Final Report Summary - CANNAPE (Canadian Networking Aeronautics Project for Europe)
CANNAPE was a project that resulted from a call for an EC FP7 Co-ordinated Support Action. It was published under the 4th Call of the FP7 competition for Aeronautics (Transport) as: Exploring opportunities and stimulating research co-operation with Canada. The official start date was 4th May 2011 and the project finished at the end of June, 2013. The EC funding for the project was 299620 €, and the Canadian equivalent funding was 96000€ plus 405000€ in kind.
This project created a comprehensive platform for enhancing aeronautics and air transport research and development (R&D) cooperation between the EU and Canada, and explored the potential for and promoted the participation of Canadian stakeholders with their European counterparts in common activities. The consortium proved to be a winning group of 14 European and 5 core Canadian partners. During the course of the project, 4 workshops took place to promote Canadian participation in the aeronautics and air transport activities of FP7. Several successful projects with Canadian partners emerged from the 5th and 6th Calls of FP7 as a result of CANNAPE. Previously to the existence of CANNAPE, there had been no previous Canadian participation in FP7 projects for the thematic area of aeronautics. The strength of these first successes has encouraged the CANNAPE platform to continue beyond the end of its contractual time. This platform will remain in place to assist in the planning of a Co-ordinated Call, which is anticipated to take place in the 2015 timeframe.
The CANNAPE initiative has succeeded in achieving all of its objectives, mostly by the anticipated method, due to the dedication of its partners. In particular, the Canadian core partners, as representatives of relevant government departments or organisations, were able to provide the necessary support. In addition, the many Canadian Steering Group partners such as CRIAQ and GARDN, were also able to provide significant support in all areas of the project.
Although previous work on collaboration had been considered at the start of the project, it was found that the existing information was not that useful when regarding the aims of CANNAPE. Also, during the CANNAPE project, Canada undertook a year-long Aerospace Review, ending December 2012, which could have had some significant outcomes. With this in mind, CANNAPE was able to capture, in an in depth manner, the aeronautics and air transport capabilities and needs of the EU and Canada in a complementary manner, and qualitatively analyse them for enhancement of further co-operation.
At the end of CANNAPE, there remains a strong network in place, a list of priority topics for possible collaboration, a catalogue of Canadian organisations and capabilities, ongoing FP7 L1 and L2 projects, and an agreed plan for the future, until at least 2015. Whether a Co-ordinated Call takes place in 2015 or not, there is plenty of scope for successful, collaborative projects in the future, as the 5th and 6th FP7 Calls saw many highly-marked, collaborative proposals that were not able to be funded at the time.
Project Context and Objectives:
CANNAPE was a Co-ordinated Support Action, (CSA), for increasing collaboration between Canada and Europe in the area of aeronautics and air transport. Before the start of the project, EC officials, (Liam Breslin and Pablo Perez-Illana), were invited to Canada to establish leads in this area. Also, through its strong links with the UK, Industry Canada visited the UK to share knowledge on their technology analysis. During the 2010 Farnborough Air Show, a meeting was held to discuss the proposal for the CSA. There was considerable interest and so a large consortium was formed including 15 European partners and 5 core Canadian partners. The strength of the consortium was that it represented many countries, networks and organisations and this was the key to the successful outcome of the project. The format of the proposal was agreed at the Farnborough meeting, which was essentially 4 work packages covering 1. Analysis, 2. Collaboration through 4 workshops, 3. Canadian promotion and 4. Project management.
The overall objectives for CANNAPE were:
• To explore the potential for enhancing cooperation through further analysis, (mapping of Canadian themes and topics against the ACARE SRIA), of aeronautics and air transport R&D cooperation between the EU and Canada;
• To develop and enhance networks and partnerships between EU and Canada in identified technical themes ideally suited for mutually beneficial aeronautics and air transport R&D cooperation;
• To promote Canadian participation in the aeronautics and air transport activities of FP7 through focused workshops, information and advisory services;
• To identify key technology areas for future collaboration, that will have the support of the Canadian partners and associates.
