Ludus has begun to take its first steps in SYNERGIA, an R&D&I project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme, in force until 2027 as the EU's main instrument for implementing its research, development and innovation policies. It is an ambitious initiative that aims to set a new paradigm in the way people interact with virtual environments and generative artificial intelligence.
Over the next three years, SYNERGIA will be developed by a consortium of twelve European entities from five countries: Greece, France, Sweden, Spain and Italy. The project is coordinated by the University of Patras (Greece). Taking part in an initiative of this scope consolidates Ludus as a relevant player in research and development applied to extended reality (XR) and workplace safety training.
The future of health and safety training is immersive, adaptive, and powered by generative AI.
SYNERGIA starts from a clear limitation of current virtual training and support systems: their rigidity. Traditional virtual environments follow closed scripts and are unable to respond to the cognitive, emotional and accessibility needs of each individual user. This lack of adaptability undermines safety, inclusiveness and trust in domains where human-machine interaction is critical, from industrial assembly to healthcare rehabilitation.
At the level of the project's overall architecture, SYNERGIA is built on four technological pillars:
Starting at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4-5, SYNERGIA will progress to TRL 6-7 through validation in industrial and healthcare pilots, including machine assembly and maintenance, personalised speech therapy for people with Parkinson's, human-robot collaboration in complex industrial settings, and road-safety training for cognitively diverse learners, the latter led by Ludus.
Ludus will lead the SYNERGIA Road Safety Pilot, in collaboration with Gureak Lanean, a Basque multi-technology group with labour integration programmes. The pilot is designed to be applicable across Gureak's entire workforce commuting between home and the workplace, with the aim of reducing in-itinere accident risk.
Through its virtual reality platform, Ludus will develop XR simulations that integrate SYNERGIA system capabilities, including real-time cognitive adaptation to the user's state —a capability currently under validation— and easy-read adapted content to reinforce accessibility and understanding of risk situations.
The pilot integrates with the capabilities developed by the rest of the consortium for the creation of immersive environments, incorporating into the Ludus platform the advances jointly developed in user-state perception and generative-AI-based conversational assistance.
The work Ludus will carry out within SYNERGIA aims to go beyond the current state of the art in XR training applied to safety. One of the main goals is to consolidate Ludus' position as a pioneering entity in XR technology applied to health and safety training, extending its reach to groups with specific accessibility needs.
The road safety pilot sets the following impact targets, subject to validation throughout the project:
In addition, the pilot is expected to deliver:
SYNERGIA is not the first European project Ludus has taken part in, but a further step in its track record of collaboration with leading research institutions and technology centres in the field of extended reality and artificial intelligence. This accumulated experience allows Ludus to offer the consortium a real-world validation field of high value, in a domain —safety training and workplace inclusion— where some of the largest European players in R&D&I are specifically looking for this kind of real-user testing environment.
Over the next three years, Ludus will follow a path marked by innovation, co-leading with the rest of the consortium major technological advances in extended reality and generative artificial intelligence.
What is Horizon Europe?
Horizon Europe is the European Union's framework programme for research and innovation, running for the 2021-2027 period (currently in its final programming cycle, 2026-2027). It is the EU's main instrument for implementing its R&D&I policies, aiming to boost research and development, address climate change, and strengthen the EU's competitiveness.
What is SYNERGIA?
SYNERGIA (Synergistic Next-Generation Virtual Environments and Extended Realities with Generative Intelligence Agents) is a research, development and innovation project funded by the European Commission under Horizon Europe (GA 101298702), coordinated by the University of Patras. The project aims to create a new generation of virtual worlds powered by generative AI, capable of adapting in real time to the cognitive, emotional and accessibility needs of each user.