Better Futures with Games and Immersive Media: Self-Evaluation Report 2018-2023

The R&D@AGM self-evaluation report from Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas) assesses the performance of its games and immersive media research group over 2018–2023, a period marked by a campus relocation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and frequent leadership and staffing gaps. The group, comprising 18 FTE (23 persons in 2023), argues that it has strengthened its programme despite these disruptions, with key indicators improving and a delayed rise in performance visible from 2022 onward. Its work is framed around applied research addressing grand societal challenges such as sustainability, digitalisation, and broad prosperity, aligning with regional, national, and EU priorities.

The quantitative picture centres on growth in external funding and partnerships. Total R&D funding rose from roughly €860,000 in 2018 to about €1.47 million in 2023, cumulatively around €5.8 million, with external sources (about €4.2 million) far exceeding the internal base budget. The group participated in 23 European and 20 national consortia, collaborated with 229 unique partners, and secured the NWO-SIA SPRONG DIGIREAL.XL programme (€1 million for 2022–2025) plus €3.5 million in grants committed for 2024–2027. Output over the period totalled 653 recorded items in PURE, including around 43 peer-reviewed journal articles, 30 conference papers, and 48 books or chapters, alongside roughly 60 digital products and more than 50 games and immersive productions.

Impact and integration with education are also central to the findings. The group supervised 63 Master of Game Technology and over 100 Master of Media Innovation graduation projects, and most R&D staff teach. Projects such as the MSP Challenge ocean-planning simulation (used in over 60 sessions by more than 2,000 professionals) and the RECOVRY augmented reality therapy tool illustrate applied outcomes. The report candidly identifies persistent weaknesses: limited capacity across most functions, gaps in financial transparency and documentation, a need to professionalise R&D management, and a national policy environment that it considers largely instrumentalist toward entertainment research. It concludes cautiously optimistic about the group's trajectory through 2027, conditional on addressing staffing pressures and integrating research more fully with teaching.