• To develop a plan for the future, (Horizon 2020), that will have achievable objectives, with the involvement of Canadian partners, who are representatives of key, enabling Canadian organisations.
The concept for the project was that there was a Core Group of partners, who would undertake facilitation, who were either the leaders of, or had a close association with aeronautical networks or clusters. Other participants in the project were part of a Steering Group, participating in specific tasks. The two groups consisted of both Canadian and European partners, who were in a position to provide in-kind resources and facilities, where possible, so that the EC funding could be used most effectively. The networks and clusters were from the aeronautical industry, research organisations, universities, regions and provinces, and government.
After the start of the project, (which was led by an SME), there were 19 Core Group partners, (see table below), as well as in the order of 15 Steering Group partners. In fact, during the course of the project, several Canadians became the equivalent of core partners including Clement Forting CRIAQ, Sylvain Cofsky GARDN, David Zingg Toronto University and Rod Jones Ontario Aero. During the project there were changes of staff due to various reasons, ranging from childbirth to redundancy, as indicated by multiple names in the table.
All of the European partners were associated with networks within Europe as well as some that were international. Canadian partners were from different, Canadian government departments and organisations related to industry and research that had access to funding for research. Hence, funding for venues, websites etc. was minimised by using sites with availability, which consortium members had access to.
The scope of research to be considered included the technologies, services and operations of all the components of the of the air transport system from airport kerbside to airport kerbside, excluding the non-travel aspects of the system, ticketing and ground vehicles within the FP7 thematic area of Transport, including Aeronautics. As well as the high level objectives of FlightPath 2050, the priorities of the 2005 ACARE SRA were initially taken as the key areas for collaboration, namely integrated, safer, “greener” and “smarter” pan-European transport systems for the benefit of all citizens and society and climate policy, respecting the environment and natural resources; and securing and further developing the competitiveness attained by the European industries in the global market.” FP7’s Transport Theme, in agreement with the ACARE SRA, addressed six activities in regards to aeronautics and air transport:
• The Greening of Air Transport;
• Increasing Time Efficiency;
• Ensuring Customer Satisfaction and Safety;
• Improving Cost Efficiency;
• Protection of Aircraft and passengers, and
• Pioneering the Air Transport of the Future.
The ACARE Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, (SRIA), was released near the end of 2012, and was used in the Technology mapping exercise of Work Package 1, as this document will be used in setting the Horizon 2020 work programme. An outcome of CANNAPE is a plan for future collaboration in Horizon 2020.
There are 4 Work Packages (WPs) in CANNAPE, WP4 being for the management of the project. Each of the other three WPs has specific objectives. There was a Canadian and European leader for each WP apart from WP4. The WP contents are as follows:
Work Package 1: Mapping of capabilities and expertise within the aerospace industries in Canada and Europe.
This WP forms a desktop analysis and is divided into 4 tasks as follows:
• A study of Canadian aeronautics and air transport activities, competencies, capabilities and activities within the governmental, research and private sectors
• Selected mapping of EU and Canadian research capabilities in support of the above.
• Analysed and correlated Canadian and EU mapping data.
• Development of an information platform.
Key objectives of WP1 were the provision of data for identification of Canadian organisations with research capabilities and their competencies, identification of research topics suitable for collaboration and guidance for the CANNAPE workshop structures and provision of a website-based platform as a tool for CANNAPE and information.
Work Package 2: Development of networks and partnerships through the organisation of workshops.
This WP is the focus for activities in CANNAPE and included four workshops. The workshops were aligned with the timing of the last 2 Calls for aeronautics in FP7. Two workshops took place in Canada and two in Europe. The main objectives were:
• To ensure the highest participation and maximum attention of experts from academia, research, industry, and policy and funding community, including policy makers in related / linked activities organised through CANNAPE.
