IDT4EU: Immersive Digital Twins to innovate university teaching in Europe

A European project designed to support lecturers and students in using Immersive Digital Twins as an advanced educational tool.

On 20 November 2025, the kickoff meeting of the IDT4EU project - funded by the Erasmus+ Programme and dedicated to Immersive Digital Twins - was held in Paris. The meeting officially launched the project’s activities and provided partners with an opportunity to outline strategies, roles, and the next steps.

Immersive Digital Twins (IDTs) – interactive digital replicas of real processes, environments, or systems accessed through immersive technologies – are transforming the way companies and educational institutions design simulations, practical exercises, and learning pathways. By enabling the creation of highly realistic and completely safe environments, IDTs allow users to experiment with complex scenarios without risk,enhancing the overall quality of the learning experience. Despite their great potential, the use of these technologies requires specific skills that are not yet widespread among lecturers, including those in higher education.

IDT4EU was established to address this need. The project aims to modernise university teaching by integrating Immersive Digital Twins into educational programmes. Its dual objective is to bridge the digital skills gap among educators and support students through more engaging learning methods that reflect the real needs of industry.

The project is structured around three main areas of activity:

• overarching coordination and risk management, ensuring smooth progress across all activities;
• development of pedagogical frameworks and technical guidelines, the design of pilot courses, and the creation of an open-access repository of educational resources;
• creation of training pathways for educators, including structured programmes, mentoring activities, virtual simulations, and a certification system for IDT competencies.

Significant effort will also be devoted to disseminating project outcomes. Webinars, publications, and conferences will help share tools, best practices, and methodologies with the European academic and industrial community. At the same time, ongoing evaluation will ensure the effectiveness of the activities and the long-term sustainability of the project.

IDT4EU is coordinated by the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers and brings together the following academic and institutional partners: Politechnika Warszawska, Politecnico di Milano - Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering,NEdHo, and INOKUFU. The project is co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Programme.

Through IDT4EU, European higher education takes a significant step towards a more innovative, interactive, and technologically aligned educational model, offering lecturers and students new opportunities to learn and experiment in immersive environments.