Supporting the emergence of an open human-centric Metaverse (CSA) -

Expected Outcome

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Europe to co-shape and promote an open, decentralised, trustworthy European and global Metaverse in line with the vision of human-centric technology set out in the EU Declaration on Digital Principles and Rights.
• A strong and competitive ecosystem, with European companies playing a leading role in the adoption and acceptance, and in the development and deployment of Metaverse technologies.

Scope

An acceleration of blending of the real world with augmented and virtual worlds is giving rise to the Metaverse, an online network of immersive and virtual worlds allowing people to interact in real time for various purposes, allowing a seamless blending of the digital and physical world. It offers an infinite array of possibilities and opportunities for many industrial and service sectors including creativity and arts as well as for citizens. At the same time, it also poses significant societal, regulatory and ethical challenges. To be in line with European values and principles, the Metaverse has to be open, human-centric, trustworthy, safe and ethical, offering opportunities to everyone, focusing not only on business opportunities but also on important societal challenges such as healthcare and the green transformation.

The selected proposal will contribute to the 3 important dimensions of people, technologies and infrastructure related to the European vision of the Metaverse. It will:

• contribute to structure and support the Metaverse community and stakeholders in Europe by activities such as networking, outreach, public awareness, technology watch, market analysis, standardisation efforts, and industry-academia collaboration as well as building links to national programmes and initiatives.
• organise a vast engagement process with relevant stakeholders and wide consultation with citizens and civil society on the topic of the Metaverse (expectations, opportunities, challenges, role of Europe)
• reinforce the links between the various Metaverse related elements, in particular eXtended reality and AI, Blockchain, Connectivity but also any other related technologies (such as for example simulation, 3D digitisation, 5G/6G, internet technologies, cloud computing, identity management, advanced microelectronics), ensuring transfer of knowledge and community building.
• support the development of an EU strategy and roadmap towards an open human-centric Metaverse, including the identification of priority areas and application areas with a strong public dimension that would require strong public support and public and private investments
• help with the definition of industry standards for the Metaverse, guarantying interoperability, openness and seamless integration with and between applications, systems, technologies, data and platforms
• identify the main the elements of continuity as well as the differences between the internet as it operates today and the expected trends for the emerging Metaverse.
• identify ethical, legal, societal and economical aspects of the Metaverse such as the ownership of the digital identity and help Europe to tackle these challenges in line with the EU Declaration on Digital Principles and Rights.
• identify IPR and governance models supporting the human-centric vision for the metaverse, and explore the potential of models based on open source for the metaverse.
• closely collaborate and build synergies with other existing related European initiatives such as the AR/VR coalition, the eXtended Reality Ethics, Interoperability and Impact CSA funded under HORIZON-CL4-2021-HUMAN-01-28, the Common European Data spaces funded under DIGITAL (for example Cultural heritage and Media), the relevant European Partnerships (such as Data, AI and Robotics; Photonics, the European Blockchain Partnership); Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, the European Flagships (such as Graphene), the EU supported digital twins initiatives (such as Destination Earth).
• support international cooperation, in particular in relation to interoperability and standardisation.

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