In association with partners from universities in Holland and Belgium, the IHCS Learning & Teaching team were successful in a bid to the Consortium of Institutes of Higher Education in Health and Rehabilitation In Europe (COHEHRE) for a project involving the creation of a virtual web-based European community (a european prototype version of the Simulated Community).

Virtual Europe is a virtual web-based European community from which case studies and scenarios may be accessed for learning and teaching purposes by teachers, groups and individual students (these case studies could have been developed in part by service users and carers). Virtual Europe features a map of Europe, which allows access to country specific resources (such as a town hospital) populated with different cultural case studies. This would allow comparisons and contrasts between cultures to be examined. For example, a student in the UK could compare and contrast the differences between UK and European approaches to treatment and care of a patient in a particular situation.

Cohehre was established on the belief that the development and quality of higher education for the health care professions would be enhanced by international cooperation, realising amongst others, an international/European dimension to the educational activities of its membership. This project aims to provide a cultural opportunity to work on a cross border project, and offer the chance to provide an innovative virtual learning environment, which could be utilised across Cohehre partner institutions.

The project initially runs from July 2006 through to June 2009.