Before designing any tool, you need to understand the people it is meant for. That is the principle behind WP2, NatureVR’s research and analysis workpackage, which is now in full swing across Spain, the Netherlands, Croatia, and Italy.
Hearing from young people directly
The first activity of this phase is a series of focus groups bringing together young people aged 18 to 30 from the partner countries. Facilitated by BACKSLASH (Spain), Anatta Foundation (Netherlands), and Udruga Zazeli (Croatia), these sessions are designed to explore a deceptively simple question: what is young people’s relationship with nature today, and what gets in the way of a deeper connection?
Participants are invited to reflect on their own experiences and not just whether they spend time outdoors, but how they feel about nature, what barriers they face, and what they would expect from a digital tool designed to bring them closer to the natural world. Eight focus groups are being conducted in total, with around 120 young people taking part across all countries.
What youth workers have to say
Running in parallel, a structured online survey is reaching youth workers across the consortium countries. This second strand of the research focuses on the professional perspective: what challenges do youth workers encounter when trying to integrate nature-based or digital approaches into their practice? What competencies do they feel they need? What would make a VR tool genuinely useful in their work?
The survey complements the focus groups by capturing the practitioner’s view, the people who will ultimately use NatureVR’s tools with young people on a daily basis.
Why this phase matters
The findings from both activities will feed directly into the design of NatureVR’s VR experiences and training materials. Nothing will be built on assumptions. The consortium is committed to co-creation, and that starts here: with real voices, real contexts, and real needs shaping every decision that follows.
Results are expected by mid-2026. Stay tuned to nature-vr.eu for updates as the research phase progresses.