Leveraging the European XR industry technologies to empower immersive learning and training

Project Information

XR2Learn

Grant agreement ID: 101092851

DOI

10.3030/101092851

Project closed

EC signature date 17 November 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 30 June 2026

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 7 660 125,00

EU contribution

€ 6 998 568,50

Coordinated by

CONSORZIO NAZIONALE INTERUNIVERSITARIO PER LE TELECOMUNICAZIONI (CNIT)
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - XR2Learn (Leveraging the European XR industry technologies to empower immersive learning and training)

Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The benefits of integrating XR technologies into the learning process, their positive impact as a supplementary tool to traditional learning, and the continuously increasing access to equipment create the need to accelerate XR application design and development for education/training and at the same time reduce the cost of XR application development. To address these needs, XR2Learn incorporates a range of solutions made available for free to the EdTech community ranging from ready-to-explore and experiment-with-beacon applications, to AI-assisted software enablers and models and low-code tools to reduce the development life-cycle and enable the adaptation of interactive and virtual experience-based learning activities.

The project objectives and progress towards achieving the objective.

Objective 1: To develop a digital innovation platform that promotes cross-discipline fertilisation bringing XR developers closer with education experts. The platform extends beyond a catalogue facilitating easy access to solutions and becomes itself a tool towards efficient user/provider on-demand collaboration boosting innovation.

Objective 2: To develop and make available through the digital platform a number of technological enablers to accelerate development of XR based applications with emphasis on a) the accelerated development of high-quality educational applications and b) human-centric design for enhancing the immersive experience through novel technologies enabling emotion/affect detection and learning personalisation.

Objective 3: To develop and demonstrate a number of XR based beacon applications in educational contexts to demonstrate the effectiveness of the XR2Learn technologies and provide insight on the benefits of the XR2Learn design methodology as well as present XR application assessment methodologies.

Objective 4: To deliver a strong supporting framework enabling the development of innovative competitive use-case driven applications by innovators through thematic technological support and business support including NFT based IPR management to enable the development of a dynamic and flexible XR based EdTech marketplace boosting innovation.

Objective 5: To expand the inventory of XR content, tools, applications, best practices and real-life experiences by selecting and funding the most innovative applications with high educational value and market potential reaching TRL ≥7 and MRL ≥ 5.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The XR2Learn project has transitioned from a development-focused phase to a maturing platform that is now populated, operational, and validated by external innovators. The funded projects from OC1 began delivering tangible contributions - including software, datasets, and 3D content—directly to the XR2Learn platform. These real-world outputs not only validated the technical enablers developed in the first 18 months but also helped shape further enhancements based on hands-on use. The second open call (OC2) was successful executed. The project has generated substantial interest from the broader innovation ecosystem reaching out to 113 industrial actors, 240 SMEs, 67 universities, and 70 educational institutes from 40 countries, highlighting the strong demand for XR-based educational solutions and the perceived value of the XR2Learn initiative. The activities carried out showcase the increasing maturity, adoption, and alignment of the project’s outputs with both user needs and regulatory expectations.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

XR2Learn delivered a series of innovative low-code tools, designed to foster the creation and integration of XR learning applications enriched by affective computing. The delivered enablers simplify the creation of XR applications and effectively reduce the workload required for the development of XR learning applications supporting the realistic representation of 3D objects, specifically tailored for educational purposes. The delivered enablers promote the personalization and enhancement of the learning experience in an effortless and seamless manner through the incorporation of affective computing elements, effectively integrating the capabilities of the automatic personalization of training material according to the Theory of Flow and facilitating the use of its output as a source for the adaptation of the learning material. This personalization aspect ensures that the learning experience is optimised for everyone, making it more engaging and effective. All enablers along with the accompanying supporting tools and technical documentation are publicly available via the XR2Learn platform.

Three beacon applications have been delivered, showcasing the use of XR Technologies as tools or medium in different industrial contexts. These pilot applications provide examples of training on specific environments and serve as valuable sandboxes for the XR community to discover how 3D data, virtual reality and recognition technologies can be used efficiently to deliver immersive training applications. Our aim was to provide a comprehensive toolkit for exploration and learning and stimulate the interest of external stakeholders. The source code and source projects of all three beacon applications are delivered to allow developers to dive into the implementation details, along with extensive documentation, so that they can understand how they were built, and potentially adapt these mechanics to their own needs.