About the Innovation Impact Challenge
The Innovation Impact Challenge is an innovation competition that challenges entrepreneurs to develop new products or services as solutions to societal challenges. The aim is to develop innovations that can ultimately be procured by public-sector organisations.
The Challenge consists of two phases:
Phase 1: Feasibility study, including finding a testing ground.
Phase 2: Development and testing of a prototype.
For this Challenge, we are looking for immersive experiences that contribute to social inclusion and social cohesion. Social inclusion is about enabling everyone to participate fully in society. Social cohesion is about connectedness and cohesion within groups, neighbourhoods and communities.
2 themes and 20 winning projects
Within this Challenge, immersive experiences (IX) are being developed around two themes:
Theme 1: supporting the role of key community figures as a bridge between government and citizens.
Theme 2: strengthening residents’ collective self-reliance, creating connected and resilient communities.
The 20 selected projects
Theme 1: Supporting key community figures as a bridge between government and citizens
Hub Creations – The Key
The Key is a mobile immersive simulation game in which key community figures and partners practise responding to realistic support requests in a neighbourhood. Players gather around a dashboard, discuss their options during the game, choose different routes and immediately see how their choices affect trust, progress, workload and collaboration.
In Phase 1, Hub Creations will investigate the content-related, technical, user and market feasibility. They will develop a proof of concept with a pilot story, dashboard mock-up and focus group testing with key community figures, a municipality and chain partners.
Escape Room Wageningen – De Drempel Over
De Drempel Over is a mobile escape experience in a converted caravan. Key community figures experience for themselves what it is like to get stuck as a vulnerable citizen due to factors such as low literacy, digital exclusion and distrust in government. A debrief afterwards directly connects the experience to their own work.
Key community figures often understand the problems faced by their target groups in theory, but do not experience them themselves. As a result, their approach does not always match what vulnerable citizens actually need. The experience is intended for neighbourhood teams, social workers and other professionals who act as a bridge between citizens and government. By not just explaining these challenges but actually experiencing them, De Drempel Over aims to increase understanding of vulnerable citizens and encourage more appropriate support and communication.
The Luxus Group B.V. – LifeSwap XR: experience the world behind the front door
LifeSwap XR is an immersive learning and reflection experience for key community figures and professionals in the social domain. Users go through realistic XR scenarios around issues such as debt assistance and financial security, experience different perspectives and make choices. Guided reflection translates the experience into concrete actions and working agreements.
The innovation is not a standalone VR experience, but a scalable learning and reflection approach that can be used locally and later expanded to other municipal domains, such as social support, participation, youth care and integration. The solution is intended for neighbourhood team professionals, social workers, customer service staff and policy officers, among others. LifeSwap XR helps professionals better understand residents’ lived experiences, communicate more carefully and make more appropriate referrals. In this way, it aims to contribute to greater trust and fewer people dropping out of public services.
Sogeti Nederland B.V. – In Their World: experiencing neurodivergence with Immersive Technology
In Their World is an immersive technology experience that allows key community figures and government employees to experience what interacting with government can feel like for neurodivergent citizens, such as people with autism or ADHD. Through realistic VR scenarios, users experience the impact of sensory stimuli, language, time pressure and social situations. They then practise communication strategies and adjustments that can make interactions more accessible.
The solution helps professionals recognise neurodivergent needs earlier and better respond to residents. In Their World therefore aims to strengthen empathy and inclusive communication and contribute to a better connection between government and citizens.
Game Tailors B.V. – EmpathieSim: walk in the shoes of vulnerable citizens
EmpathieSim is an interactive experience in which key community figures experience for themselves what it is like to get stuck when dealing with government. Participants step into the role of a resident who, for example, receives a complicated letter or has to use a website with DigiD. Their choices influence both the outcome and the emotions of the character.
The solution is intended for key community figures, civil servants and policymakers and is being developed for municipalities and public-service organisations. Key community figures spend a great deal of time explaining to government how complex residents’ problems can be. There is also no standard onboarding method for new support workers. By experiencing residents’ situations themselves, participants gain a better understanding of where people get stuck. This can help key community figures support residents more effectively and policymakers develop clearer rules. During Phase 1, Game Tailors will investigate the feasibility of EmpathieSim: which stories work best, which format is most suitable (screen or VR), and whether the experience actually changes participants’ perspectives.