• Appropriate topics are covered during the workshops and material is made available.
• Workshop networking leads to further engagement with possible resulting collaborations.
Work Package 3: Promotion of Canadian participation in the aeronautics and air transport activities of the Framework Programme.
This WP was introduced by the Canadians to maintain awareness for the Canadian community. One of the objectives of the WP was to set up a small team of Canadians and Europeans for the purpose of providing information through road shows on the objectives of CANNAPE and results of Canadian/European engagements that have previously taken place. The road shows also provided assistance on participation in projects that have arisen from CANNAPE engagement. Dissemination by this process has taken place regionally on a face-to-face basis.
A key aspect of this WP was to explore the alignment of Canadian research funding with that of Europe. This task was focussed around improving the Canadian Front Office for enabling Canadian organisations to undertake collaborative R&D in aeronautics with European organisations. Through the formation of an R&D Funding Task Group the following objectives were attempted:
• Explore existing support mechanisms in Canada, and identify gaps and future needs for collaboration with Europe.
• Identify the role for the S&T personnel at Canadian embassies in providing information and advisory services.
• Improve the role of the Canadian NCP and his/her interaction with the above Group and Embassies.
• Sustainability for Horizon 2020, beyond the end of the CANNAPE project.
For these 4 work packages, the 22 deliverables have been delivered satisfactorily, but not always as expected. Most importantly WP1 was meant to have deliverables which assisted with setting the workshops’ content in WP 2. This was not possible as the Canadian system was not prepared for this, and data for the WP1 deliverables had to be found in another way, mostly arriving after the first three workshops had taken place. Hence the agendas for these workshops were set using a different strategy. However, WP1 produced a very useful methodology and interesting results which will assist in future planning.
Project Results:
Work Package 1 - Mapping of capabilities and expertise within the aerospace industries in Canada and Europe
The deliverables for this work package were:
D1.1 Catalogue of Canadian and European resources
D1.2 Report on Providing Information Suitable for Print Material
D1.3 Developed Themes for Workshops and Reports on Analysis
D1.4 Creation of a Website
D1.5 Brochure of Technology Capabilities
This work package achieved all of its deliverables, despite some initial difficulties. It had a strong team of both European and Canadian representatives, although BIS and Shorts were not active. In particular, there was significant effort from Industry Canada, AIAC, NSERC, NRC, CRIAQ and GARDN to collect comprehensive data on all of their research projects in aerospace to create a national database. This had not been achieved by them before.
From the outset of the project a CANNAPE website, fit for purpose, was created immediately as part of deliverable 1.4. It is hosted on the UK _connect platform run by the Technology Strategy Board, (TSB), an arm of UK government. The advantages of using this platform are many; one being that the CANNAPE website will exist beyond the end of the EC CANNAPE project, and can be updated remotely. Other advantages are that a variety of UK and international networks are linked into _connect, providing a possible audience of 10s of 1000s; and the platform is managed and maintained by the TSB. The Aerospace, Aviation and Defence Knowledge Transfer Network, (AAD KTN), have set up the CANNAPE website to have a private and public part. The website stores documents, articles and has facilities for the promotion of events. As the intention is to continue the CANNAPE initiative until at least 2015, the AAD KTN is prepared to continue updating the website.
