Final Report Summary - CEARES-NET (Central european aeronautical research network events)
The main aim of the project was to help to enable the Central European aeronautical research establishments, universities and companies to cooperate with each other and to integrate more to the European research arena. This objective was achieved via two workshops held in Central Europe to enable many local experts to participate.
The organisers were relying on the CEARES network, set up during the CEARES project (funded under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) from 1 April 2008 till 31 March 2010).
The timing of the two workshops foreseen for the project was related to the upcoming aeronautical calls of the European Commission (EC). The first one, organised in Vienna was held before the foutth AAT call, while the second one, which took place in Warsaw was related to the fifth AAT call. Both workshops addressed more topics besides the FP AAT calls, for example the 'Clean sky' and SESAR actions, CANNAPE EUREKA, infrastructural funds and bilateral cooperations.
The organisers took the advantage of the contact data base of the former CEARES project and achieved a wide interest for the workshops. The outcome of the project was the start of new cooperation's within the region and also between Central Europe and other European regions. The events facilitated research cooperations in general, common project proposals with increased Central and Eastern European participation for the upcoming calls and other research programmes.
Project context and objectives:
Central-Eastern Europe was a fragmented area in terms of aeronautical research cooperations in the last twenty years, and organisations in the region knew not enough about each others' research potential. Recent efforts (e.g. new Member States eorkshops of the EC, the activities of the ACARE Member States group, AirTN, etc.) started to change this situation. Among these activities probably the most influential one is the 'Central European Aeronautical Research Initiative' (CEARES) FP7 project which started on 1 April 2008 and finished on 31 March 2010 (please see http://www.ceares.eu online). However, these activities could not solve the problem entirely in such a relatively short period of time, Central Europe is still far from being fully integrated to the European aeronautics research arena.
The new Member States have the capacity to perform significant research work for European aeronautics, but this capacity is highly underutilised. Participation of research establishments from this area in FP7 projects is still lower than it could be and it is more arranged on a case by case ad hoc basis rather than following a clear strategy of research interests. The lack of enough events focussing on cooperations is one of the main bottlenecks for the integration.
To establish a well coordinated network among the research organisations of the Central European countries for sharing the know-how, the latest research results and to be able to find the contact more easily with the European aeronautics industry the CEARES project was launched on 1 April 2008. The objective of this project was to bring together research centres and universities from the region and to give them the possibility to work together. The main tool was the establishment of a regional network, where key aeronautical research centres and relevant university departments were invited. The focus of the activities was Central Europe; network members were from the Central European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia) and from the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania).
The activities within CEARES were regionally focussed but the interest was pan-European.
Research organisations from Balkan countries and CIS states were invited to CEARES workshops on a case by case basis depending on the subject of the workshop. Key players of the European research industry - leading research centres and universities, aircraft and component manufacturers - were also invited to provide examples and to transfer their know-how to CEARES network members.
Project results:
The CEARES-NET project is a support activity type project, therefore had no direct research results. Strategic objectives of CEARES-NET were to enhance information sharing, raising common research topics, to foster the participation in FP7 and contribution to the creation of a European Research Area (ERA). Thanks to the previously set up and working CEARES network, the Central European universities and research institutes have better knowledge about each others' capabilities and work. The aim of the CEARES-NET was to deepen this connection and to involve new partners into the group. By allowing the relation between these institutes, the CEARES-NET contributes to the development of a 'living' network, i.e. a set of bilateral or multilateral research cooperation in different fields.
To achieve the objectives, two workshops were organised. The workshops were followed by considerable attention both from the key players of the European research industry and research organisations from Central European region. The workshops were attended by the representatives of the EC, local authorities, initiatives like 'Clean sky', SESAR, IMG4, SAT Roadmap. This on other hand generated interest to participate for the research institutions from the Central European region. Beside the information on upcoming FP7 calls and clarification of the expectations of the EC related to those calls the participants could accumulate information on 'Clean sky', SESAR, IMG4, SAT Roadmap.
Another major impact was the fact that research organisations from the Central European region become familiar with each other's capabilities, research areas therefore they can initiate projects based on cooperation.