Advier B.V. – SHIFT
SHIFT is an interactive conversation experience for key community figures and people seeking support. During the conversation, they work together to create a visual picture of the future around themes such as housing, work, relationships and leisure. Physical objects, cards and short interactive mini-games make the conversation more tangible and less dependent on words.
SHIFT supports key community figures without replacing human contact. The method offers an alternative to the traditional intake interview and can help build trust more quickly and better tailor support. Potential users include municipalities, social welfare, youth and participation organisations, and educational institutions.
ADOB Alles Draait Om Bewustwording – BrightAR: seeing together what you cannot see alone
Young people take risks involving alcohol, peer pressure and testing boundaries. Key community figures are close to their communities and want to address these issues, but often lack the tools to truly get a group moving. BrightAR provides those tools. BrightAR is a group-based immersive method in the form of a physical toolkit. Key community figures use the toolkit in workshops with young people. Through mixed reality, participants experience the consequences of choices around alcohol and risk-taking behaviour and collectively translate these experiences into concrete agreements and skills.
BrightAR strengthens the role of key community figures as catalysts for awareness and behavioural change. The approach makes societal issues easier to discuss and helps young people make agreements together and hold each other accountable. In this way, BrightAR aims to strengthen not only individual awareness but also cohesion within groups and communities.
Robin de Lange – Tussen straat en systeem
Robin de Lange is developing immersive training for key community figures who work with homeless people in their daily practice. Participants experience how complex everyday life on the streets can be and practise situations in which people may respond with distrust, confusion, anger or withdrawal. Language and cultural differences can also present challenges.
The training is intended for, among others, community police officers, library staff, youth workers and neighbourhood coaches. For these professionals, engaging effectively with homeless people is an everyday concern.
Dutch Rose Solutions – Achter de voordeur
Achter de Voordeur is a Mixed Reality experience in which civil servants sit at the table with a resident who is struggling to navigate government services. Together with key community figures, case managers and professional actors, recognisable situations are translated into lifelike scenarios, such as an incomprehensible letter or a service desk where someone cannot move forward. The experience is followed by a reflection session.
Dutch Rose Media/4DR Studios is conducting the feasibility study in collaboration with BUas and the municipality of Eindhoven.
Scopic Labs B.V. – Mosaic
Mosaic is an interactive VR film in which participants literally step into another person’s shoes: the civil servant experiences the life of the citizen and vice versa. In the second part, both perspectives meet in a confrontation scene in which participants jointly respond to dilemmas. The key community figure selects themes relevant to their own community and facilitates the follow-up discussion.
In Phase 1, Scopic Labs will investigate which themes, scenarios, ethical frameworks and facilitation protocols can generate the greatest impact.
Theme 2: Collective self-reliance – connected and resilient communities
Arttenders B.V. – De Blikopener
A crisis demonstrates how important a neighbourhood’s social infrastructure is. De Blikopener is a hybrid method through which municipalities, safety regions and social organisations work with residents to strengthen local collective self-reliance. The method makes residents, key figures, resources, safe places and informal networks visible through digital applications, physical interventions and community activation.
This helps residents and professionals find one another more quickly before, during and after a crisis, even when formal emergency services are limited. De Blikopener contributes to stronger neighbourhoods, because a neighbourhood is stronger when you know who your neighbours are before a crisis occurs.
Hub Creations B.V. – Wijkmakers
Wijkmakers is a physical, interactive scale model in which residents practise collective self-reliance during disruptions and crises in their neighbourhood. Around the model, participants make joint decisions under time pressure about support requests, resources, roles and priorities. Lights, sounds and other changes immediately show what their choices mean for the neighbourhood.
In Phase 1, Hub Creations will develop a proof of concept and investigate the content-related, technical, user and market feasibility. Residents, municipalities and neighbourhood partners will test the experience together.
Witteveen+Bos Raadgevende Ingenieurs B.V. – WijZijnWaterproof
WijZijnWaterproof helps residents prepare for large-scale flooding. Climate and water data are translated into realistic VR/3D scenarios, allowing residents to see what flooding could mean for their own street and home. They are then supported in making concrete preparations and agreements with one another.
The approach explicitly focuses on vulnerable residents and aims to strengthen the resilience and collective self-reliance of neighbourhoods. In Phase 1, Witteveen+Bos and C4Real will investigate, among other things, technical and societal feasibility, data integration, privacy and opportunities for municipalities to scale up the solution.