Pragmatically, this work package has had to undergo some changes, mainly due to difficulties in making progress in the first half of the project. This was essentially down to Canada not having a national strategy or overview of their aeronautical capabilities and needs. Originally it was intended that WP1 would lead the strategy for WP2 but this was not possible due to the lack of Canadian data available. Also, the Canadian Aerospace Review, which ended in October 2012, was not able to help this situation and probably hindered it to some extent in that CANNAPE Canadian resources were diverted to this activity. The outcome of the review hardly referred to international collaboration and the data that CANNAPE needed should be done in the implementation phase of the review, taking place after the end of CANNAPE. Therefore, following Workshop 3 in October 2012, a Steering Group meeting was held in Ottawa and the situation was reassessed. WP1 leader, DLR, had a new resource and so did Onera, which gave new energy to the WP. It was decided that the most important need was to establish which technical topics would be of interest for collaboration after FP7 had finished, i.e. for Horizon 2020. As there wasn’t suitable Canadian data available, it was decided to create it by using the data of existing Canadian Research and Innovation, (R&I), projects. The Canadian CANNAPE partners then undertook an exercise to create a national database of all of their R&I projects, with some key attributes such as funding level, thematic area etc. No such database existed before and this new CANNAPE deliverable became an important addition both to CANNAPE and the Canadians, and enabled progress to be made.
The deliverable D1.1 ‘Catalogue of Canadian/EC aeronautic programmes/networks/resources’ gave a comprehensive run down on all of the aspects of its title. This was done in the first half of CANNAPE and although there were some Canadian areas identified suitable for international collaboration, there was no clear way given on aligning European and Canadian funding which was seen as a drawback. However, one provincial route for funding, identified in the document, was through CRIAQ and this route was followed through in the 3rd workshop of WP2.
The 4 workshops of WP2 needed handouts to explain the scope of CANNAPE and to advertise the project. Before the start of the first workshop a CANNAPE logo was generated and a CANNAPE flyer produced, to be used at all events attended by CANNAPE members, including ones outside of the CANNAPE project. This provided good visibility of the intentions of CANNAPE from the start of the project. As successful projects commenced following the 5th and 6th FP7 Calls, case studies were drawn up on some projects. The second deliverable, D1.2 ‘Report on Providing Information Suitable for Print Material’, is a compilation of these case studies which are for FP7 L1, L2 and L3 projects, i.e. the complete range of technical projects available under FP7.
During Workshop 2 in Ottawa, Deliverable D1.5 was developed to provide information on Canadian organisations by Cranfield University with NRC. A database of skills and capabilities for many organisations was produced in 10 key technology areas.
The major undertaking of WP1 was the analysis of Canadian data to provide a strategy for European and Canada collaboration, in the first place to use in guiding the 4 workshops, and secondly for future engagement such as for a Co-ordinated Call. Suitable data was not made available until the start of 2013, (and so couldn’t be used for the first 3 workshops), after which a formidable effort was made to produce data in time for the last workshop, workshop 4. Deliverable D1.3 Developed Themes for Workshops and Report on Analysis, captured the outcomes of CANNAPE needed for collaboration in the future.
Deliverable D1.3 summarises the “Achievements, Endorsements and Recommendations” of CANNAPE, including the mapping and correlation process described in Part 2 of the deliverable D1.3. Some the achievements for CANNAPE specified are:
• A better understanding and overview of funding systems and instruments in Europe and Canada;
• A methodology for correlation of interest and capabilities even when Canada does not have a strategic R&TD roadmap;
• A ranked list of topics for future collaboration between Europe and Canada in aeronautics R&I and potentially relevant for coordinated calls in Horizon 2020;
• Greater recognition and appreciation by European and Canadian partners of the great potential for collaboration.
• Enhanced Canadian awareness of the importance of having a strategic R&TD roadmap
• Increased Canadian awareness of effective methods and tools for establishing a Canadian strategic R&TD roadmap
Canadian participants have also observed a number of notable achievements:
• The Canadian R&TD community (industry, industry organizations, research organizations, and government) has come together in an unprecedented way and established a forum for sharing intelligence on Canadian R&TD activities and interests.
• The Canadian R&TD community has built a fairly comprehensive inventory of past and current R&TD areas where there is considerable research expertise and industrial intensity, which will help define future priorities and which sets the stage for identifying areas where the EU and Canadian interests intersect. This initiative has set the stage for further refinement with a future looking perspective.
