EU-wide Advantages & Opportunities for “Drive the evolution of the internet towards open and interoperable Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds” (HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-16)

1. Single Market Access – 450 + Million Early Adopters

• Seamless roll-out of Web 4.0 building blocks (identity wallets, open-hardware devices, decentralised apps) under one digital Single Market, cutting replication costs incurred by fragmentary national launches.

• Network-effect economics: pan-EU interoperability requirements (eIDAS 2, DSA, DMA, CRA) create a “default” customer base for trust services, supply-chain security tools and alternative platforms.

• Unified VAT/IOSS regimes simplify cross-border subscription billing for virtual-world services and XR content marketplaces.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Multi-country consortia can easily combine OSS communities in Paris, chip designers in Dresden, XR studios in Barcelona and university labs in Tallinn under a single Horizon GA. This accelerates TRL-raising across all five sub-areas.

• Mandatory coordination with CSA HUMAN-17 gives funded RIA projects privileged access to the emerging EU-level Web 4.0 strategic roadmap and to a curated network of Next Generation Internet (NGI) stakeholders.

• Living Labs & Citiverses: Cities participating in Living-in.EU, Eurocities or EIT Urban Mobility can supply real-life pilots for smart-city virtual worlds with genuine cross-border user traffic.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Strategies

| Grant Area | Direct EU Strategy Link | Strategic Advantage |

|------------|------------------------|---------------------|

| Identity | eIDAS 2 Regulation, EU Digital Decade | Guaranteed regulatory demand for EUDI-compliant OSS wallets across the Union |

| Supply-Chain Security | Cyber Resilience Act, NIS 2 | Early compliance tooling becomes mandatory for EU manufacturers & software publishers |

| Open Hardware | EU Chips Act, IPCEI-ME | Access to subsidised shuttle runs, open PDKs & pilot lines hosted by European fabs |

| Decentralised Alternatives | Digital Services Act (DSA), DMA | SMEs can capitalise on obligations imposed on gatekeepers to open interfaces & data |

| Virtual-World Demonstrators | Virtual Worlds Partnership, Media & Creative Europe | Leverage Creative Europe funds for XR content and new business models |

4. EU-Wide Regulatory Harmonisation – “Compliance-by-Design” Value

• One conformity matrix (GDPR, AI Act, CRA, eIDAS 2) usable in all 27 Member States avoids duplicated legal engineering.

• Cross-recognition of electronic attestations under eIDAS ensures trust portability of digital credentials between wallets, issuers and relying parties.

• Standardisation leverage: results feed directly into CEN-CENELEC, ETSI and W3C working groups via Horizon Europe’s recognised channels, fast-tracking Europe-origin standards globally.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) provide free or subsidised testbeds, cybersecurity sandboxes and user-centred design support.

• EuroHPC & national quantum / HPC centres deliver large-scale simulation capacity for immersive rendering optimisations or supply-chain vulnerability scanning.

• EIT Knowledge & Innovation Communities (KICs) – notably EIT Digital, Manufacturing and Culture & Creativity – offer acceleration services and venture co-investment for post-project scale-ups.

• Open Source excellence: mature communities (Linux Foundation Europe, Eclipse Foundation, OpenHW Group, Gaia-X AISBL) headquartered in the EU facilitate governance, code reviews and community outreach.

6. Funding Synergies & Leverage Effects

1. Digital Europe Programme (DEP): deploy TRL 8-9 components (e.g. cross-border EUDI wallet pilots) once RIA reaches TRL 5-7.

2. Connecting Europe Facility – Digital: finance pan-EU backbone or federation nodes for alternative messaging/groupware solutions.

3. European Innovation Council (EIC): Pathfinder/Transition for deep-tech open-hardware IP; Accelerator for market-ready Web 4.0 SaaS.

4. Chips Joint Undertaking & KDT JU: tap multi-project wafer (MPW) runs and pilot lines for RISC-V open-hardware prototypes.

5. Interreg & Erasmus+: fund cross-border skills academies and mobility programmes for metaverse designers & OSS maintainers.

7. Scale & Impact Potential at EU Level

• Critical Mass of Commons Contributors: NGI, OSPO Alliance and 10 000 + EU OSS maintainers form a self-sustaining ecosystem, boosting long-term maintainability beyond project end.

• Pan-EU Replicability: modular reference implementations (e.g. verifiable-credential stacks, SBOM generators, RISC-V IP blocks) can be integrated by SMEs in any Member State with minimal localisation effort.

• Economic Multiplier: Deloitte estimates a €95 bn market for metaverse services in Europe by 2030. EU-origin open standards can capture high-value layers (identity, payments, asset portability) before Big Tech silos take hold.

• Social & Environmental Impact: Open hardware with verifiable supply chains supports the European Green Deal by enabling repairability and extending device lifecycles; virtual-world-based remote collaboration lowers travel emissions.

8. Actionable Opportunities for Applicants

• Area 1 – Identity: Consortium of OSS wallet developers, national eID agencies and fintechs pilots privacy-preserving payments in at least 5 Member States, leveraging DEP large-scale pilots for Phase 2 roll-out.

• Area 2 – Supply-Chain Security: Build a federated EU SBOM registry compatible with CRA compliance; use EuroHPC resources for large-scale anomaly detection.

• Area 3 – Open Hardware: Co-design a RISC-V immersive-graphics coprocessor, fab via Chips JU shuttle runs, validate in open-source XR headsets for industrial training.

• Area 4 – Alternatives to Gatekeepers: Integrate EU-hosted Matrix servers, ActivityPub-based social spaces and LibreOffice-Online into a workspace that meets DSA interoperability clauses.

• Area 5 – Web 4.0 Demonstrator: Launch a cross-border “Culture-verse” linking museums in Rome, Krakow and Copenhagen, with tokenised artefact rentals using EBSI-compatible smart contracts.

9. Strategic Take-Away

1. Leverage EU-level regulation as a market-making instrument – design solutions that are “compliance-by-default” for forthcoming EU laws.

2. Exploit the continent-wide OSS talent pool to accelerate development and ensure sustainability after the grant.

3. Plan for layered funding: RIA ➜ DEP/CEF deployment ➜ EIC scaling ➜ InvestEU growth finance.

4. Engage early with standardisation bodies to secure first-mover advantage for European protocols and APIs.

5. Embed pilots in real cross-border value chains (public services, industry, culture) to demonstrate tangible socio-economic impact and maximise evaluation scores on Excellence, Impact and Implementation.