VTT is proud to announce its role as a founding member of the newly established Virtual Worlds Association (VWA) which will represent the industry in the related Horizon Europe public-private partnership. This European partnership will advance useful, open, and human-centred virtual worlds. Principal Scientist and Member of the Board of Directors Kaj Helin represents VTT among a distinguished group of innovators and leaders from across Europe.
The VWA brings together communities, research institutions, and industry to accelerate the development of European virtual worlds. By fostering collaboration, supporting world-class research, and bridging the gap between academia and real-world applications, the association aims to drive responsible and ethical innovation. Its mission is to promote human-centric models that deliver tangible benefits for the economy, society, and public policy.
VTT’s central role in the VWA highlights its commitment to shaping Europe’s digital future and raising the profile of Finnish innovation and industry in this rapidly evolving field. This is a unique opportunity to showcase how VTT and Finland are helping to lead the way in virtual world technologies and digital transformation across Europe.
“Joining the VWA as a founding member is a significant step for VTT and for European innovation in virtual worlds,” says VTT’s Principal Scientist Kaj Helin. “We are committed to ensuring that virtual environments, especially industrial virtual worlds, are developed with a strong focus on real user needs.”
About the Virtual Worlds Association
The VWA is the result of an agreement signed on 3 June 2025, in which over twenty organisations from 8 countries (Belgium, Spain, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Poland) committed to collaborate in R&I actions under the European Partnership on Virtual Worlds with the European Commission under Horizon Europe.
The VWA’s founding members include leading organisations and experts such as Siemens, Fraunhofer FIT, Brainstorm Multimedia, Universitat Politècnica de València, Immersion, SAP, VoxelSensors, Université de Rennes, VRT, CS GROUP, CERTH-ITI, KU Leuven, STIIMA-CNR, DFKI, imec, and Poznań University of Economics and Business, among others.
To learn more about the Virtual Worlds Association, visit www.virtualworldsassociation.eu.
For updates, follow VWA on LinkedIn.
