Earlier this year, nine cutting-edge EU-funded projects came together to form the BeyondXR cluster. In this collaborative space, Extended Reality (XR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Robotics meet to drive innovation across education, industry, and emerging technologies. Since our first joint update “Shaping the Future with XR, AI and Robotics”, our cluster has grown and five new projects have joined: SPIRIT, MOTIVATE XR, VOXReality, XR2Industry and OpenVerse.
Each project has continued to break new ground. From open calls and pilot launches to new partnerships and validation studies, here’s a quick round-up of what’s been happening across the cluster.
BeyondXR Cluster Projects Updates
XR5.0
The XR5.0 project has successfully delivered four impactful webinars to date, each drawing strong interest from the extended reality (XR) community. With a minimum of 40 attendees per session—and the inaugural webinar reaching full registration capacity—the series has become a valuable forum for researchers, developers, and industry leaders to explore the human-centric transformation of XR technologies.
Preparations are currently underway for the fifth webinar “Breaking Barriers: Howe Open XR Standards Unlock Interoperability and Compliance”, scheduled to take place on 14 July 2025. These knowledge-sharing events continue to spark dialogue around the role of XR in reshaping training, collaboration, and user experience. Registration here.
Looking ahead, the project’s third General Assembly meeting will be hosted in Cyprus in early July 2025. This gathering will serve as a key milestone to assess progress, present outcomes, and strengthen collaboration among partners as XR5.0 moves into its next phase.
XR2Learn
XR2Learn project continues to promote the 10 winners from its Open Call #2, whose implementation phases will last from April 2025 until 31 March 2026. Each winner presents their solutions via an interview on the website and a video on YouTube to showcase their solutions. The consortium met on 7 and 8 May in Lugano, Switzerland, for its General Assembly, also showcasing some of the Open Call #2 winners’ solutions. The platform was also showcased. Finally, a technical deep dive was presented, with a tutorial on enablers.
The XR2Learn Forum is live and fast becoming a vibrant hub for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation in immersive learning: This is more than just a discussion space—it is where XR developers, educators, startups, and enthusiasts connect, access tutorials, find technical guidance, exchange ideas, and get inspired. Whether you are looking for answers, want to share your experience, or discover the latest trends in XR for education and training, the forum is the right place to be.
One of the forum’s key strengths is the opportunity to connect directly with the winners of XR2Learn’s Open Call 1 and Open Call 2. These outstanding teams are not only developing impactful XR solutions—they’re actively contributing to the XR2Learn community by sharing insights, use cases, challenges, and user feedback. Their stories go beyond product development, offering a real look at how XR is shaping the future of education and skills. On the forum, you can also find valuable information about the added value of the XR2Learn platform, including feedback on the business and technical support provided to innovators, as well as end user experiences that showcase how XR solutions are making a difference in real training contexts, thanks to the experiences of open call 1 winners. By joining the forum, you’ll gain access to this growing network of innovators and changemakers—ready to collaborate, support, and exchange ideas. Register today and discover the value of the XR2Learn platform.
XR2Industry
XR2Industry will be announcing results of the second Open Call very soon. The second Open Call received 51 applications from across Europe. It focused on XR software solutions, with strict criteria around interoperability, scalability, and integration with XR headsets. Selected companies will each receive up to €275,000 in funding. We just launched the 3rd Open Call about Use Cases. The third Open Call is open until 12 August 2025. It targets research–industry consortia and focuses on 4 defined challenges, such as MR training and workflow support. Each selected team can receive up to €233,900. Projects must already be at TRL 7 or 8. Finally, we just started mentoring sessions for OC1 HW enablers. Six hardware enablers selected through the first Open Call have now entered a 2-month mentoring phase. The goal is to help them refine their technology and prepare it for integration into the XR2Industry headset.
MASTER
Over the past months, the MASTER project has continued work on both its open calls. The execution phase of the 1st Open Call is underway, with 17 winning projects implementing novel XR technologies in the MASTER Platform. In parallel, the project launched its 2nd Open Call from April to June, aimed at attracting new contributors to explore and validate XR technologies in learning settings. Currently, the applications are being evaluated. Furthermore, in June, the MASTER consortium met in Eibar, Spain, for its General Assembly, hosted by Tekniker and Aleco. During the meeting, the progress achieved over the past year was reviewed and upcoming activities were planned.Read more about it here.
HECOF
The HECOF project reached a milestone in May with its Final Conference in Brussels. Attendees were treated to live VR demonstrations and presentations showcasing AI-driven personalised learning systems, underlining HECOF’s transformative impact on higher education. Pilot universities in Italy and Greece shared insights on the successful integrations of HECOF’s solutions into real classrooms. A session dedicated to ethical and legal considerations of AI emphasised responsible innovation. Collaborative discussions with sister EU-funded projects from BeyondXR underscored the value of transdisciplinary approaches. The project now enters its 2nd and final evaluation phase, with POLIMI and NTUA universities continuing to refine and validate HECOF’s cutting-edge educational tools.
