March 12th, during a round table organized by the European Commission, we had the pleasure of presenting the first ever recommendation document produced by Virtual Worlds Partnership: “Virtual Worlds technologies and applications for the defence and security sector”, in context of future European research priorities and programs.
This document, co-created with a group of 29 European Defense industry leaders, universities and research organisations, and Virtual Worlds technological companies by attending two online workshops we organized in February for this occasion.
The session started by an introduction of Anne Bajart about the EC strategy towards Virtual worlds and a reminder of the scope of the Virtual Worlds partnership, the co-programmed partnership between the European Commission and the Virtual Worlds Association.
Alejandra del Valle, Virtual Worlds Association Secretary General then reminded the current momentum of Virtual Worlds Technologies, what we have achieved in our 3 months of existence and the numerous opportunities that comes with it.
After a paper walkthrough of Dr Olivier Balet, CTO of CS Group and content lead editor of this document with his colleague Dr Eric Menou, a rich roundtable discussion demonstrated a good alignment of the audience with R&D priorities. With specific areas of interest in dual use, Digital Twin Battlefield optimised for interactive and immersive applications, Human-centred Immersive XR Interfaces, AI and Simulation, Resilient network & computing infrastructures and Authoring tools.
Simon Marsol, CTO of Sopra Steria, emphasized the need to accelerate the adoption of Virtual Worlds technologies highlighting how much of a positive momentum and opportunity these technologies represents for all kind of Defense companies, including NATO, to reduce their current significant existing dependencies in hardware and the limitations imposed by certain non-European standards.
Eleftherios Ouzounoglou, Senior researcher and Supervisor of Crisis Management and Health Technologies Teams at ICCS representing the academic and research domain, also stressed the importance of developing human virtual twins, capable of accurately modeling how human bodies behave, taking into account human factors and enabling neuroadaptive solutions.
Can-David Koycu, co-Founder and CMO of Altheria, raised several relevant points related to data protection (e.g., the level of surveillance enabled by drones), recruitment and training needs. Including scalability systemic issues and how teams can be trained when they are not physically together, and the effectiveness of training through the use of biometrics as key issues to be considered.
We’re confident to have captured the research priorities for this crucial domain, stay tuned for its official release of the paper next week. Laying out a strong foundation for the association's next papers, starting by the upcoming XR Chips position paper.
Our warm welcome for all of DGCNECT unit G2 for organizing this fruitful discussion and for their support in our orchestration of the paper redaction.
We’re extending our warm gratitude to Georgios Stavritis from DG DEFIS and Dr Nizar Touleimat from the Directorate Technology & Information Unit of the European Defense Agency for their presence and shared willingness to build bridges between our ecosystems.
Before the section concluded, our Vice-President Laszlo Arnould, reminded the need to act cohesively and coordinated in our shared strategy to nurture and retain key European IPs and Talents through systemic enablers such as a strong European Community and Equity strategies.
Join us in this community effort, the VWA is welcoming new members since 3 months, including SMEs, large industry players, universities, and research organizations. Together, we will co-create the framework enabling us to deliver tangible benefits for citizens, businesses, and policymakers
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