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Support to European Aviation Research and Innovation Policy

 

Specific challenge: The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) of the Advisory Council for Aviation Research and Innovation in Europe (ACARE) identified a number of domains where policy support is needed. The following two domains call for urgent actions:

1.    Door-to-door travel involving air transport is currently far from being seamless and therefore, based on the analysis of the current system, conceptual foundations of a novel system should be studied and proposed.

1.    Certification, which is a key element to guarantee the safety of the air transport system, can be time consuming and costly; in addition, new approaches to certification have to be found to cope with novel technologies never used before. Therefore, innovative approaches to this process should be envisaged and studied.

Scope: Proposals should address fully one of the two following domains:

1.    Regarding seamless door to door travel involving air transport, the proposed actions should investigate the profile of customers and better understand their expectations, needs and requirements by collecting data and analysing the current European air transport system and its connections from a user’s perspective. The current effectiveness of traffic flows should be assessed and metrics developed in order to identify the main areas to be improved (information to passengers, luggage handling, predictability, etc.) as well as the drivers and choice parameters such as infrastructure, connectivity, income level, regional aspects, etc. which influence the travel behaviour. On this basis, the action should then develop a concept for a system that is capable of providing a door-to-door service to the customers, establish the broad lines of the architecture of this system, assess the feasibility and economic viability of the concept (cost-benefit analysis) and propose key performance indicators.

2.    Regarding certification, the proposed actions should aim to review the current existing approaches (i.e. including outside of Europe) and identify which new tools and new methods could be used to accelerate the certification process (e.g. alternative means of compliance, adaptability to new concepts or technologies), lower its costs while ensuring the requested level of safety. The action requires the involvement of the key stakeholders who have authority and the capacity to act on the certification process, notably EASA (this does not necessarily require that these stakeholders are participants to the Proposal).

Expected impact: The proposed actions will pave the way for future research and innovation actions contributing to the following high level goals for the 2050 time horizon:

1.    90% of the travellers within Europe are able to complete their journey within 4 hours door to door. In order to guarantee its impact, the proposal should give indication on the methods and sources of data that are planned to be used to study customer profiles and traffic flows and assess the statistical representativeness. It should also present a sound dissemination plan, demonstrate that the results will be communicated to the appropriate stakeholders and, in particular to the potential partners that would be needed to initiate the first research and innovation actions.

2.    The certification process is time efficient, its costs have been reduced by 50% (with reference to year 2000) while ensuring the required levels of safety and gaining global acceptance. In order to guarantee its impact, the proposal should demonstrate that the results will be communicated to the appropriate stakeholders and that the dissemination mechanism is capable of gaining endorsement and commitment at high level.

Type of action: Coordination and Support Actions