In the process of workshop organisation, the CEARES-NET project used its own website created for the project and database of the CEARES network. The website was the focal point where all the information related to the workshops was available. After the workshop all the presentations were placed on the website available for download for further reference. As the website provides all the information on the workshop participants including contact details and their presentations the network members can refer to the website as needed.
During the project, two CDs were prepared: the first one contained the presentations from the first CEARES-NET workshop held in Vienna (fifth counting all the previous CEARES workshops) and the second one contains the presentations of all the six CEARES workshops (including the second CEARES-NET workshop held in Warsaw).
Potential impact:
CEARES-NET had an s impact oin the following areas:
- information sharing;
- common research topics;
- participation in FP7;
- ERA.
Information sharing
Thanks to the previously set up and working CEARES network the Central European universities and research institutes have better knowledge about each others' capabilities and work. The CEARES-NET has deepened this connection and involved new partners into the group. By allowing the relation between these institutes, the CEARES-NET contributed to the development of a 'living' network, i.e. a set of bilateral or multilateral research cooperation in different fields.
Common research topics
Due to scarce resources, it is hard for individual research establishments to make significant progress alone on a certain topic. Cooperation is a must in today's research life. With CEARES-NET starting of common research topics will be much easier: either with the participation of few or several member organisations with inviting of course other European organisations as well. With the help of CEARES-NET, Central European research organisations may start their own large-scale research programs instead of following the recent practice when performing either small-scale, often insufficient research due to the limited financial resources, or joining such research activities of larger European research establishments which are not fully in line with the individual needs and capacities of the organisation.
Participation in FP7
CEARES-NET is not intended to be a forum for FP7 proposal preparation. However, it will surely stimulate the activities of CEARES network members in FP7. This increase will be achieved with the leverage effect of the other objectives: by knowing well the capacities of other research organisations, by working in a network on common research topics it will be much easier to set up project proposals on topics that serve the long-term interest of the particular organisation and fit to its own research policy. Moreover the CEARES-NET workshops provided the latest information on FP7 calls and updates by inviting experts of the EC to give presentations. FP7 participation should not mean taking part in more proposals; it would rather mean to work into the right directions and by being more focussed, success may increase as well.
ERA
CEARES-NET will contribute to the goals of the EC to create ERA by fostering cooperation among researchers in aeronautics. CEARES-NET will not limit cooperation to Central Europe: in fact, it will increase them on a European scale. Up to now participation in European research programs were limited partly because the research organisations in these states cannot always identify on which activities to focus. The participation of some of the key European research centres, universities and industrial players at workshops will help to harmonise the local research activities with European ones and will consequently enhance the research cooperation at European level as well. Besides working together with leading research players, CEARES-NET cooperated with ACARE, AirTN, 'Clean sky', EASN, EREA, IMG4, SESAR, etc.
The CEARES-NET project had a created ahas a dedicated part on the CEARES website, created on the basis of created by the previously ended CEARES project. This website and the database behind it were used for dissemination of information and for workshop organisation.
All the relevant information on the workshops and the registration itself were organised through the website (please see http://www.ceartes.eu online). The agenda of the workshop and the information on accommodation and local transport were available for download from the website. The agenda was periodically updated as needed. The registration for the workshop was available online and provided notification to the organisers in e-mail.
Four newsletters were sent out in e-mail to more than 700 individual addresses. The newsletters look was consistent with the website design to achieve better results. The focus of the newsletters were the workshops their topics, location and organisers. The newsletters were issued before and after the workshops. Before the workshops the newsletters were issued to announce the workshop and to provide information regarding the topics, location and organisers. After the workshops the newsletters provided information on presentations and conclusions of the past workshop while providing early information on the upcoming workshop.
The first CEARES-NET workshop was held in the TechGate building Vienna Austria, on 13 and 14 October 2010. The event was hosted by the Austrian Institute of Technology. The five sessions had a common topic: Central European cooperation possibilities. The purpose of the workshop was to present the further possibilities provided by the upcoming calls of FP7 and large European projects, such as 'Clean sky' and cooperation initiatives from the industry (IMG4) in field of aeronautics. Special attention was paid to the project participation support provided by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Traffic. Furthermore, several research and development (R&D) institutions from Central European countries were invited to present their capabilities and to discuss their experience and practice. The breaks and the session discussion periods gave opportunity for asking questions and for networking. Special feature was introduced to support the networking activities. The registered participants were able to book and accept B2B meetings online. The event attracted over 30 participants during the two days.
