An overview of national strategies and policies for immersive technologies

2. A review of national and sub-national policymaking

2.1.  Targeted funding

Targeted funding for the development or deployment of immersive technologies is among the most widely pursued modes of support by governments. While funding is not publicly disclosed for all policies, available information reveals that funding programmes range from providing less than one million euros per year for relatively narrow support for immersive technologies to potentially tens of millions of euros per year for relatively ambitious policies offering more comprehensive support.

The scope of the policy instruments is highly varied. While some focus on specialised grants or subsidies to foster commercial use in key sectors, such as education, healthcare, culture, tourism or manufacturing, others target research or talent development and upskilling. Many policies specifically aim to attract private sector development or establish specialised local hubs, innovation clusters or testbeds. Some also fund the development of standards for specific immersive technologies.

These targeted funding instruments represent a desire on the part of governments to achieve one of several aims. Some may be seeking to position their country to seize a strategic and early market position in an area such as immersive gaming. Others may be aiming to spur the accelerated implementation of a promising new technology that could help them resolve key challenges in a sector such as healthcare or education. Another set of policies appears to target immersive technologies as a promising opportunity for driving economic development. In practice, targeted funding instruments are often paired with other policies that support the development and deployment of these technologies through non-financial means, such as deregulation or improving relevant infrastructure. For example:

• In 2018, two former departments of the UK government introduced the Creative Industries Sector Deal, including among its aims the doubling of the UK’s share of the global creative immersive content market by 2025 (DCMS, 2018[9]). The Deal was intended to unlock more than GBP 150 million in joint investment by the public and private sectors to support the UK’s cultural and creative industries. The government specifically directed GBP 33 million in funding to immersive technologies as part of the programme. The policy announcement specifically references VR video games and AR tourism experiences as areas to be further supported, while also directing GBP 1.5 million over two years to the UK Games Fund, GBP 2 million for skills development, and GBP 2 million for a campaign tackling online piracy and consumer education about copyright protection, which could also benefit the immersive technologies industry.

• The Horizon Europe initiative consists of periodic calls for funding on specific topic areas, with five central missions that each involve the creation and spread of technologies and knowledge (European Commission, 2022[10]; European Commission, 2024[11]). Overall funding for 2021-2027 consists of more than EUR 90 billion. Multiple calls have required the development of a digital twin as either a component or the entirety of the project to be funded. For example, in 2023, a call was made for project proposals to use XR-empowered digital twins to model complex phenomena, with EUR 137.5 million in grants made available to be split amongst selected projects. The goals of the call were to fund projects that could support European research infrastructure to access advanced modelling and prediction capabilities applicable to real-life phenomena, replace physical experiments with digital twins, integrate research infrastructure into global, regional and local innovation support systems, and heighten the competitiveness of European research infrastructure.

• With the 2021 Korean New Deal 2.0, Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance updated the 2020 Korean New Deal with a digital component that featured a more prominent role for immersive technologies (MOEF, 2021[12]). In the new Deal, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were noted as having raised the government’s focus on “no-contact technologies” and society’s educational needs. The updated policy allocated KRW 2.6 trillion (Korean won) of central government funding to promoting virtual worlds and other ICT convergence services, while also increasing funding for strengthening relevant infrastructure. KRW 0.5 trillion specifically targeted digital twins while the policy also noted an intention to invest in digital public services and remote medical care. The Digital New Deal 2.0 pairs these concrete investments with myriad other support policies for immersive technologies and other tools. One pledge calls for deregulation to remove obstacles that could be slowing the deployment of immersive technologies, such as XR applied to telemedicine, authorisations for XR content or AR for manufacturing inspections.

• In Belgium, the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training XR Action Plan (2022-2025) includes four concrete actions to raise the level of professionalisation in the use of XR in teaching at secondary technical and vocational school programmes and further integrate them into the curriculum (OECD and European Commission, 2025[3]; Vlaanderen, n.d.[13]). First, the Plan encourages more practice-oriented research on effective educational applications of XR. Second, it facilitates XR hardware lending through five regional technical centres while offering maintenance support and teacher training. Third, it organises co-financing of education-focused XR software projects, improving the financial sustainability of existing work while also supporting new projects. Fourth, it establishes a professional XR Academy and XR Learning Network for teachers to help them use these technologies.

