Extended Reality Technologies and their Implications for Science Systems in the Global South is a technology profile commissioned by the International Science Council (ISC) under the Science Systems Futures programme, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. Authored by Dr. Martin Moreno Guzmán (UTSJR, Mexico) with co-authorship by Carlos Vargas Pedroza (Societās Partnerships), the report examines how Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality are being deployed across Global South science systems — as both an infrastructural bridge where physical laboratories are insufficient, and as a frontier medium enabling new forms of scientific inquiry.
About the Report
"XR is both a bridge to essential scientific training where physical infrastructure is absent and an advanced medium for frontier science that no conventional laboratory can replicate. The institutions that treat XR as shared scientific infrastructure — rather than as a novelty — will capture its full benefits for capacity building, workforce development and knowledge sovereignty."
What the Report Covers
This technology profile analyzes how Extended Reality (XR)—the umbrella term encompassing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR)—is being deployed across Global South science systems. It examines three distinct XR impacts:
- The democratization of scientific infrastructure — how XR serves as a practical bridge where physical laboratories, instruments, and training facilities remain critically insufficient.
- The enhancement of scientific research and training — how XR functions as a frontier scientific medium enabling forms of inquiry—from immersive navigation of planetary surfaces to city-scale predictive experimentation—that no conventional laboratory can provide.
- The integration of Indigenous Knowledge — how XR environments can be designed to embed and validate non-Western scientific traditions rather than reproduce colonial pedagogical models.
Each impact is evaluated through its scientific opportunity, associated challenges, and the governance risks that arise when technologies originate predominantly in the Global North. The report covers AR, VR, and MR separately—distinguishing their infrastructure requirements, cost profiles, and institutional viability to help decision-makers identify which configuration is practical in a given context.
Why It Is Important
Two structural realities drive the urgency. First, an enduring infrastructural deficit: state investment in laboratories, instruments, and training facilities consistently falls short of demand across much of the Global South, and addressing this gap through traditional construction is both exceedingly slow and cost-prohibitive. Second, a fundamental transformation of science itself: research increasingly demands the analysis of complex, multi-dimensional datasets and the modelling of dynamic, large-scale systems—urban environments, planetary surfaces, climate processes, epidemiological networks—that exceed the capabilities of even well-equipped physical laboratories.
The evidence of XR's impact is already substantial. Astronomers in South Africa are navigating three-dimensional data cubes using commercial headsets; researchers at the Indian Space Research Organisation are conducting collaborative planetary surface visualizations in custom-built VR environments; and surgeons in Uganda and Germany are meeting as digital avatars in shared virtual operating theatres to plan procedures in real time. India's national Virtual Labs consortium—a twelve-institution partnership—delivers over 175 virtual laboratories to students nationwide.
However, the report is equally frank about risk. Most XR content reflects Western pedagogical assumptions. Cloud-based deployments transfer control over sensitive biometric and spatial data to foreign providers, reproducing the extractive dynamics of data colonialism. Algorithmic systems trained on unrepresentative datasets compound this risk. Without deliberate strategies to build local capacity and institutional ownership, XR risks deepening the very dependencies it could help overcome.
The Contribution It Makes
The report's central analytical contribution is distinguishing XR's two distinct roles—as an infrastructural bridge compensating for absent physical facilities, and as a frontier medium enabling genuinely new scientific capabilities—and insisting that funding instruments, procurement frameworks, and institutional strategies must treat these separately to capture XR's full returns.
Its recommendations are directed at three audiences: public STI agencies (requiring open-standard procurement clauses in publicly funded XR projects), research and academic institutions (establishing shared XR facilities serving multiple departments), and private sector innovators (co-developing reusable simulation libraries through South–South partnerships). The overarching argument: institutions that treat XR as shared scientific infrastructure—governed openly, procured strategically, and designed with local epistemic priorities—will capture its full benefits for capacity building, workforce development, and knowledge sovereignty.
About the Science Systems Futures Project
ISC Centre for Science Futures — Science Systems Futures Initiative (2024–2027)
This technology profile was commissioned by the International Science Council (ISC) as part of its Science Systems Futures initiative—a three-year research and policy program (2024–2027) led by the ISC's Centre for Science Futures and funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
The Centre for Science Futures is the ISC's strategic foresight unit, responsible for examining how structural forces—geopolitical, technological, and institutional—are reshaping the global science system. The Science Systems Futures program sits at the intersection of all three, asking a single governing question: how are emerging technologies transforming the practice and organization of science, and what does this mean specifically for science systems in the Global South?
The program operates from a foundational premise: that the benefits of technological change are not automatically distributed equitably. Institutions in the Global South face compounding structural barriers—limited infrastructure, underfunded research ecosystems, inequitable access to platforms and publishing channels, and digital dependencies that can replicate colonial dynamics in new forms. The Science Systems Futures initiative is designed to generate the analytical tools and policy frameworks that STI organizations, research institutions, and funders need to navigate this landscape deliberately.
The initiative develops four in-depth technology profiles—structured analytical briefs that provide policy-makers, research funders, and academic institutions with a rigorous assessment of each technology: its scientific opportunities, its risks and dependencies, and the enabling conditions required for equitable uptake in the Global South. The complete series includes:
- Extended Reality Technologies and their Implications for Science Systems in the Global South (this report)
- New Connectivity Technologies and their Implications for Scientific Discovery and Digital Sovereignty in the Global South
- Data Storage and Sharing in Global South Science Systems
- Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Global South Science Systems
The program is grounded in primary engagement with Global South STI actors. A key milestone was a strategic retreat held in Nairobi, Kenya in May 2025, in partnership with the African Academy of Sciences, which convened institutional leaders to identify how emerging technologies could be governed in the public interest. The technology profiles were developed from this foundation, combining academic review with policy-relevant analysis, and are feeding into a broader synthesis report expected in late 2026.
The ISC is an international non-governmental organization with a global membership that brings together 250 international scientific unions and associations, national and regional scientific organizations, science academies, research councils, regional scientific organizations, and international federations. It works at the global level to catalyse change by convening scientific expertise, advice, and influence on issues of major importance to both science and society.