The overall goal is the establishment of a virtual surgical education and training center that will enable experts to obtain a customizable, distant learning solution for training their students at anytime and anywhere with a minimum cost. This is achieved through the following objectives:R&D in virtual reality (VR) based surgical simulators.A web-based training application inspired by the e-Learning paradigm.Building digital libraries to support several activities: information access, discovery, storage, dissemination and preservation.Exchange of knowledge and experience will further improve the interregional cooperation to respond to the identified common problems regarding the exploitation of digital technologies for the promotion of education and research.