• In France, the General Secretariat for Investment (SGPI), under the Prime Minister, launched in 2024 two complementary initiatives to support the development of immersive technologies as part of the France 2030 strategy. The first initiative, a call for projects on Immersive Culture and the Metaverse targets innovative projects that advance the production and distribution of high-quality cultural experiences in virtual, augmented or mixed reality, persistent virtual worlds, video mapping and 3D sound. It provides grant funding for both engineering studies up to EUR 200,000 to identify the technical, legal, or economic barriers, as well as full project implementation. A second call for projects targets ambitious technology companies across the immersive virtual-worlds value chain. With minimum eligible expenditures of EUR 1 million, it supports highly innovative R&D activities carried out in France to help firms reach key technological milestones, scale up their solutions and strengthen their competitiveness in the European market.

2.2.  Non-targeted funding

Many governments enact policies that offer support for multiple digital technologies at once, often with broad aims of enabling digital transformation. When these policies explicitly name immersive technologies as within their scope, they tend to also include other emerging technologies, established technologies that start-ups could drive further innovation in or technologies that could promote the digitalisation of a specific sector of the economy such as manufacturing.

This approach can be interpreted as a government’s recognition that immersive technologies are one of multiple potential solutions for achieving certain goals. In these cases, governments may not be seeking to further develop immersive technologies per se but are offering funding for them as a downstream consequence of a goal of broad-based digitalisation or the unlocking of greater economic dynamism or innovation. Where developing immersive technologies is itself an explicit goal, a government may also pair such policies with another approach such as targeted funding.

Direct investments or co-investments into immersive technology companies – capital that these companies must compete for with companies involved in entirely different areas of technology – are often a key component of these policies. Other approaches to non-targeted funding include policies to support innovation through collaborative efforts among industry, academia, and others, funding expert consultants to help companies integrate technology into their business, the creation of innovation clusters that then offer competitive funding schemes for specific technology-related projects, the provision of grants for certain products such as video games while encouraging the integration of XR technology, and grants for companies to pursue solutions to complex societal challenges using emerging technologies such as XR. The less targeted nature of these policies lends itself to broader programmes with multiple components. This group of approaches can lead to some overlap with policies grouped as digital technology ecosystem support, but the breadth of technologies to which it applies distinguishes it. Examples of such policies include:

• Coordinated and substantially funded by Innovate UK, the Catapult Network is a group of nine centres with 65 locations across the UK that supports innovation within British industry (Digital Catapult, n.d.[14]; OECD and European Commission, 2025[3]). Having launched in 2013, Digital Catapult supports innovation across a number of technologies and is headquartered in London, with additional locations in Bristol, Gateshead and Belfast. The Belfast centre includes an Immersive Lab while London hosts testing space for XR headsets and haptics. Among its services, Digital Catapult provides immersive technology companies with labs, testbeds and studios with a strong focus on the creative and manufacturing sectors. New facilities are occasionally being opened, such as the Digital Catapult 5G Immersive Lab launched in Newcastle in October of 2024. In early 2025, the UK Digital Twin Centre was scheduled to open in Belfast and foster collaboration among academia, industry and the public sector, benefitting from co-investment with major industry players. In 2022, the UK government announced an allocation of GBP 1.6 billion for the next five-year funding cycle, up 35% from the previous five years, with the centres still needing to seek additional funds through commercial activities and outside grants (HM Treasury, 2022[15]).

• Operating since 2016, the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport’s Research Initiative for Data-Driven Mobility Innovation offers up to EUR 3 million for individual or collaborative data-based projects related to mobility and includes digital twins of large-scale systems among its accepted project areas (BMDV, 2024[16]; OECD and European Commission, 2025[3]; OECD, 2024[8]). Business ideas are expected to involve mobility, spatial or weather data and should demonstrate the need for a significant amount of research activity. Funding from the Initiative is intended to cover 40-80% of costs for private sector projects while non-commercial entities can potentially benefit from even greater coverage. Up to EUR 200,000 is also available for feasibility studies as an initial phase of support before projects apply for the standard funding pool.

