Abstract
<jats:p>This volume collects papers from the Virtual Reality Summit (VRS), an interdisciplinary conference on extended reality (XR) in the health sciences and beyond, drawing contributions from fields as varied as neuroscience, clinical rehabilitation, psychology, forensic assessment, and fusion energy science. The papers share a common focus on a set of practical and methodological problems: carefully characterizing the validity of virtual environments instead of assuming it, bridging the gap between working prototypes and reliable clinical or industrial deployment, accounting for individual differences among users, and grounding the sensory and perceptual design of virtual environments in empirical evidence. Contributions range from studies of spatial navigation to the visualization of complex fusion reactor data. Together they reflect that XR is a maturing interdisciplinary field with the tools to address diverse challenges. Over the past years VRS became a growing community of researchers tackling them across disciplines that rarely meet at a single venue. Extended reality (XR) is an emerging technology allowing for immersive simulation of virtual worlds and adding information to the physical one. Its usefulness in health sciences ranges from biomedical simulations, through therapy to surgical training and teleoperation. The Virtual Reality Summit (VR Summit / VRS) captures this diverse and broad spectrum of applications and serves as a dynamic platform for direct exchange between young researchers, students, and top-tier experts in the field of XR. These experts include world-renowned scientists and visionary entrepreneurs. Thanks to the VRS unique format and its carefully curated interdisciplinary content, participants benefit from unparalleled opportunities for meaningful and direct interactions. Even though it started as a small event, the conference has facilitated numerous successful collaborations and has earned widespread recognition within the community for its carefully curated content and peer-level interactions. The contributions come from a wide range of disciplines: cognitive neuroscience, clinical rehabilitation, educational and social psychology, spatial cognition, forensic assessment, music, and fusion energy science. What connects them is a shared methodological interest in immersion, presence, and embodiment as tools for scientific inquiry and practical application.</jats:p>