6.5 Million Euros for Research on Digital Storytelling: HCI Group Joins New DFG Research Training Group TESDA
20 Jun 2025
In June 2025, the German Research Foundation (DFG) approved a new interdisciplinary Research Training Group (RTG) at the University of Würzburg: The Experience of Stories in the Digital Age (TESDA). Starting in spring 2026, the program will receive approximately 6.5 million euros in funding to support 21 PhD students in its first phase. The RTG is coordinated by Prof. Markus Appel (Chair of Media Communication and Psychology), with substantial involvement from Prof. Marc Erich Latoschik and the Human-Computer Interaction Group.
TESDA explores how digital technologies – including virtual reality, social robots, and AI systems – are transforming the way people experience and process stories. Combining narrative theory with cutting-edge research on digital media interaction, the RTG addresses three thematic areas:
- Immersive Virtual Reality
- New (Para-)Social Encounters
- Epistemic Challenges and Misinformation
Three Immersive Storytelling Projects from the HCI Group
The HCI Group plays a key role in Project Area 1: Immersive Virtual Reality. Prof. Latoschik co-leads three TESDA subprojects that examine how virtual reality (VR) technologies influence empathy, environmental awareness, and children’s story comprehension.
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Project 1.1 – Fostering Social Understanding through Immersive Stories
In collaboration with Prof. Markus Appel, this project investigates how VR narratives can promote empathy and reduce prejudice. It focuses on the interaction between narrative elements (such as character identification) and immersive factors like presence and embodiment. The studies will be conducted in high-end lab environments and on large-scale online platforms such as the metaverse.
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Project 1.2 – Climate Change Stories and Presence in VR
Together with Prof. Holger Schramm (Media Communication), this project examines how interactive, embodied storytelling in VR can bridge the psychological gap to climate change. It explores how different forms of self- and other-embodiment, vividness, and interactivity influence users’ cognitive and emotional responses to environmental narratives.
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Project 1.3 – Children’s Immersive Story Comprehension
In cooperation with developmental psychologist Prof. Gerhild Nieding, this project studies how children process stories in immersive VR. It focuses on developmental aspects such as self-concept, narrative understanding, and the potential risks and benefits of immersive technologies. Methods include eye tracking, physiological measurements, and story comprehension tasks.
A Strong Foundation for the Next Generation of Researchers
“TESDA offers a unique opportunity to bridge narrative theory with cutting-edge immersive technologies,” says Prof. Latoschik. “We aim to better understand how digital stories affect our cognition and emotions – and how we can responsibly design future narrative experiences.”
With its interdisciplinary focus and strong integration of VR systems research, TESDA provides an excellent environment to train the next generation of scholars working at the intersection of storytelling, technology, and society.