• Canada’s Global Innovation Clusters programme was initiated in 2017 by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and renewed in 2022. It includes a Digital Technology Cluster based in Vancouver, British Columbia with CAD 298 million of funding targeting three technologies, including XR (ISED, 2024[17]). Each cluster is an independent non-profit entity that promotes the development of local innovation ecosystems, offering a 1-to-1 match of public investment for any private investment into the cluster. The programme also helps companies expand into national and global markets, and to train talent and foster skills development (OECD, 2025[2]). With a focus on technologies such as XR in the natural resources, precision health and manufacturing contexts, as of September 2024 the programme has invested at least CAD 760 million, provided learning and development opportunities for at least 15,000 people, and generated at least 730 IP assets and patents (DIGITAL, n.d.[18]).

• Under France 2030, The government is also funding, for the period 2024-2029, the development of MEDITWIN, a multidisciplinary consortium aimed to develop personalised digital twins of organs, metabolism and cancer tumours to improve diagnosis, treatment planning and clinical decision-making in the fields of neurology, cardiology and oncology. The project focuses on standardising, industrialising and clinically validating virtual twin technologies to enable their safe and widespread use. Seven resulting “virtual health products” are expected to be commercialised.

2.3. Digital technology ecosystem support

A relatively smaller number of countries have pursued the establishment or further development of support structures and networks specifically for immersive technologies. Rather than directing funding to one or more technologies, this policy grouping is composed of policy instruments that facilitate the development and deployment of immersive technologies through the building out of relevant resource systems.

Approaches taken under this policy grouping include building labs and other facilities for immersive technology companies to use, establishing immersive technology-specific incubators, developing and funding technology-specific training courses to promote both demand and supply of that technology, supporting data protection and digital security for immersive technologies, encouraging standards for immersive technologies to improve interoperability and even directly creating a public demonstration case of an immersive technology. A key aspect of this approach is that up-front capital costs are shared with the public sector rather than borne individually by companies. Examples of such policies include:

• Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority’s PIXEL space provides 28,000 square feet of space for companies and start-ups to innovate and collaborate, with access to co-working space, production studios, event and meeting space, testbeds and specialised labs (IMDA, n.d.[19]; OECD, 2025[2]). Among the specialised labs is an AR/VR lab with modern equipment that start-ups can use to develop and test new products. The lab offers haptic tools and head-mounted displays from at least seven different hardware developers, including both enterprise- and consumer-grade hardware. One aim of the lab is to avoid start-ups expending capital on different hardware to test how their software functions across different equipment. PIXEL works with companies developing or applying immersive technologies to develop thought leadership around topics such as virtual worlds to further build demand. PIXEL has even worked with major companies to develop potential immersive technology-specific data protection and privacy guidelines. Moreover, PIXEL hosts programming such as webinars and technical workshops to highlight use cases and the various tools used to create XR products. PIXEL also actively tries to promote the creation of more XR start-ups that would satisfy corporate demands for XR innovation.

• Introduced in 2016 by the UK’s Department for Business and Trade, the National Digital Twin Programme supports the creation of standards for digital twins to improve data sharing and interoperability, promotes knowledge sharing, supports digital security standards, connects the government with industry and academia, and facilitates the development of a national digital twin (DBT, 2024[20]; Digital Twin Hub, 2018[21]). Some of its intended application areas are infrastructure resilience, emergency planning and energy efficiency. A key aim is to equip the public sector and other service-providing entities with a way to test decisions prior to implementation so they can optimise decisions for public benefit. The Programme also collaborates with the UK Digital Twin Centre. Principles have also been introduced for developers and operators of digital twins to follow as they contribute to the Programme.

• Spain’s Technological Incubator of Companies of the Technological Sector on Virtual and Augmented Reality is narrowly targeted at supporting the creation and scaling up of companies specialising in XR (España and Artigas, 2022[22]; OECD and European Commission, 2025[3]). In addition, the incubator is envisioned as fostering solutions that can be introduced to other companies in the region as well as to Spanish society in general. Specific provisions within the incubator include publicly funded labs with state-of-the-art AR and VR technologies and other equipment made available to companies to boost their digitalisation and promote innovation. The space is entirely composed of public infrastructure, including screens, servers and audiovisual equipment, as well as dedicated spaces for training activities.