The second workshop in the frame of the CEARES-NET project was organised by the Institute of Aviation in Warsaw on 15-16 June 2011. The title of the workshop was 'Towards innovation - The future of aeronautics' and it was organised in cooperation with SAT - Roadmap.
The organiser invited the representatives of Polish Aeronautical NCP, Polish Aeronautical Research and Development, EC and representatives of numerous European initiatives like SESAR JU, 'Clean sky', 'Small air transport' and CANNAPE. The topic has addressed the possibilities for further innovation in the field of aeronautics and had special emphasis on the small air transport.
The CEARES network members were also well represented trough various FP7 projects like TITAN or they were representing own organisations or institutes such as BUTE.
The workshop was divided into three well defined parts. During the first day on the general session, the presenters have provided overview of the related topics in general. The second day the audience was organised in two smaller groups and issues of the small aircraft strategy and aeronautics programmes were discussed in detail during the two parallel sessions. This was followed by a panel discussion where the topics previously discussed were further elaborated in a more structured way.
After the panel discussion the following conclusion was formulated: general aviation / small aircraft related research and industry are very important for several states in Central Europe. In terms of research, there were good examples earlier (CESAR) and the recent news on ESPOSA are encouraging. On the other hand, it is obvious that the industrial capacities are still underutilised in most cases.
The participants of the workshop and the panel discussion have agreed that there is a need for some joint actions to put the issue to the European agenda and CEARES may be one the means to support this process.
In terms of controlling the process, the participants agreed that locally led programs are more beneficial for the Central European industries. It was also mentioned that safety will be a critical issue if small aircraft are used for public transport so more attention should be made in this respect. The panel agreed that although the current research framework is stable many changes will happen in the short future and the consultation process to establish the new research framework is happening now. The participants agreed that cooperation within Europe and off course also with Central European states are important. However, more work has to be made on interoperability issues.
In terms of the terminology (referring to the expression new Member States) the participants are less positive to use it in the future. On the other hand, most participants have agreed that there is still work to be done to develop these industries and the research co-operations, but this should be less geographical but more thematical in the future.
List of websites: http://wwww.ceares.eu
Coordinator website: http://www.slotconsulting.hu
The organisers were relying on the CEARES network, set up during the CEARES project (funded under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) from 1 April 2008 till 31 March 2010).
The timing of the two workshops foreseen for the project was related to the upcoming aeronautical calls of the European Commission (EC). The first one, organised in Vienna was held before the foutth AAT call, while the second one, which took place in Warsaw was related to the fifth AAT call. Both workshops addressed more topics besides the FP AAT calls, for example the 'Clean sky' and SESAR actions, CANNAPE EUREKA, infrastructural funds and bilateral cooperations.
The organisers took the advantage of the contact data base of the former CEARES project and achieved a wide interest for the workshops. The outcome of the project was the start of new cooperation's within the region and also between Central Europe and other European regions. The events facilitated research cooperations in general, common project proposals with increased Central and Eastern European participation for the upcoming calls and other research programmes.
Project context and objectives:
Central-Eastern Europe was a fragmented area in terms of aeronautical research cooperations in the last twenty years, and organisations in the region knew not enough about each others' research potential. Recent efforts (e.g. new Member States eorkshops of the EC, the activities of the ACARE Member States group, AirTN, etc.) started to change this situation. Among these activities probably the most influential one is the 'Central European Aeronautical Research Initiative' (CEARES) FP7 project which started on 1 April 2008 and finished on 31 March 2010 (please see http://www.ceares.eu online). However, these activities could not solve the problem entirely in such a relatively short period of time, Central Europe is still far from being fully integrated to the European aeronautics research arena.
The new Member States have the capacity to perform significant research work for European aeronautics, but this capacity is highly underutilised. Participation of research establishments from this area in FP7 projects is still lower than it could be and it is more arranged on a case by case ad hoc basis rather than following a clear strategy of research interests. The lack of enough events focussing on cooperations is one of the main bottlenecks for the integration.
