Could a Scandinavian network strengthen actors using XR?
Could XR Scandinavia break the knowledge gap among external partners that the Extended Reality (XR) actors in the north are facing? Lindholmen Science Park and Agder XR are about to find out in a cross border collaboration.
Employee laborating in VR in Visual Arenas facilities.
Many actors in the Scandinavian countries are exploring the ever-developing medium, extended reality. Small and big actors in different sectors are increasingly using the technique that seems to grasp the audience with wow factors on wow factors.
The competencies are many and strong in the Scandinavian countries and the industry is rapidly growing. Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland are however facing a challenge that today is costly in both time and money for the actors operating with the medium.
Since Extended Reality is a relatively new medium, the way of doing things is ever under construction. This serves as an opportunity for small and big actors to breakthrough in the industry with new ways and a bit of luck. In reality, it seems that the wheel is invented over and over again. Many hours and money are spent solving technical issues that could be solved within a network where the knowledge and competencies are gathered.
To boost the actors and the knowledge in Scandinavia, Visual Arena and Agder XR are intending to start up a non-profit organisation that gathers partners devoted to the medium. At this stage,Visual Arena and Agder XR have been granted financial support from Tillväxtverket (Interreg) and Västra Götalandsregionen to conduct a pre-study to investigate the need for a network and how the constellation could be set up. The pre-study's name? XR Scandinavia.
“An XR network will bring the XR competence and the market together in the same network, to learn from each other and develop new solutions together. We have seen it in parts of the offshore industry in Norway and we want to develop the same sort of cooperation between academia, the market and the XR technology companies. So far Scandinavian companies have just taken a marginal part of the possible market share in XR. With XR Scandinavia we hope to develop a network where we can build competence, share experience and work together to achieve a bigger part of a fast growing market" says Tore Askildsen, CEO, Agder XR
Gustav Bodell, project manager for XR Scandinavia at Visual Arena fills in:
"The hopes are that the pre-study will provide us with a good basis for creating an organization that in the best way support the players within XR in Scandinavia. XR is an area that is largely unexplored and we have probably not seen the best applications yet. With the strong base and extensive experience that exists in the IT and gaming sector in Scandinavia, there are the conditions for creating a network that can make this area lift even further" says Gustav Bodell project manager, XR-Scandinavia at Visual Arena.
Visual Arena is a neutral collaboration platform based in Gothenburg in Lindholmen Science Park. Visual Arena initiate and run projects, gather expertise and disseminate knowledge about visualization. The mission is to drive innovation and the use of visualization that contributes to new ways of working for a sustainable future.
Agder XR is a network in Agder, Norway that gathers competences within extended reality (XR) with the vision to strengthen Norway’s and Agder’s position within XR internationally.
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