Abstract: This year, the long awaited Co-programmed European Partnership for Virtual Worlds is to be realized. This summer, the Virtual Worlds Association has been created, being the legal entity representing industry and academia in the public private partnership with the European Commission. In parallel, the first version of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda got released, which serves as guidance for the creation of future research calls. In this talk, Matthieu will give an update on the latest developments and the opportunities for becoming part of the community. Moreover, he will give insight in the ambitions. Core is the conviction that joining forces and driving coherency across country borders, across segments and across academia and industry will result in accelerated realization of Virtual Worlds, to solve real world problems.

Bio: Matthieu Worm is distinguished key expert in the domain of Simulation & Digital Twin research & pre-development in Siemens since 2022. He drives consistency and coherency in Siemens’ research and technology roadmap shaping the Industrial Metaverse, focusing on foundational research, business value and end-user applications. Next to this role, he is president of the Board of Directors of the new Virtual Worlds Association: representing industry and academia towards the European Commission, establishing the new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.

He joined Siemens Digital Industries Software in 2016 to drive the simulation and test solutions portfolio strategy for autonomous vehicle development and is co-founder of Simulytic. Before working at Siemens, he was engineering manager at Moog, developing high-end driving simulators and automotive test equipment. Matthieu started his working career at Toyota Motor Europe as vehicle safety engineer. He earned a master’s degree in Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology and completed an MBA at Antwerp Management School.