To establish a well coordinated network among the research organisations of the Central European countries for sharing the know-how, the latest research results and to be able to find the contact more easily with the European aeronautics industry the CEARES project was launched on 1 April 2008. The objective of this project was to bring together research centres and universities from the region and to give them the possibility to work together. The main tool was the establishment of a regional network, where key aeronautical research centres and relevant university departments were invited. The focus of the activities was Central Europe; network members were from the Central European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia) and from the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania).
The activities within CEARES were regionally focussed but the interest was pan-European.
Research organisations from Balkan countries and CIS states were invited to CEARES workshops on a case by case basis depending on the subject of the workshop. Key players of the European research industry - leading research centres and universities, aircraft and component manufacturers - were also invited to provide examples and to transfer their know-how to CEARES network members.
Project results:
The CEARES-NET project is a support activity type project, therefore had no direct research results. Strategic objectives of CEARES-NET were to enhance information sharing, raising common research topics, to foster the participation in FP7 and contribution to the creation of a European Research Area (ERA). Thanks to the previously set up and working CEARES network, the Central European universities and research institutes have better knowledge about each others' capabilities and work. The aim of the CEARES-NET was to deepen this connection and to involve new partners into the group. By allowing the relation between these institutes, the CEARES-NET contributes to the development of a 'living' network, i.e. a set of bilateral or multilateral research cooperation in different fields.
To achieve the objectives, two workshops were organised. The workshops were followed by considerable attention both from the key players of the European research industry and research organisations from Central European region. The workshops were attended by the representatives of the EC, local authorities, initiatives like 'Clean sky', SESAR, IMG4, SAT Roadmap. This on other hand generated interest to participate for the research institutions from the Central European region. Beside the information on upcoming FP7 calls and clarification of the expectations of the EC related to those calls the participants could accumulate information on 'Clean sky', SESAR, IMG4, SAT Roadmap.
Another major impact was the fact that research organisations from the Central European region become familiar with each other's capabilities, research areas therefore they can initiate projects based on cooperation.
In the process of workshop organisation, the CEARES-NET project used its own website created for the project and database of the CEARES network. The website was the focal point where all the information related to the workshops was available. After the workshop all the presentations were placed on the website available for download for further reference. As the website provides all the information on the workshop participants including contact details and their presentations the network members can refer to the website as needed.
During the project, two CDs were prepared: the first one contained the presentations from the first CEARES-NET workshop held in Vienna (fifth counting all the previous CEARES workshops) and the second one contains the presentations of all the six CEARES workshops (including the second CEARES-NET workshop held in Warsaw).
Potential impact:
CEARES-NET had an s impact oin the following areas:
- information sharing;
- common research topics;
- participation in FP7;
- ERA.
Information sharing
Thanks to the previously set up and working CEARES network the Central European universities and research institutes have better knowledge about each others' capabilities and work. The CEARES-NET has deepened this connection and involved new partners into the group. By allowing the relation between these institutes, the CEARES-NET contributed to the development of a 'living' network, i.e. a set of bilateral or multilateral research cooperation in different fields.
Common research topics
Due to scarce resources, it is hard for individual research establishments to make significant progress alone on a certain topic. Cooperation is a must in today's research life. With CEARES-NET starting of common research topics will be much easier: either with the participation of few or several member organisations with inviting of course other European organisations as well. With the help of CEARES-NET, Central European research organisations may start their own large-scale research programs instead of following the recent practice when performing either small-scale, often insufficient research due to the limited financial resources, or joining such research activities of larger European research establishments which are not fully in line with the individual needs and capacities of the organisation.
Participation in FP7
CEARES-NET is not intended to be a forum for FP7 proposal preparation. However, it will surely stimulate the activities of CEARES network members in FP7. This increase will be achieved with the leverage effect of the other objectives: by knowing well the capacities of other research organisations, by working in a network on common research topics it will be much easier to set up project proposals on topics that serve the long-term interest of the particular organisation and fit to its own research policy. Moreover the CEARES-NET workshops provided the latest information on FP7 calls and updates by inviting experts of the EC to give presentations. FP7 participation should not mean taking part in more proposals; it would rather mean to work into the right directions and by being more focussed, success may increase as well.
