About 3D experience
As part of the Horizon Europe project HAlMan, communication and dissemination pargner WIT Berry ensured development of an interactive 3D experience designed to bring the project’s innovative, low-carbon manganese production process to life for a wide audience. The 3D experience offers a visually engaging and accessible overview of the HAlMan process chain from raw material extraction and hydrogen pre-reduction to final alloy production, illustrating a complex metallurgical innovation in a simplified, high-level format. It was created to make an advanced industrial and scientific process approachable to both experts and non-specialists, supporting HAlMan’s mission to demonstrate a more sustainable path for manganese production.
WIT Berry was responsible for coordination of development and launch of the 3D experience, ensuring that a wide audience from industry stakeholders and researchers to policymakers, students, and the general public could explore how manganese can be produced through a more sustainable process.
The Challenge
The core challenge of this project was understanding and communicating the highly technical HAlMan process chain in a way that remained scientifically accurate while also being understandable and engaging for non-specialist audiences. Manganese production is a multi-step industrial process, and the HAlMan innovation replacing carbon with hydrogen and secondary aluminium sources as reductants involved several parallel strands of technical work: hydrogen-based pre-reduction of manganese ores, aluminothermic smelting trials, processing of industrial by-products, and large-scale experimental campaigns run by different project partners. WIT Berry had to gather and synthesise this material from across the consortium, working closely with technical experts to define a single coherent narrative that would showcase the essence of the process while preserving scientific integrity balancing accuracy with accessibility, and compressing pilot-scale trials and industrial activity into one clear, story-driven experience.
Results
The 3D experience was well received, offering viewers an immersive, simplified look into a complex industrial and metallurgical innovation process. By turning the HAlMan process chain into a compelling visual story, the project was able to reach wider audiences — including industry stakeholders, researchers, policymakers, students, and the general public — and raise awareness of the significance of the HAlMan innovation for decarbonisation, circular economy, and sustainable industrial development.
“The HAlMan project combines highly advanced industrial and scientific processes, which made this communication activity both challenging and exciting. Our goal was to create an experience that could transform complex metallurgical innovation into a clear and engaging visual story accessible to different audiences. Every stage of the development process involved close collaboration with the project partners to ensure scientific accuracy while making the experience intuitive and easy to explore.”
Linda Kimeiša, Communication Manager, WIT Berry
The tasks that WIT Berry’s team implemented
The tasks that WIT Berry's team implemented
Concept and Story
WIT Berry began by gathering technical input and material from across the HAlMan consortium, working closely with the project coordination team and technical experts to understand the different technological processes, pilot-scale trials, experimental campaigns, and industrial activities carried out within the project, including hydrogen-based pre-reduction of manganese ores, aluminothermic smelting trials, and the processing of industrial by-products. Based on this material, we developed a narrative structure that would guide the 3D experience, outlining what the audience would see, learn, and understand as they moved through the process from raw material extraction to final alloy production. This scenario formed the backbone of the project and set the creative direction for the development phase.
Communication campaign
To ensure visibility and impact, WIT Berry organised and coordinated the launch communication campaign for the 3D experience. This included a guided online presentation of the experience in the form of a webinar, alongside coverage across social media channels and newsletters. The campaign helped audiences from researchers and policymakers to students and the general public better visualise and understand the HAlMan innovation process and its contribution to more sustainable metallurgy. The final result demonstrates how effective communication and digital storytelling can help make complex Horizon Europe innovations more visible, understandable, and accessible to society, while supporting Europe's broader ambitions for decarbonisation, circular economy, and sustainable industrial development.
Development and validation
Once the concept was in place, WIT Berry coordinated closely with 3D developers and HAlMan partners to bring the experience to life. The process required extensive coordination, multiple validation rounds, and careful planning to ensure that every visual element and process step accurately reflected the project's scientific and industrial work. This iterative process allowed for a polished final experience that made an advanced industrial innovation intuitive and easy to explore, without losing scientific accuracy.
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