Developing citiverse

Context

A CitiVerse (virtual worlds for citizens) can be composed of a series of interconnected distributed virtual worlds representing their physical counterparts and synchronized at a specified frequency and fidelity. Those virtual worlds can offer virtual goods/services (e.g. administrative, economic, social and cultural online activities) and virtual environments (e.g. game scenes, online fora or virtual cities) to citizens and other users represented as digital avatars. User-centric activities in the CitiVerse ecosystem and content creation will be key elements to support social acceptability and trust. CitiVerses could be used by citizens avatars to navigate and discover both public, private, cultural, historical, or touristic digital and physical assets. Businesses will be able to offer innovative and circular services related to shopping, tourism or entertainment while local authorities and communities can improve their sustainability and resilience by managing their infrastructure, make decisions on urban planning and mobility allowing an active citizens participation in co-design of community policies.

Objective

The action will help define what the ‘CitiVerse’ means for Europe building on the smart communities’ data infrastructure that is developed under WP2021-22 and WP23-24. The objective is to bring EU CitiVerse industry together, including the wealth of European SMEs active in technologies relevant for metaverses and in content creation, for the development of different layers of VR/AR worlds useful for local authorities and citizens. The project(s) stemming from this action will take into account potential EDIC in the field.

The action could build on existing local digital twins expanding their capabilities. One or more projects, led by the industry in cooperation with one or more communities, will introduce VR/AR and metaverse technology to allow citizens and other stakeholders to «navigate and interact» in their urban spaces from basic ‘default’ sensory experiences all the way to digital asset-enhanced AR overlays merging the physical and virtual communities into a hybrid metropolis. This will create a steady and immersive environment for citizens and businesses, a CitiVerse, that can be used for virtual/real spatial planning, management or navigation while also enhancing the social, architectural, green and cultural heritage dimension of living spaces.

The action will contribute to the ecosystem of SMEs and larger companies nurtured through the VR/AR Industrial Coalition, and at the same time it can benefit from the mobilising and structuring actions of the Coalition as well as from integrating the values and principles of the New European Bauhaus initiative. The action should also explore links and synergies with the Climate-neutral and smart cities Mission, and in particular to selected Mission cities, when identifying use cases.

Eligibility

A consortium of at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) and which includes minimum 3 independent entities from 3 different eligible countries. The consortium should include representatives from the EU public sector at local level and industry. Academia, civil society, and citizens (for example through Citizen Science) are also welcome. The consortium should include signatories of the Living-in.eu declaration and find synergies with beneficiaries of relevant EU missions in Horizon Europe.