Description
AGORA is a research and educational programme of doctoral studies which aims to train the next generation of Metaverse researchers and practitioners who will be able to address the ecosystem challenges identified, and co-create new knowledge and solutions across sectors and industries. This is possible thanks to the close collaboration between academic and non-academic beneficiaries and associated partners, that promises to lead to superior understanding and potential, drawing from academic excellence and hands on industrial insights.
The AGORA research components will set the theoretical framework and the research path for going beyond the technical understanding of the Metaverse to explore its business and social value and address potential unintended consequences within the broader societal context. The project’s high-level conceptual framework depicts the complexity of the Metaverse ecosystem where we show how requirements and challenges across three pillars, namely users, technology, and businesses, are in practice intertwined, thus highlighting the need for taking an integrated, ecosystem-focused approach on this phenomenon.
AGORA encapsulates a cross-level approach aiming to a mutual understanding of Metaverses’ value for businesses, policy makers, software developers, business incubators, intermediaries, users and market actors. Therefore, the AGORA project has significant potential for supporting the careers and personal development of the Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), and for strengthening the EU’s competitiveness in a highly impactful domain that is the Metaverse. In light of the fierce competition in the metaverse space for talent, the AGORA programme will ensure that European companies, research centres, policy makers and other stakeholders have access to such talent and thus support the European ambition for sovereignty in this industry.