Stéphane Grade completed his PhD in Psychological Sciences at UCLouvain in 2016. His doctoral thesis was focusing on space perception, embodied cognition, and virtual reality. Back in the days, with the oculus rift DK1 & 2, a humble VR lab was crafted to modify participants body proportion and demonstrate that perception of space is grounded into body and action representations

After his PhD, he started a new adventure within the Haute école de la Province de Liège (HEPL) and its associated research center: the CECOTEPE on the creation of VR tools for the training of emergency actors (the ORVAMU project, funded by Wallonia). The aim was to design mass casualty incidents simulations to train skills like medical triage and bleeding control using virtual reality.

Following this, he further developed VR training experiences by working on a First Spin Off project, VR SPARX, funded by Wallonia. The ambition was to create a company specialized in the development and deployment of VR experiences with a strong focus in the domain of education, training, simulation and healthcare. The Spin Off Company VR SPARX was created on the 26th of March 2024 and since then, Stéphane Grade has endorsed the role of CEO for the start up.  

In parallel, he maintained some activities within the Haute école de la Province de Liège (HEPL) as invited professor and researcher, developing initiatives on the use of immersive technologies for education and teaching students how to create virtual reality experiences.