• This initiative has allowed a mapping of these areas of interest and demonstrated to the Europeans the depth and breadth of Canadian capability and expertise in aerospace related R&TD
During the CANNAPE project, Europe redefined its strategy and produced the ACARE SRIA, and Canada underwent a government-led Aerospace Review of current aerospace related programs and policies which will have a major impact on the Canadian industry’s future R&TD initiatives and ability to engage in national and international R&TD collaboration. The result was that WP1 adapted to the new situation. It produced a methodology for guiding decisions on topics for future collaborations between Europe and other countries in the area of aeronautics and mapping of capabilities and expertise within the aerospace Industry in Canada and Europe.
The analysis of the funded research in Canada was done by a correlation between Canadian data of funded projects and the European Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). The five SRIA challenges; #1 Meeting Societal and Market Needs; #2 Maintaining and extending industrial leadership; #3 Protecting the environment and the energy supply; #4 Ensuring Safety and Security; #5 Prioritising research, testing capabilities and education, were listed against enablers. The correlation consisted of creating spider diagrams where Canadian project weighting factors were plotted against the enablers of the SRIA. The weighting factors were adopted from a Canadian perspective, e.g. networking, interest, capability and were derived from the received Canadian project data. For example, the level of funding was one factor used in weighting. The higher the weighting factor should indicate the more likeliness of Canadian funding for research being made available. Weighting factors ranged from 1 to 3, with a possible top mark of 27 for the overall CANNAPE weighting.
The result of the correlation produced a ranked list of 17 topics, associated with SRIA challenges.
It must be noted that these rankings were based on the historical Canadian R&TD activities and did not necessarily represent either a complete or well-balanced strategic view of Canadian R&TD priorities going forward. They gave a reflection and indication of Canada’s current capabilities and level of research intensity. In particular, the #1 topic ‘Technology Demonstration and Flight Test’ was problematic to Europeans due to the normally high TRL associated with this topic. Given the absence of a current technology roadmap, there was a recognition that further work was required and some further work was done by Canadians after Workshop 4.
Work Package 2 - Development of networks and partnerships through the organisation of workshops.
The deliverables for this work package were:
D2.1 Workshop strategy for FP7 Calls 5 and 6
D2.2 Workshop 1 in Europe
D2.3 Workshop 2 in Canada
D2.4 Workshop 3 in Canada
D2.5 Workshop 4 in Europe
D2.6 Canadian aeronautics R&D Marketing Brochure
D2.7 Workshop newsletters
D2.8 Follow-up to workshops: information collation
This work package undertook the key networking activities of the project and provided the momentum for driving the project. The project started near the start of May 2011 and the 5th Call of FP7 was to be published in July, 2011, and so a decision was made to have the 1st workshop take place before publication of the FP7 5th Call. Planning for the 1st Workshop was started in March at Aerodays 2011 in Madrid, before the start of CANNAPE, where 2 major leads were established. One was the change of wording in the Call from US to North America for the L2 on Icing at High Altitude, and the other was to initiate the booking of the venue in Paris at the British Ambassador’s residence. The 1st lead really encouraged Canadian participation, with the Airbus project manager of the L2 presenting at the workshop and leading a breakout session. The 2nd lead materialised and was a huge draw for leading individuals in companies, research organisations etc. which led to an amazing agenda, speaker line-up and audience.
The Isdefe leader of this 1st workshop was instrumental in securing such a magnificent attendance and organisation of the day. His energy and enthusiasm was an essential part of this very successful event. The event took place during the week of the Paris Air Show held at Le Bourget. This meant that many Europeans could attend and many of the 67 Canadian attendees were funded by their government to attend both events. The day began with high level presentations from policy makers and industrial leads. Then, technical areas of interest for research were covered, using the 5th Call work programme, which mostly consisted of level 1 projects, as a guide. The later afternoon was dedicated to 5 parallel sessions, which were held to explore potential projects in more detail with interested parties. These sessions were summarized by Mr. Clement Fortin from CRIAQ. The output of the summary led to some 25 topics suitable for projects. CANNAPE presented examples of these projects, which were later developed using the ETNA network templates for the EC Information Day in Brussels, held on the 18th July 2011. Stewart Baillie, NRC and the co-ordinator of CANNAPE achieved this by making a presentation during the main session of the Information Day.
