On 23 February 2026, the activities of ALPINE-XR officially started at the Lecco Campus of Politecnico di Milano. The initiative is part of the Interreg Italy–Switzerland program and focuses on innovation in training for alpine rescue and emergency medicine.
The initiative addresses a concrete and shared need: effectively preparing personnel operating in mountain rescue contexts. Alpine scenarios are characterized by extreme, variable and often unpredictable conditions. Emergency situations are rare but highly complex, requiring advanced technical skills, rapid decision-making and the ability to manage stress in physically and psychologically demanding environments.
Although well established, traditional training models present limitations. They often struggle to reproduce real operational stress in a controlled setting, lack scalability, and do not always ensure uniform access across territories and user profiles. Designing coherent training pathways for highly heterogeneous groups, such as experienced physicians, rescue volunteers or less experienced personnel, while maintaining high scientific and operational standards remains a significant challenge.
ALPINE-XR seeks to address this challenge by integrating three domains that rarely interact in a systematic way: XR technologies, educational neuroscience, and the simulation of complex environmental scenarios. The objective is to develop an immersive training system capable of safely and controllably reproducing the operational conditions typical of alpine rescue, while ensuring a high level of cognitive and emotional realism.
Within this framework, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano coordinates the project an plays a central role in the design and development of the XR platform. The department’s longstanding expertise in XR, human–machine interaction and the design of immersive systems for training applications provides the technological foundation of the initiative. This includes the definition of interaction logics within simulated environments and the development of robust, user-centred immersive solutions tailored to high-complexity contexts.
The approach is strongly interdisciplinary. XR technologies enable the creation of dynamic and adaptive simulated environments; learning sciences provide theoretical models to design cognitively effective and sustainable training experiences; clinical partners ensure alignment with real operational procedures and constraints. This interaction between technological research, educational research and medical practice is one of the defining elements of the initiative.
The cross-border dimension is equally relevant. Alpine rescue operations often involve shared territories and require coordination across national systems. Developing a co-designed training model between Italian and Swiss partners supports not only technological innovation but also methodological alignment and operational interoperability.
The solution under development is conceived as scalable and adaptable, with the aim of expanding access to advanced training tools even in peripheral areas or contexts with limited resources. In this perspective, technology is not an end in itself, but a means to deliver more accessible, repeatable and scientifically grounded training.
ALPINE-XR stands at the intersection of applied research, educational innovation and territorial impact. In the coming months, activities will focus on defining the training framework and developing the first immersive scenarios, in close collaboration with operational stakeholders. For the Department of Mechanical Engineering, thanks to the team involving Francesco Ferrise, Niccolò Dozio and Riccardo Giussani, this initiative represents a further opportunity to consolidate and transfer advanced XR competencies towards high social-impact applications, contributing to the development of innovative training models for complex environments.