DashXR B.V. – BoX-R
BoX-R is an interactive XR learning experience in which residents experience what a prolonged power outage means for their daily lives. In a guided simulation for multiple users, participants practise situations such as lifts being out of service, empty phone batteries, being unable to make payments, limited information and helping vulnerable neighbours. BoX-R addresses the problem that traditional communication about emergencies is often too text-based, abstract or complicated.
The experience is intended for residents, with particular attention to people with low literacy, people who do not speak Dutch as their first language, older people and those in vulnerable situations. Key community figures from organisations such as libraries, the Red Cross and housing associations can use the experience to make emergency preparedness and self-reliance concrete, local and accessible.
Studio Maki – Black-out Event: immersive serious gaming for self-reliant communities
Black-Out Event is a mobile, interactive crisis simulation in which local communities experience how they can help one another when electricity, internet and other services become unavailable. In 72 minutes, participants experience the first 72 hours of a nationwide blackout and make decisions about their own environment with limited information.
Most emergency preparedness currently consists of passive information: campaigns, websites, leaflets or meetings. These are useful, but general and often mainly reach people who are already interested. Black-Out Event takes a different approach. The experience makes emergency preparedness collective, practical and tangible, while also addressing the social and emotional impact of a crisis. Participants discover who can help, which places are important and which agreements are needed. The outcomes are translated into a practical map or toolkit for the local neighbourhood.
Hackshield Future Cyber Heroes B.V. – Intergenerational and playfully building a resilient society
HackShield is exploring an immersive game experience in which children practise dealing with crisis situations such as cyber incidents, disinformation and power outages together with their parents and grandparents. Game-based learning, board-game and escape-room elements are being explored to encourage dialogue, collaboration and collective self-reliance across generations. The contribution to social cohesion starts small: with conversations between generations that often do not happen.
The experience can connect to the existing HackShield programme, allowing themes to return at school and at home. Through schools, municipalities and libraries, the approach can reach multiple generations. By practising together, participants develop not only greater resilience but also stronger connections between families, neighbourhoods and communities.
Inner Group B.V. – Onzichtbare Helden: immersive neighbourhood training for collective action in crises
Onzichtbare Helden is a mixed reality neighbourhood training in which residents experience a crisis in their own neighbourhood together. Using a VR headset, they see digital crisis information about their own street, for example in the event of a prolonged power outage, flooding or a heatwave. They practise together which role they and their neighbours can play.
The training is intended for municipalities and safety regions to prepare residents for situations in which emergency services cannot be everywhere at once. Its contribution to social inclusion and cohesion lies in bringing neighbours who barely know one another together to experience something meaningful and discover each other’s strengths, regardless of language, background or education. Everyone has something to contribute. In this way, trust in the neighbourhood can grow, including outside crisis situations. The first customers are municipalities and safety regions. In Phase 1, Inner Group will investigate feasibility in two testing grounds, together with the fire brigade, Rotterdam-Rijnmond Safety Region, immersive designers (Framespace) and welfare organisations.
Dutch Rose Solutions B.V. – SamenSterk
SamenSterk is a collective crisis role-playing experience in Mixed Reality. Teams of four participants experience a crisis situation together, such as going 72 hours without tap water. During the game, they must develop solutions and weigh different interests against one another, including health, social wellbeing and safety.
The experience makes emergency preparedness active and collective. By making decisions together and experiencing their consequences, participants discover what a crisis requires from themselves and from their community.
Dutch Rose Solutions B.V. – WijkWijs
WijkWijs is a mobile app that helps residents prepare for a crisis at neighbourhood level. In everyday situations, they follow a playful AR scavenger hunt along emergency facilities and important locations in their neighbourhood, with immersive explanations and an AI assistant. When the internet goes down, the app switches to an offline crisis mode with a local map, while the on-device AI assistant remains available.
The feasibility study is being carried out by Dutch Rose Media/4DR Studios in Eindhoven, with Magic Trailz and Mear Fryslân as operational partners and the municipality of Eindhoven as the testing ground.
Stichting Wild Vreemd – Belletje Trek
Belletje Trek is an immersive group experience in which neighbourhood residents experience a simulated crisis situation together, such as three days without electricity. Participants use their own smartphones to complete tasks and work together to deal with the situation. No app download or technical knowledge is required.
The experience helps residents get to know one another, discover each other’s strengths and build trust. Belletje Trek is intended as a practical tool for neighbourhood professionals to strengthen social cohesion and self-reliance, particularly among groups that do not yet know one another. In this way, collective self-reliance is practised in an accessible and playful way.