SPIRIT
The second SPIRIT Open Call was open to a wide range of third-party contributors, allowing them to validate and test their applications on the SPIRIT platform, Europe’s first multi-site and interconnected platform for real-time immersive telepresence applications. The project recently announced the 16 winning projects that will contribute to the advancement of immersive telepresence across Europe. Interviews with the winners of Open Call 2 are now available, offering insights into their innovative ideas and the creative elements of their work. Meanwhile, the rollout of the first open call projects is now underway.
Furthermore, CORTEX² and SPIRIT are excited to announce their participation in EuroXR 2025, one of Europe’s leading events for the extended reality (XR) community, taking place from 3–5 September 2025 in Winterthur, Switzerland. The two projects will join forces for a special session titled: “Extended Collaborative Telepresence – How CORTEX² and SPIRIT are Advancing Innovation in XR” — which will also be their final event. This joint track will highlight the impact of their cascade funding programmes, featuring research outcomes, live demonstrations, and practical applications. In total, results from over 50 funded initiatives will be presented, offering valuable insights into how European projects are shaping the future of XR. Save the date and stay tuned to learn more!
VOXReality
VOXReality is entering an exciting new phase as it begins its large-scale piloting activities across its three use cases: the Virtual Reality Conference, the Augmented Reality Training Assistant, and the Augmented Reality Theatre. These innovative applications are being tested to refine their impact and functionality across diverse real-world scenarios. In April 2025, the consortium gathered for its General Assembly meeting, hosted by Maggioli SpA at its headquarters in Santarcangelo di Romagna. The meeting was accompanied with internal piloting sessions, offering hands-on demonstrations and evaluations of the project’s key outputs. Meanwhile, VOXReality continues to actively support its Open Call projects, which are now advancing into their final stages. The team remains committed to ensuring these projects successfully deliver on their goals, fostering innovation and collaboration within the VOXReality ecosystem.
OpenVerse
As part of its efforts to strengthen the European ecosystem for Virtual Worlds, the OPENVERSE project has launched the collection of case studies, company examples, and national initiatives to be showcased in the Virtual Worlds Observatory. This observatory serves as a central hub for knowledge and inspiration, highlighting impactful use cases emerging from open call winners, pilot activities from EU-funded projects, and industry-led implementations. If your organisation is working on Virtual Worlds and would like to be featured, we invite you to reach out via community@open-verse.eu. In parallel, OPENVERSE is organising two thematic workshops to delve deeper into the foundational enablers of Virtual Worlds: one dedicated to computing and networks, and another focused on data and data spaces. These sessions aim to gather expert insights, foster dialogue, and contribute directly to the shaping of the OPENVERSE Technology Framework.
TRANSMIXR
TRANSMIXR created two XR guides on how to explore AI. Dive deeper into these possibilities and discover practical strategies for creating meaningful immersive experiences with cultural heritage in the “Creating meaningful interactions with cultural heritage in immersive environments” and “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Reflection Tool”, this guide is designed for technology designers and developers, as well as professional users, who wish to ensure the tools they create and utilise are as inclusive as possible. This commitment guarantees that innovation serves the common good.
MOTIVATE XR
Within MOTIVATE XR, we are making complex industrial tasks engaging, safer, and accessible to all – that is the core of MOTIVATE XR. The project is developing a cutting-edge suite of XR tools for collaborative authoring, publishing, and experiencing, revolutionising training and assistance for industrial operations like assembly and maintenance. Our user-centered co-design methodology means anyone can use it, no programming skills required.
MOTIVATE XR just completed its first successful year, laying a strong foundation through intense collaboration. We defined user needs for the five industrial pilots, shaping system requirements and tool identification. The platform’s architecture was also designed with interoperability and security in mind, and a user-centric approach to UX was developed. Beyond the tech, the project has proactively addressed the social, ethical, and legal challenges of AI and XR, setting clear principles for secure collaboration, data privacy, and open science. Looking ahead, our fourth General Assembly meeting will be a crucial milestone. This gathering, set to take place in Bordeaux this September, will assess progress, present outcomes, and strengthen partner collaboration as MOTIVATE XR advances to preparing for its first beta release, implementing solutions across pilot applications, and defining its business model. Keep up-to-date with our progress by subscribing to our newsletter.
As we continue exploring the potential of XR, AI, and Robotics in real-world applications, we will be back with more updates and opportunities to engage.
Join the BeyondXR LinkedIn group to stay tuned and follow our projects for more breakthroughs, events, and ways to get involved!
