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Non-verbal Objective VR-based Diagnostic Assessment for Anxiety Disorders

Objective

Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent mental health conditions, affecting more than 40 million persons in the EU alone and causing a major socioeconomic burden. Current diagnostic assessment relies on subjective self-report and clinician interpretation, resulting in diagnostic imprecision, cultural bias, lengthy procedures, and limited scalability. The NOVA project addresses this critical gap by developing an innovative, objective, non-verbal, transdiagnostic and scalable assessment tool using immersive virtual reality (VR) and state-of-the-art behavioural analytics. Based on ERC-funded research, NOVA simulates biologically relevant threat situations in VR to elicit naturalistic behaviours. These behaviours are recorded via high-resolution motion capture and analysed using cutting-edge machine learning techniques to extract diagnostic and prognostic features. NOVA will now test this approach in a proof-of-concept clinical study involving 100 patients with various anxiety disorders and 40 healthy controls, aiming to identify robust behavioural markers within and across traditional diagnostic categories. NOVA seeks to provide a scalable, fully automated, language-independent, and objective solution for assessing anxiety disorders across cultures and settings. This will benefit patients, clinicians, and healthcare providers. NOVA also holds commercial potential through patentable behavioural analytics, paving the way for future digital innovations in mental health care.

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Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2026-POC

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Host institution

RHEINISCHE FRIEDRICH-WILHELMS-UNIVERSITAT BONN
Net EU contribution
€ 150 000,00
Address
REGINA PACIS WEG 3
53113 Bonn
Germany
Region
Nordrhein-Westfalen Köln Bonn, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Beneficiaries (1)