"A Space for the Metaverse – Virtual World and the Transition to Web 4.0" (WEB4HUB), was a pilot project implemented by PPMI | Part of the Verian Group together with TNO on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT).
The project ran for two years and had two main objectives: to assess key technological developments and challenges relevant to Web 4.0 and virtual worlds, including digital infrastructure, decentralised architectures, standardisation, interoperability, cybersecurity and digital identity; and to support a global multistakeholder debate on future Web 4.0 governance.
The governance strand began in 2024 and culminated in the Global Multistakeholder High-Level Conference on Governance of Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds on 31 March - 1 April 2025 attended by more than 400 participants from 70 countries. Our team was in charge of preparing background and outcome documents for the global conference and carrying out the stakeholder consultation in the run-up to it (interviews, workshops, open consultation). During the conference our team moderated breakout sessions and summarised its takeaways during a panel discussion. The conference took place in a broader context of the WSIS+20 review.
As part of this project the team also developed a series of thematic papers examining technologies and trends expected to play an important role in the evolution of the web, including:
- Agentic AI: State of play examines the rapid rise of agentic AI, including the socio-economic forces shaping its development and the evolution of related policy and governance frameworks.
- Agentic AI and internet infrastructure looks at how agentic AI could affect the physical infrastructure of the internet, including compute capacity, connectivity and energy systems.
- Agentic AI, trust and architecture considers what the growing use of autonomous software agents could mean for trust, data governance, internet architecture and security.
- Post-quantum cryptography transition examines the transition towards post-quantum cryptography, including developments in standardisation and the wider policy landscape.
- Decentralised data and service architectures in the era of Web 4.0 and virtual worlds looks at how decentralisation could shape digital infrastructures, data governance and service provision towards 2035, including implications for Europe’s digital competitiveness, sovereignty and policy agenda.
- Decentralisation and European sovereignty in Web 4.0 examines how decentralised, federated and open architectures could help strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty, resilience and competitiveness, including by reducing strategic dependencies and supporting greater choice across the web, data governance, and network and infrastructure layers.
- Digital identity and identifiers in the era of Web 4.0 and virtual worlds looks at emerging challenges and needs for digital identity in Web 4.0 with a particular focus on the need to manage non-human identities (e.g. AI agents, autonomous devices).
Throughout the project, our team also hosted several expert workshops, including on Europe’s future in the AI era, digital identity, decentralised architectures, governance recommendations, governance principles and technology challenges and solutions. The project’s final workshop, “Europe and the Future Web: From Findings to Opportunities”, took place online on 17 September 2026. The workshop brought together experts and stakeholders to discuss and validate the project’s final findings and recommendations across key areas explored by WEB4HUB.
Overall, the WEB4HUB project aimed to provide the Commission with a timely and forward-looking evidence base at a moment when the technologies, markets and governance approaches examined were evolving rapidly. The project took place in the broader context of the European Commission's 2023 Strategy on Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0, and the recommendations of the Citizens' Panel on Virtual Worlds, which together set out the EU's ambition to shape an open, interoperable and human-centred next generation of the web. Its findings also relate to ongoing Commission work, including the negotiation of the Cloud and AI Development Act and the broader European Tech Sovereignty package, as well as ongoing work on the future of the internet and internet governance.