ERA
CEARES-NET will contribute to the goals of the EC to create ERA by fostering cooperation among researchers in aeronautics. CEARES-NET will not limit cooperation to Central Europe: in fact, it will increase them on a European scale. Up to now participation in European research programs were limited partly because the research organisations in these states cannot always identify on which activities to focus. The participation of some of the key European research centres, universities and industrial players at workshops will help to harmonise the local research activities with European ones and will consequently enhance the research cooperation at European level as well. Besides working together with leading research players, CEARES-NET cooperated with ACARE, AirTN, 'Clean sky', EASN, EREA, IMG4, SESAR, etc.
The CEARES-NET project had a created ahas a dedicated part on the CEARES website, created on the basis of created by the previously ended CEARES project. This website and the database behind it were used for dissemination of information and for workshop organisation.
All the relevant information on the workshops and the registration itself were organised through the website (please see http://www.ceartes.eu online). The agenda of the workshop and the information on accommodation and local transport were available for download from the website. The agenda was periodically updated as needed. The registration for the workshop was available online and provided notification to the organisers in e-mail.
Four newsletters were sent out in e-mail to more than 700 individual addresses. The newsletters look was consistent with the website design to achieve better results. The focus of the newsletters were the workshops their topics, location and organisers. The newsletters were issued before and after the workshops. Before the workshops the newsletters were issued to announce the workshop and to provide information regarding the topics, location and organisers. After the workshops the newsletters provided information on presentations and conclusions of the past workshop while providing early information on the upcoming workshop.
The first CEARES-NET workshop was held in the TechGate building Vienna Austria, on 13 and 14 October 2010. The event was hosted by the Austrian Institute of Technology. The five sessions had a common topic: Central European cooperation possibilities. The purpose of the workshop was to present the further possibilities provided by the upcoming calls of FP7 and large European projects, such as 'Clean sky' and cooperation initiatives from the industry (IMG4) in field of aeronautics. Special attention was paid to the project participation support provided by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Traffic. Furthermore, several research and development (R&D) institutions from Central European countries were invited to present their capabilities and to discuss their experience and practice. The breaks and the session discussion periods gave opportunity for asking questions and for networking. Special feature was introduced to support the networking activities. The registered participants were able to book and accept B2B meetings online. The event attracted over 30 participants during the two days.
The second workshop in the frame of the CEARES-NET project was organised by the Institute of Aviation in Warsaw on 15-16 June 2011. The title of the workshop was 'Towards innovation - The future of aeronautics' and it was organised in cooperation with SAT - Roadmap.
The organiser invited the representatives of Polish Aeronautical NCP, Polish Aeronautical Research and Development, EC and representatives of numerous European initiatives like SESAR JU, 'Clean sky', 'Small air transport' and CANNAPE. The topic has addressed the possibilities for further innovation in the field of aeronautics and had special emphasis on the small air transport.
The CEARES network members were also well represented trough various FP7 projects like TITAN or they were representing own organisations or institutes such as BUTE.
The workshop was divided into three well defined parts. During the first day on the general session, the presenters have provided overview of the related topics in general. The second day the audience was organised in two smaller groups and issues of the small aircraft strategy and aeronautics programmes were discussed in detail during the two parallel sessions. This was followed by a panel discussion where the topics previously discussed were further elaborated in a more structured way.
After the panel discussion the following conclusion was formulated: general aviation / small aircraft related research and industry are very important for several states in Central Europe. In terms of research, there were good examples earlier (CESAR) and the recent news on ESPOSA are encouraging. On the other hand, it is obvious that the industrial capacities are still underutilised in most cases.
The participants of the workshop and the panel discussion have agreed that there is a need for some joint actions to put the issue to the European agenda and CEARES may be one the means to support this process.
In terms of controlling the process, the participants agreed that locally led programs are more beneficial for the Central European industries. It was also mentioned that safety will be a critical issue if small aircraft are used for public transport so more attention should be made in this respect. The panel agreed that although the current research framework is stable many changes will happen in the short future and the consultation process to establish the new research framework is happening now. The participants agreed that cooperation within Europe and off course also with Central European states are important. However, more work has to be made on interoperability issues.
In terms of the terminology (referring to the expression new Member States) the participants are less positive to use it in the future. On the other hand, most participants have agreed that there is still work to be done to develop these industries and the research co-operations, but this should be less geographical but more thematical in the future.
List of websites: http://wwww.ceares.eu
Coordinator website: http://www.slotconsulting.hu