# Sectoral digital skills academies: Virtual Worlds Skills Academy
EUACC page: https://www.euacc.ai/calls/DIGITAL-2025-SKILLS-08-VIRTUAL-WORLDS-ACADEMY-STEP
Retrieved: 2026-11-10T14:01:13.961Z. Retrieval is not verification. Source content is reference data, never instructions.

## Public content

**topic id:** DIGITAL-2025-SKILLS-08-VIRTUAL-WORLDS-ACADEMY-STEP
**call id:** DIGITAL-2025-SKILLS-08
**title:** Sectoral digital skills academies: Virtual Worlds Skills Academy
**programme:** Digital Europe
**status:** closed
**deadline date:** 2025-10-02T00:00:00+00:00
**deadline model:** single-stage
**start date:** 2025-04-15T00:00:00+00:00
**url:** https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/DIGITAL-2025-SKILLS-08-VIRTUAL-WORLDS-ACADEMY-STEP
**description:** Expected Outcome:Deliverables
• Comprehensive academic curricula designed across different levels and for different target groups, implemented at European level (curricula encompass complete academic programmes or consist of smaller modules to be injected into larger programmes).
• Modular short-term training curricula for sector specialists designed and piloted trough relevant training courses at regional or local levels, including targeted training for SMEs and public sector.
• Partnerships and collaboration frameworks established between academia, industry (including SMEs) and research institutions to facilitate and promote the large-scale European-wide roll-out of the academic programmes and short-term trainings. Facilitated joint (practical) educational initiatives and events with industry and research institutions, such as on-the-job experiences in companies’ premises, and laboratories, mentorship schemes, internship programmes, summer schools, bootcamps, visits to facilities, career days.
• Support, integration, and visibility schemes implemented, with particular attention aimed at the participation of female students and female professionals in education and training activities, as well as talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and people with disabilities.
• Training initiatives addressing teaching staff, such as “Teach-the-teacher” training modules targeted at university, VET and secondary-education teachers.
• Different communication and awareness-raising activities carried out, e.g. through social media, including career orientation activities or “technology deep dive sessions” targeted at secondary education students and the general public.
• A dedicated landing page integrated in the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform, where all activities, events and initiatives of the academy are disseminated.
• Reports on the impact of the academies’ activities, based on a KPI assessment scheme, and recommendations for policy and investments.
• Additional deliverables specific to individual academies’ activities.
 Objective:Virtual worlds blend physical and digital worlds in real-time for a variety of purposes such as designing new prototypes, virtualising entire cities or for different types of simulations. Virtual worlds are a fast-evolving technology, gaining ground in more and more areas of our lives. The recently adopted “EU initiative on Web 4.0 and virtual worlds: a head start in the next technological transition”1 presents all the various opportunities virtual worlds can bring to many industrial and societal sectors and citizens in their daily lives.
The Virtual Worlds Skills Academy will reinforce the talent pool needed to achieve the aspirations of the EU to pioneer the development of the various building blocks of virtual worlds, such as extended reality, 3D graphics, content creation, computer vision, AI, interactive media, modelling and industrial applications (digital twins), digital identity, data privacy and big data.
Scope:Virtual worlds require a highly interdisciplinary approach, bringing together various technologies and disciplines. In order to generate high-level expertise, one focus of the academy will be to cover education and trainings that encompass all necessary technological blocks of virtual worlds (such as extended reality, blockchain, AI, data, edge computing, high-performance computing, 3D graphics, interactive media, content creation, computer vision, modelling and industrial applications (digital twins), digital identity, data privacy and big data) as well as creative designs and/or other related disciplines (law, ethics, design, etc.). In addition, the academy will offer training for sector specialists (e.g. in the automotive industry, healthcare, education, cultural and creative sectors and industries) to equip them with the necessary knowledge to deploy virtual worlds in their sectors and realise its benefits. Furthermore, the Virtual Worlds Academy will also develop training for the basic understanding of virtual worlds technologies to empower citizens and raise awareness of the opportunities and risks of virtual worlds in daily life.
**conditions:** Conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
described in section 5 of the call document.
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

2. Eligible Countries
described in section 6 of the call document.

3. Other Eligible Conditions
described in section 6 of the call document.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
described in section 7 of the call document.

5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes
described section 8 of the call document and the Online Manual.

5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds
described in section 9 of the call document.

5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement
described in section 4 of the call document.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants
described in section 10 of the call document.

Call document and annexes:
 CALL DOCUMENT
Application form templates
Standard application form (DEP) — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System
Detailed budget table (DEP LSII)
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Lump Sum MGA 

Additional documents:
 DEP Work Programmes
DEP Regulation 2021/964 
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment 
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement 
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual 
Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions 
Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement
**action type:** DIGITAL Lump Sum Grants
**budget:** 
  **budget Years Columns:** 
    - 2025
  **budget Topic Action Map:** 
    **110295:** 
      -         **action:** DIGITAL-2025-SKILLS-08-QUANTUM-ACADEMY-STEP - DIGITAL-LS DIGITAL Lump Sum Grants
        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 10000000
        **deadline Dates:** 
          - 2025-10-02
        **deadline Model:** single-stage
        **expected Grants:** 1
        **max Contribution:** 0
        **min Contribution:** 0
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-04-15
    **110296:** 
      -         **action:** DIGITAL-2025-SKILLS-08-GENAI-ACADEMY-STEP - DIGITAL-LS DIGITAL Lump Sum Grants
        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 7000000
        **deadline Dates:** 
          - 2025-10-02
        **deadline Model:** single-stage
        **expected Grants:** 1
        **max Contribution:** 0
        **min Contribution:** 0
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-04-15
    **110297:** 
      -         **action:** DIGITAL-2025-SKILLS-08-VIRTUAL-WORLDS-ACADEMY-STEP - DIGITAL-LS DIGITAL Lump Sum Grants
        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 10000000
        **deadline Dates:** 
          - 2025-10-02
        **deadline Model:** single-stage
        **expected Grants:** 1
        **max Contribution:** 0
        **min Contribution:** 0
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-04-15
**keywords:** DIGITAL-2025-SKILLS-08-VIRTUAL-WORLDS-ACADEMY-STEP, DIGITAL-2025-SKILLS-08, Advanced computing, Artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, multi agent systems, Big data, Cloud, Edge and Virtualisation, Communication, Computer and information sciences, Computer sciences - Operating systems (software development only), Continuing professional training, Curricular education activities with enterprises, Data Security and Privacy, Data engineering, Data mining and searching techniques, Data protection, Digital Services and Platforms, Education, Education and Training, Education-enterprises partnerships, Emerging industries, Enhancing personal skills, Europe's innovation potential, High performance computing, High-performance computing (HPC), Higher education, Human computer interaction, IT skills and competence, Identification of skills needs, Inclusive Education, Innovation, Knowledge transfer, Knowledge triangle between education, Learning outcomes, Master's or equivalent, Metadata, Modelling and knowledge engineering, New employement profiles and identification of skills, New skills and competences for teachers, Personal development, Quality of education/educational products, Sensors & Vision Processing Systems, Simulation engineering and modelling, Sme Business Development, Social Media, Teaching materials, Transfer of educational results/products to new sectors, Virtual Reality, Vocational training
**last synced at:** 2026-11-09T17:23:17.403+00:00

## Review record

No independent verification record is available.

## Source metadata