An open and co-created Metaverse for Europe: OPENVERSE launches in November 2023

Europe is calling for the emergence of a Metaverse that characterises itself as being open, transparent, inclusive, ethically and environmentally responsible, but also capable of restoring the technological sovereignty of EU industry in the global scenario of competition. The overarching aim of OPENVERSE, which launched on 1 November 2023, is to contribute to laying the foundations of such a European Metaverse. The 36-month project is coordinated by the Lisbon Council for Economic Competitiveness and features a diverse consortium of eleven partners with a broad range of competencies ranging from technical to economic to market research.

Trust-IT and its technical partner COMMpla are leading the activities to provide an interactive and comprehensive view of the complete collection of relevant projects, organisations and companies in the Metaverse domain in Europe. The OPENVERSE watch led by Trust-IT will ensure that both supply-side and demand-side perspectives are duly represented, providing a thorough and up-to-date view of the ecosystem in Europe based on a Metaverse technology radar visualisation tool.

Trust-IT will also lead the task of analysing the current market product and services related to current Metaverse solutions, providing a benchmark of the most popular or the most promising ones. In addition, a marketplace will offer solutions and services in the OPENVERSE space to the community of users. An online discussion forum will be provided with informative articles on the Metaverse, including all-important standardisation activities, where Trust-IT is providing support to the CitiVerse Technical Working Group and the ITU-T Metaverse Focus Group through the StandICT.eu project.
 

Our role

In the OPENVERSE project, Trust-IT plays a pivotal role in two key tasks. First, under Task 2.1, Trust-IT is responsible for the Technology Watch and Taxonomy, providing an in-depth and current overview of Europe's Metaverse ecosystem through a technology radar visualisation tool and an evolving taxonomy. Second, in Task 6.3, Trust-IT leads the development of the project observatory, which will feature the OPENVERSE watch and taxonomy, a Marketplace of opportunities, a policy and project repository, and Metaverse case studies. Additionally, the observatory will showcase the OPENVERSE roadmap as an interactive web tool, offering a comprehensive view of the project's direction and impact.