Sectoral Digital Skills Academies: Virtual Worlds Skills Academy 2025

Deadline: 2-Sep-25

Applications are now open for the Sectoral Digital Skills Academies: Virtual Worlds Skills Academy.

Objectives

• The EU’s Virtual Worlds Skills Academy will pursue the following objectives:
  • Building on the existing actions and initiatives in Virtual Worlds in close cooperation with industry. Identifying meaningful current academic and training offers, while identifying the gaps that may exist. Developing new training offers, scaling up successful ones and proposing up-to date and flexible education and training curricula and programmes to reinforce the number of virtual worlds specialists.
  • Planning and designing the Competence and qualification framework (CQF) for education and training in virtual worlds, including qualification standards, for different students/trainee categories, job profiles and professional roles. The CQF will be used as a reference by the EU education and training providers in disciplines related to virtual worlds
  • Based on the CQF, developing, managing and maintaining a catalogue of education and training curricula and programmes for the virtual worlds domain of expertise, for a variety of target groups across the EU.
  • Creating an ecosystem of EU stakeholders involved in teaching disciplines related to virtual worlds technologies to increase the capacity of nurturing, attracting and retaining talent.

Scope 

• Proposals are expected to focus on the following, under the three pillars below:
  • Pillar 1: Knowledge, education and training
    • Designing, developing and handling operations in virtual worlds entail the interplay between the following sets of disciplines, corresponding to key building blocks of virtual worlds:
      • innovative technologies (e.g. extended reality (XR), blockchain, AI, data, edge computing, high-performance computing, 3D graphics, interactive media, computer vision, modelling and industrial applications (digital twins), digital identity, and big data),
      • creative subjects (e.g. audiovisual production, performing arts, animation, architecture, creative writing and storytelling, fashion, game design), and
      • social sciences and humanities (e.g. law, ethics, geography, anthropology).
    • The Academy will target the following groups:
      • Higher education students and young graduates wishing to specialise in the design and development of virtual worlds.
      • Academic staff teaching disciplines related to virtual worlds technologies.
      • Upper secondary and/or vocational education (VET) students wishing to work in the virtual worlds area.
      • Upper secondary and/or VET teaching staff.
      • Professionals in different sectors (e.g. health, agriculture, automotive, public administration) and institution types (e.g. SMEs, start-ups. public) who wish to upskill/reskill to be able to operate in virtual worlds.
      • Citizens: The Academy will support the acquisition of basic knowledge in virtual worlds to make citizens aware of the opportunities and risks that they may encounter as regular users. In addition, the Academy will empower young people to engage with virtual worlds and foster their interest in finding a job in this technological area.
  • Pillar 2: Building the ecosystem
    • The Academy will create synergies with EU-wide ongoing initiatives or schemes (e.g. Erasmus+) and maintain constant collaboration with the EU advanced digital skills umbrella action ELEVATE that will coordinate and foster collaboration among sectoral academies and initiatives, as well as with the European Advanced Digital Skills Competitions66 project supporting the design, managing and running of the virtual worlds competition.
    • Building upon and expanding this network, the Virtual Worlds Academy will foster an ecosystem of EU stakeholders around virtual worlds skills, which will include, at least:
      • higher education institutions,
      • upper secondary schools, VET institutions,
      • research organisations, innovation centres,
      • industry partners,
      • public institutions at EU and Member State or regional level (e.g. ministries, agencies),
      • NGOs, associations, (e.g. for consumers),
      • Education service providers.
  • Pillar 3: Measuring progress
    • The proposals will include a robust methodology to monitor the evolution of the labour market, and the progress achieved in closing the virtual worlds skills gap. The indicators and benchmarks will be in line with the EU measurement frameworks.

Funding Information

• The estimated available call budget is EUR 27 000 000.
  • Virtual Worlds Skills Academy: EUR 10 000 000

Duration

• 48 months

Outcomes and Deliverables

• Outcomes
  • Through designed and delivered education and training activities, the Academy will prepare the workforce to contribute in a sizeable way to closing the virtual worlds skills gap, acting as a booster for competitiveness and innovation for European companies and research organisations.
  • The Competence and Qualification Framework (CFQ) for Virtual Worlds Skills will get increasingly adopted by EU-wide education and training institutions, as a trusted qualification and quality assurance reference for teaching virtual worlds skills.
  • The ecosystem of EU stakeholders will propose, under the coordination of the Academy, actions to reach a better balance between the demand and offer of virtual worlds skills.
• Deliverables
  • The Competence and qualification framework (CQF) for education and training in virtual worlds, including qualification standards designed;
  • The CQF-based education and training curricula developed for the teaching of disciplines related to virtual worlds technologies for all the six (6) target groups, as required under Scope;
  • The programmes planned under these curricula delivered;
  • A concept document in support of the building and fostering the ecosystem of EU stakeholders in virtual worlds skills area, with examples of proposed initiatives prepared;
  • The complete catalogue of education and training curricula and programmes for the virtual worlds domain of expertise published on the Academy’s dedicated space on the DSJP.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
• be legal entities (public or private bodies)
• be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  • non-EU countries
    • listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme

For more information, visit EC.