2.4. National and sub-national strategies

Another of the most commonly enacted policy approaches for supporting immersive technologies is introducing a strategy at the national or sub-national level. Strategies are split in terms of supporting digital technologies more broadly or targeting one or more types of immersive technologies, such as virtual worlds. While many strategies allocate funding to specific initiatives, many simply lay out a strategic vision that would need to be complemented with subsequent implementation measures and dedicated funding streams. Notably, virtually all 19 strategies mentioning immersive technologies in the sample of 53 policies were announced in 2020 or later.

The specific approaches of these strategies are extremely varied. Many seek to leverage immersive technologies as a catalyst for economic growth via the digital transformation of sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare or cultural industries. A common component is nurturing local companies through well-resourced innovation hubs, access to R&D support and networks, specialised training programs or collaboration with larger companies. Some strategies also encourage the development of or alignment with global standards to improve interoperability and access to global markets, while others note concerns such as data privacy or ethics.

Additional goals suggested by strategies include upskilling of the workforce, introducing remote services that could reduce geographical divides and establishing economic drivers such as sizeable virtual worlds and supporting structures. For some governments, advances in immersive technologies are also positioned as a potential avenue for modernising the government itself. Some examples are:

• Announced in 2022 and aligned with the UAE AI Strategy, the Government of Dubai’s Dubai Metaverse Strategy is designed to position Dubai as a global hub for the virtual world economy, with a leadership position in the region and a top ten position globally (Government of Dubai, 2022[23]; U.AE, 2023[24]; WAM, 2022[25]). Its key goals include generating USD 4 billion in GDP and creating more than 40,000 virtual jobs by 2030. Emphasis is placed on related and converging technologies such as blockchain, IoT, AI and 5G. Beyond developing the ecosystem for virtual worlds themselves, the Strategy also encourages applications that could introduce new government work models and those that would benefit tourism, retail, education, healthcare and other fields. Concrete components of the strategy include efforts around education, attracting foreign companies, promoting the deployment of 5G and the development of global standards to promote safety and digital security. Another key priority is the development of new talent pipelines and educational programmes to equip developers, content creators and end users with relevant skills.

• In 2023, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information introduced the Three-year Action Plan for Metaverse Industry Innovation and Development (2023-2025), a high-level set of intended policy directions for creating a virtual worlds innovation ecosystem by 2025 (Zhengfuwang, 2023[26]). Its five key priority tasks include building relevant technological and industrial capabilities, developing and promoting industrial use cases, creating immersive and interactive digital applications for daily life, expanding systematic industrial support, and constructing a secure and trustworthy governance system. While the plan does not specify a budgetary allocation for achieving its aims, it notes specific measures that are intended to be introduced, such as a percentage subsidy for certain project investments. The plan calls for establishing innovation centres and industrial parks related to virtual worlds, promoting parallel developments in advanced computing and networks, pursuing integration with sectors such as manufacturing, education, healthcare and culture, developing standards and creating a system for evaluating and testing virtual worlds products.

• The European Commission’s Strategy on web 4.0 and virtual worlds (European Commission, 2023[27]) is intended to align various ongoing and announced initiatives within the EU under a more cohesive strategic vision. Organised under four strategic pillars, its aims include talent development related to virtual worlds, a proposed industrial and technological roadmap for virtual worlds, support for creators and media companies to test new tools, the development of regulatory sandboxes in line with EU Member States, investment in initiatives such as the European Digital Twin of the Ocean and Destination Earth, launching flagship programs on the CitiVerse and a European Virtual Human Twin, and engaging with internet governance stakeholders globally on standard-setting efforts.

2.5. Guidance and policy principles

Only two countries – Japan and Korea – have been identified to date as pursuing guidance-based initiatives such as policy principles and most of these approaches focus on virtual worlds. Such instruments generally involve a broad consultation process, bringing in technological, legal and policy experts or even the general public.

