There hasn’t previously been a compilation of Finnish XR-related research items or organizations available for public use. So, we decided to gather three new research-related indexes for Publications, Groups, and Projects.
Helsinki XR Center aims to be a diverse center for the Finnish XR field, combining expertise from multiple disciplines and angles:
- we are a developer hub for XR startups together with Finnish Virtual Reality Association,
- we implement project work with other educational and research institutions,
- we offer expert knowledge and education for companies, public sector and students in XR,
- we host networking events for professionals and stakeholders,
- and we instruct student projects and offer internships.
The area of research is one of our important branches. To build an extensive network of people in the XR field, we have partnered with Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences for executing research projects, exchanging knowledge, and doing cooperation.
The need for centralized XR research indexes
Although Finland has a lot of XR-related activities in multiple universities and other organizations, there has not been a compilation of Finnish XR-related research items or organizations available for public use. After identifying this problem, we decided to gather three new research-related indexes for the common good.
The XR Research Publication Index is a catalogue of Finnish extended reality research items. The index includes A1 research articles, conference proceedings publications, research reports, and book chapters. At the time of writing, there are 192 featured articles.
The XR Research Group Index gathers research groups, labs, and studios from the Finnish XR field. The index consists of the following: name of the group, the keywords related to their expertise, as well as universities or organizations the groups are affiliated with. At this moment there are 20 featured groups.
The XR Project Index gathers research projects from the Finnish XR field. The index consists of the following: name of the project, universities or organizations the projects are affiliated with, active years, as well as a short description of the project. There are currently 25 searchable projects.
Tools for finding fruitful cooperation
These indexes are ultimately designed to help individuals and groups in Finnish and international XR ecosystems to find project partners and enhance cooperation between different XR operators and those who seek XR expertise related to research and projects. All in all, one of the core ideas of Helsinki XR Center is to match people with ideas and people with expertise to bring forth new innovations.
Besides, it is not effective to reinvent the wheel – thus these indexes can be helpful for mapping what has already been done, and which groups or organisations are focused on which areas in the field of XR.
Finally, these indexes aim to share Finnish XR research results and potential effortlessly and centrally. We should all be proud of the hard work of all the Finnish XR experts. Therefore the Helsinki XR center wants to spread the expertise and competence of our ecosystem to wider audiences in Finland and abroad.
As time goes on, these indexes will need updates. We do our best to add new research publications, groups, and projects when we encounter them. However, to keep the indexes up to date as effective as possible, we do encourage people to use the e-forms found from the index webpages for bringing out new data that we have not yet included in the indexes.
If you can not find your publication, group, or project, please let us know!