Under the coordination of the interdisciplinary team of the Brain, Health & Virtual Reality (BHV) Research Group [1], the kick-off meeting of the EXCALIBUR project took place in Thessaloniki, Greece. Over a two-day intensive agenda on October 23-24, 2025, the consortium of the EXCALIBUR project met in person at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas.
The initiation of the project included the overall presentation of the EXCALIBUR, the initial description of the four (4) use cases, and the challenges of the twelve (12) toolkits and methods. The Project Officer of EXCALIBUR provided the guidelines for the successful development and completion of the project. In addition, representatives of the ECHOES mother project introduced the ECCCH ecosystem [2] and welcomed our project.
The EXCALIBUR work plan extends 42 months, and the activities of the project are clustered into thirteen (13) work packages. The technical activities of the project are grouped into four (4) main thematic structures, with WP2 focused on the technical collaboration and clustering with the ECCCH ecosystem, while WP3 focuses on establishing the need analysis and the framework design. WP4 and WP5, as well as WP7 and WP8, address the scientific innovations of the project on advanced study, conservation, and restoration works based on digital twins of burial CH. WP6 and WP9 are dedicated to the interoperable platform architecture design and integration of scientific outcomes on the ECCCH infrastructure. WP10 to WP12 focused on the test project pilots, use cases demonstration activities, open call for funding support to third parties, and training on the innovative solutions of the project. WP13 is aimed at dissemination, communication, and exploitation activities to promote the project outcomes and contribute towards technical standards for interoperability. Finally, WP1 resources are allocated for the project coordination.
After a deeper analysis of the project, the consortium planned the next steps for the technical progress of the project as well as the main guidelines for communication and dissemination of EXCALIBUR. Our common target is the successful development of the project, with the maximum societal and scientific impact. In this direction, EXCALIBUR will collaborate with the ECCCH ecosystem for early adoption of best practices, early knowledge transfer, and to ensure the compliance of the results with the ECCCH infrastructure and framework. The EXCALIBUR project prioritised the setup of its visual identity and online presence.