While no countries within the sample have yet introduced specific regulations targeting immersive technologies, various guiding principles-based approaches are a pathway for encouraging efforts on potential risk mitigation alongside the pursuit of innovation. Despite being voluntary in nature, principles may nonetheless have direct impacts on virtual world ecosystems prior to the introduction of any immersive technology-specific regulations given that they are intended as a reference for other virtual world stakeholders beyond policymakers, such as platform providers and users, who influence platforms’ codes of conduct. One set of principles was adopted by a regulatory body that will monitor the extent to which virtual world operators actually incorporate them into their terms, conditions and service operation rules (KCC, 2023[28]). These examples are:

• In 2022, Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT presented Ethical Principles for the Metaverse, a set of voluntary guidelines comprising three core values and eight practical principles (MSIT, 2022[29]; OECD, 2025[2]). The principles were developed following extensive consultations with a broad range of actors to promote responsible innovation and use of virtual worlds, providing specific implementation guidelines for operators, developers and users. The framework includes definitions and suggested actions for compliance with the values and principles within it as a way to ensure society benefits from the potential socioeconomic opportunities offered by virtual worlds. The three values pursued within the framework are defined as sincere identity, safe experience and sustained prosperity. The eight practical principles built on these values are termed authenticity, autonomy, reciprocity, respect for privacy, fairness, personal information protection, comprehensiveness and responsibility for the future, noted within the framework as all being necessary for the three values to be fully realised.

• Announced in 2023 by the Korea Communications Commission, the Basic Principles to Protect Metaverse Users urge virtual world platform operators to voluntarily adopt six guidelines that safeguard user rights, preserve community values and promote fairness with online economic activities (KCC, 2023[28]). Developed in consultation with 29 experts from academia, law and industry, they also address concerns about anonymity, child online safety, privacy and IP rights. The Commission proposed detailed best practices (e.g., with respect to sexual harassment of avatars and cyberbullying) for platforms to incorporate and will monitor the extent to which companies reflect these guidelines in their terms, conditions and service operations rules.

• Principles of the Metaverse (Version 2.0) was published in 2025 by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) following extensive public consultations1 (MIC, 2024[30]). The framework provides a three-tiered structure of different principles. Each layer undergirds and supports the ones above it. The foundational layer focuses on improving trustworthiness of virtual worlds and contains principles such as accountability and privacy. The middle layer addresses self-motivated and autonomous development of virtual worlds, emphasising principles such as literacy and community. Finally, the top layer is comprised of elements Japanese officials identified as relating to democratic values for realising safe and secure virtual worlds International efforts on immersive technologies.

Beyond the efforts of national and sub-national governments, multilateral organisations, standard-setting organisations, non-profits and industry groups are also pursuing activities to align on and address the policy implications of immersive technologies. Such efforts are pertinent given issues such as cross-border data flows, differences in national regulatory environments, unresolved questions of technical interoperability, and complications for market access and trade, among other issues that stem from the fragmented nature of how immersive technologies are being developed and deployed as well as the inherent cross-border nature of technologies such as virtual worlds and spatial computing (OECD, 2025[1]).

International organisations such as the UN have taken interest in the topic. A UN Virtual Worlds Day in Geneva in June 2024 discussed the potential for immersive technologies to drive progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN Citiverse initiative aims to inform frameworks for AI-driven virtual worlds that support urban governance; the programme aspires to build an experimental sandbox environment that cities throughout the world can leverage to refine and share best practices.

The April 2023 Ministerial Declaration from the G7 Digital and Tech Ministers Meeting noted that the G7 would continue discussions on immersive technologies, recognising the potential of these technologies as well as the need for policy discussions on areas such as interoperability (G7, 2023[32]). The Declaration recognised the role of international organisations and referenced ongoing discussions at the OECD, specifically welcoming the establishment of the OECD Global Forum on Technology to discuss emerging technologies and the opportunities and challenges they could introduce.

Multiple fora composed of industry players and others regularly engage in discussions and publish white papers, reports and proposals for standards focused on immersive technologies. Since 2021, the Virtual and Augmented Reality Industrial Coalition has held more than 100 workshops with the European Commission, developed a roadmap for further developing the European XR ecosystem and been a key driver of the EU’s initiative on web 4.0 and virtual worlds. The Washington, DC-based XR Association is similarly composed of industry representatives and convenes working groups on topics such as privacy, youth issues and interoperability in the context of immersive environments. In addition, discussions on technical standards are also being pursued by organisations such as the ITU, IEEE and Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF), among others.

Note

← 1.  In 2022, MIC first organised the Study Group on the Utilization of Metaverse Towards Web3 Era, with a subsequent Study Group on the Realisation of Safe and Secure Metaverse organised in 2023. This work led to the interim report in 2023, the report in 2023, a report in 2024 and the latest report in 2025 (MIC, 2025[39]).