Würzburg Reaches #1 Worldwide in CSRankings for Virtual Reality Research

09 Mar 2026

The Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) and Psychology of Intelligent Interactive Systems (PIIS) research groups at the University of Würzburg have reached #1 worldwide in the CSRankings for Virtual Reality (VR). According to the latest data from the independent ranking platform, Würzburg now shares the top global position in VR research.

The ranking can be explored directly on the official CSRankings website:
https://csrankings.org/#/index?none&world

To view the result, select Visualization → VR in the ranking categories.

Global Leadership in VR Research

The CSRankings platform evaluates institutions based on their publication output in top-tier conferences. In the field of Virtual Reality, the University of Würzburg has steadily improved its position in recent years.

• 2023: #1 in Germany, #3 in Europe, #6 worldwide
• Recent ranking: #1 in Germany and Europe, #2 worldwide
• Latest update: #1 worldwide

This achievement highlights the strong research performance of the VR community in Würzburg.

A Strong Result

The contributions in VR come from only three principal investigators across two research groups:

• Human–Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Psychology of Intelligent Interactive Systems (PIIS)

The ranking lists the following researchers contributing to this result:

• Dr. Jean-Luc Lugrin
• Prof. Carolin Wienrich
• Prof. Marc Erich Latoschik

Würzburg’s VR research output competes with and surpasses many larger international institutions.

Interdisciplinary XR Research in Würzburg

Research in Würzburg spans multiple aspects of immersive technologies, including:

• eXtended Reality (XR) systems and interaction
• photorealistic avatars and embodiment
• social interaction in virtual environments
• AI-supported immersive systems
• software engineering for real-time interactive XR systems

The work integrates technical system design, human-centered evaluation, and theoretical models of immersive experience.

Explore the Ranking

You can explore the full CSRankings results here:

• Global VR ranking:
  https://csrankings.org/#/index?none&world

• AI rankings for Germany:
  https://csrankings.org/#/fromyear/2022/toyear/2026/index?ai&vision&mlmining&nlp&inforet&de

This achievement reflects the continued effort of the researchers in Würzburg and the strength of interdisciplinary collaboration across computer science, psychology, and AI.