Cross-Domain Knowledge Transfer: What emergency medicine can learn from military XR, what industrial operations can borrow from healthcare — and how to make that transfer systematic.
  • Design for Operational Deployment: Building XR systems that hold up under field realities: degraded communications, physical stress, time pressure, and environmental uncertainty.
  • Transfer of Training: Which skills, habits, and mental models carry over from XR training to live deployment, and which break down under real operational conditions?
  • Researcher-Practitioner Partnership: Structures and formats that enable genuine two-way learning between academic researchers and field experts, beyond one-off consultation.
  • Cross-Disciplinary Research Integration: How HCI, AI, cognitive science, and domain practice can move from parallel work toward genuinely integrated XR4CE-related research agendas.
  • Case Studies: XR-in-use experiences and lessons learned from emergency response, industrial operations, healthcare, and other challenging environments.

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