Roadmap for Open and Co-created Virtual Worlds

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Context

Within Task 2.5, Inspiring Futures, together with OPENVERSE partners and invited experts, was asked to co-create a Roadmap for EU and Member State policy-makers on the development of virtual worlds. This roadmap is meant to support debate and future policy decisions in the context of the Digital Single Market, with a focus on strengthening the European XR / virtual world ecosystem:

• makers and designers
• service providers and community builders
• training and upskilling specialists

The text below summarises the current version 1.0 of the Roadmap, which will be refined through discussion on this wiki and at a second workshop planned for June 2026 in Brussels.

Introduction: the EU goal for virtual worlds and the Web4.0

In July 2023, the European Commission set out its vision for Web 4.0 and virtual worlds[1]. In short, the EU aims for:

Virtual worlds and Web 4.0 that reflect EU values, principles and fundamental rights.

Environments where people are safe, confident and empowered, and where their rights as users, consumers, workers and creators are respected.

A competitive space where European businesses can develop world-leading applications, scale up and grow.

A Web 4.0 based on open and distributed technologies and standards, interoperability, user choice, and with sustainability, inclusion and accessibility at its core.

While this policy vision was defined in 2023, the pathway towards it (concrete actions, sequencing and responsibilities) still needed to be specified. The OPENVERSE Roadmap is a first attempt to fill that gap.

The roadmap 1.0

Based upon two years of intensive activity and the inputs of multiple collaborative insights, Inspiring Futures came up with a first Roadmap proposal, to be challenged, deep-dived and improved upon during the next six months in this Wiki space, for a format and content to be discussed in the second Workshop, planned for June 2026 in Brussels, summarised here with one visual and a table of 10 key actions. The full Deliverable supporting this succinct presentation can be found on OPENVERSE SharePoint and will be publicly accessible once the Deliverable has been officially validated.

A simplified overview of the Roadmap-making process. Figure by Inspiring Futures for the OPENVERSE project

Examples of steps and gaps to be taken care of to make the action plan attainable. Developed by Inspiring Futures for the OPENVERSE Project

The figures above provide a simplified view of the roadmap-making process, starting with the EU goal and backtracking to the actions that will make the roadmap valuable and to the various steps needed to increase its feasibility, detailed in the figure below. There will be a necessary interplay between the actions proposed and the steps to make them attainable, but in the end, the roadmap will have to be conceived in terms of actions and concrete expected impacts.

The OPENVERSE Roadmap v1.0: Key actions, impacts, actors and time

Key Actions	Expected impacts	Lead/partners	Time[2]
KA1: Build skills for VWs, the EU as a talents’ attractor. Discuss	Substantial increase in the number of individuals capable of becoming makers, creators, brokers, counsellors, evaluators, and researchers, with significant results in the number and originality of applications for all key sectors.	EU P-makers, industry, research, MS, specific sectors (health, security).	2026-2032
KA2: Promote guiding ethical and health principles for well-being in VWs. Discuss	Documented research on mental health and related risks, with medical and legal reference increase, protection implemented and more systematically enforced, in parallel with privacy and trust increase.	EU P-makers, research, health sector, legal sector, users’ communities, education, media sector.	2026-28
KA3: Promote inspiring partnerships across sectors and boundaries. Discuss	New applications, markets, and business models should accompany the increase in numbers (users, virtual assets, communities, research output, IPTR evidence, etc.).	EU P-makers, Industry, research, health, cities, MS, financing means, XR/VW assoc.	2026-2028
KA4: Help the EU Cultural & Creative Industries and Media sector test new business models. Discuss	Creators, as individuals and in communities, can deliver high-bandwidth, scalable professional output, with or without AI. New business models should also build on PPPs, BC-related communities, and open innovation schemes as much as on classical IPR.	EU & MS, Media and culture sectors, education, financing means, XR/VW assoc., business schools.	2026-2030
KA5: Develop standards for open/interoperable virtual worlds, with sandbox options. Discuss	At least some sector progression should become measurable, and cross-use of virtual assets should become increasingly common and referenced. Pilot incentives and actions valuing XR/VW associations supported and capable of scaling.	Technology makers, industry, users’ communities, XR/VW assoc.	2026-2030
KA6: Promote AI integration and corresponding skill building for VW creativity. Discuss	Upskilling of various kinds, data stewards, ethical specialists, procurement experts, asset managers and brokers, AI creation advisors, avatar librarians, etc., should emerge in numbers.	EU P-makers, research, technology makers, designers, education, industry champions, security specialists.	2026-2028
KA7: Boost professional virtual worlds through XR/VW across sectors of excellence. Discuss	Healthcare, security, industry, and city management should at least deliver measurable performance and shareable experiences, definitely going beyond the interesting but dispersed experiments we know, i.e., towards professional ROI.	Industry, technology makers, designers, XR/VW assoc., education, EU P-makers & MS, financing means.	2026-2032
KA8: Sovereignty concerns: promote champions, and fight IPR theft, content manipulation and misinformation. Discuss	The journey is still long, but we must start somewhere. Cloud issues, chips, AI, and XR/VW makers, as well as small champions, should be encouraged with absolute priority. Misinformation, deepfakes and alternate reality narratives are challenging to fight, but new means are emerging. AI seems to represent both the problem and its solution.	EU P-makers & MS, industry, financing, legal sector, defence and security, media sector, and education.	2026-2035
KA9:  Support, strengthen and inaugurate new forms of financing for VW creators. Discuss	What exists is too little known or used, but new means must also be created (some are close to launch, others still in the waiting room) to create the stimulating environment that lags so much behind our competitors. Evidence of easier access and of new financing schemes should quickly have its own metrics.	EU P-makers & MS, financing org., business schools, designers and makers.	2026-2028
KA10: Taking better care of the environmental footprint of XR/VW deployments. Discuss	So far, the environment has been mishandled (valuing distant collaboration) or not handled at all, but the digital rise is such that VWs are part of the pack, and the moment will come when there will be a price to pay. Preparing for that can bring some benefits.	EU P-makers & MS, environmental specialists, energy sector, education, research.	2026-2035

What is expected from this stage of the Roadmap-making process

This Roadmap v1.0 is deliberately provisional. By making it available on the wiki, OPENVERSE expects experts and stakeholders to:

• Comment on and improve the key actions and their expected impacts.
• Suggest steps and enabling conditions that would make these actions achievable.
• Highlight blind spots or underdeveloped topics, such as:
  • AI’s growing role in virtual worlds; Discuss
  • How blockchain and other tools can help monetise virtual assets; Discuss
  • The skills that need to be developed or encouraged; Discuss

§  How XR and virtual worlds can cross-fertilise each other in dynamic sectors (healthcare, security, education, etc.); Discuss

§  How professional virtual worlds can boost industrial productivity. Discuss

Feedback and discussion until 30 April 2026 will inform the June 2026 workshop in Brussels, which will focus on final refinements, validation and the design of uptake channels.

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[1] The new strategy on Web 4.0 and virtual worlds to steer the next technological transition was published on 11 July 2023.

[2] Let’s observe that there are only three different time regimes suggested here: 1) immediate and short-term engagement, for urgent results (2026-2028), 2) medium-term effects to be expected but implying to start immediately regarding actionable measures (2026-2030) and 3) longer-term effects to be expected for issues likely to stay for some time and requiring particularly tenacious efforts (2026-2035).

The content of this page has been developed in the context of the OPENVERSE Project, in Task 2.5, lead by Inspiring Futures.