International Congress: Towards a Responsible Development of the Metaverse

The Academic Chair for the Responsible Development of the Metaverse of the University of Alicante (Spain) is hosting its I International Congress “Towards a Responsible Development of the Metaverse” on 13-14 June 2024 at the University of Alicante.

The purpose of the Congress is to gather international experts from different disciplines to discuss recurrent issues directly related to the development of the Metaverse ranging from intellectual property, personal data protection, contract law, content moderation or cybersecurity. We want to assess whether the existing legal framework provides adequate protection to all citizens as well as legal certainty to entrepreneurs in the Metaverse so as to allow optimum use of the potential offered by this new virtual environment.

The Congress will consist on six panels that will include a presentation by scholars who have worked on the topic with the Chair during its first year of existence

• Metaverse Governance
• Legal Status of Avatars and Digital Identity in the Metaverse 
• Privacy and Personal Data Protection in the Metaverse 
• Content and Conduct Moderation in the Metaverse 
• Virtual Worlds as Markets 
• Cybersecurity in the Metaverse

For further information about the questions covered in each of the topics please check our action lines.

The Chair is launching a Call for Papers to anyone interested in presenting a communication in any of the previously mentioned panels and to publish the research work in a special issue of the Interactive Entertainment Law Review. 

The Chair is willing to finance up to 15 proposals for papers with up to EUR 1000 to cover the travel and accommodation expenses of the authors of the papers for attending the Congress.

Candidates shall have a temporary or permanent PhD candidate/student or post-doc position in a European University at the time of the submission of the proposal. They should send their proposals to catedrametaverso@ua.es including the following information

•  In a single document
  • An abstract of 500 words of the proposal including the proposed title, a preliminary table of contents, and a list of 5 references
  • A one-page CV of the candidate (or a link to her/his CV in Internet)
• A digital copy of an article or a substantive piece of writing of the candidate (or a link to it) in a technology-related topic.
• A reference letter (optional).

The Scientific Committee of the Chair will decide on the acceptance of each proposal in accordance with the following criteria

• Relevance of the topic and quality of the proposal
• CV of the candidate (including the reference letter)
• Quality of the substantive piece of writing.

Deadline for the submission of proposals is 15 March 2024. Selected proposals will be communicated by the Scientific Committee on 12 April 2024.

The selected papers will be published in a Special Issue of the Interactive Entertainment Law Review. The papers should have a length between 7000-10000 words and follow the style guidelines of the Review. The papers will be subjected to peer review. The deadline for the submission of the final draft will be 31 May 2024.

The Academic Chair for the responsible development of the Metaverse is an initiative of the University of Alicante and Meta Platforms under its XR Research Funds. Its purpose is to promote independent research on the legal and ethical aspects of the development of the metaverse. In particular, our research activities aim to assess

• Whether the existing legal framework ensures that citizens, including minors and other sensitive collectives, are adequately protected in their relations in the Metaverse; and 
• Whether it provides the legal certainty entrepreneurs need to develop new technologies or to expand their traditional business activities to the new medium.

The Chair is a member of the European Metaverse Research Network. 

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