The Open University has joined the ARETE consortium with June 1, 2020, now leading the development of the Interactive Augmented Reality Toolkit. Augmented Reality Interactive Educational System (ARETE) started on November 1, 2019, and is running through to 30 April 2023, supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 framework with 4M EUR.

ARETE was evaluated 15/15 points, ranked #1 in the evaluation of all proposals submitted to the call ICT-25 ‘interactive technologies’.

ARETE aims to support the pan-European interactive technologies effort both in industry and academia, through multi-user interaction using AR technologies, evaluated in education in both professional and private contexts. The authoring tools used within ARETE and the provision of access to AR content developed for the broader community of users within the EU will help increase the European innovation capacity in AR. Through systematic application of human-centred design approaches, ARETE will deliver highly usable, useful and desirable AR technologies and contents, leading to a wider uptake and further stimulate their creative usage.