The organisation of Workshop 2 was led by NRC and the venue for the event was at the NRC Headquarters in Ottawa. The timing was such that it was before the end of the 5th Call final submission and late enough for draft information to be known about the FP7 6th Call. It was also timed to be just before the AIAC’s 1st Summit, which meant that Canadian industry would be coming to Ottawa in this period. Due to the timing, a road show was also held the day before, on FP7 processes and administration, as well as Canadian funding processes, to assist with collaborative proposals going into the 5th Call. Due to the knowledge that the FP7 6th Call was going to fund mainly L2 projects to maintain the 50:50 funding balance between L1 and L2 projects by the end of FP7, it was anticipated in the proposal that L2 project managers would present at the 2nd Workshop.
The reality was that L2 representatives were mostly unable to attend this 2nd work shop. There were several reasons for this, the main ones relating to the hurdles that CANNAPE has to face such as competitiveness. To overcome this at the workshop, following presentations on the 6th Call, afternoon breakout sessions were held on topics that were loosely aligned with the 6 L2 topics. One of these was led by a L2 leader from GE but the remaining sessions were allotted CANNAPE partners with the appropriate experience in the particular area. There were 39 Europeans attending the workshop, of which there were several SMEs from the UK, funded by the UK government to attend.
To achieve the objective of having Canadian engagement with L2 leaders in the 6th Call, the output of Workshop 1 and 2 was used to make a presentation to ASD’s IMG4 committee in Brussels. The presentation consisted of topics of interest to the Canadians along with potential Canadian partners. Following this action, the Canadians offered to name 6 Canadian co-ordinators for L2 engagement, but were only able to name 3 co-ordinators, 2 of whom were from NRC. Canada, through CANNAPE, was also given the opportunity to put forward a technical topic at L1 level for consideration in the 6th Call. Their response was slow and when it came it was too high level, e.g. composites and manufacturing, and therefore not suitable. The outcome of this post workshop 2 activity showed the Canadians to be unprepared at a national level, as admitted by the core team. On the other hand, IMG4 was not very encouraging but it did provide contact lead details for all of the L2 projects. Although CANNAPE did not play much of a role in projects on the technical side, once the projects discussions were ongoing, feedback in some areas had shown some Canadian partners to be slow to come forward.
The 3rd CANNAPE workshop was held during CRIAQ’s 6th Research Forum in Montreal in May, 2012, before the publication of the FP7 6th Call. This Forum gave Europeans the opportunity to present current research projects and demonstrate interest in being partners in projects presented by Canadians. Project ideas were to be submitted using the CRIAQ template. CRIAQ had funding of $111.7 million for 12 research areas and international collaboration was possible. The intention was to align CRIAQ funding with that of the FP7 6th Call. Many Canadians attended the event and presented some very good and appropriate projects. The whole event registered more than 700 attendees representing 11 countries. European attendance was relatively low, probably due to unclear information preceding the event and the expenses involved. However, this was overcome by information being circulated after the event through the CANNAPE networks, enabling Europeans to formally state an interest. Further opportunities for CRIAQ to advertise the initiative were made by presentations at the Farnborough Air Show in the Innovation Zone, and at the EC’s FP7 6th Call Information Day in Brussels. The result was 66 international partners indicating an interest to participate in 30 projects.
Preceding Workshop 4, an informal meeting was held during the Farnborough Air Show at the Westminster Houses of Parliament. This was attended by 24 high level representatives from EC, Canadian and UK government, and from industry to discuss the issues of international collaboration and research funding. This meeting paved the way for Workshop 4, taking place 10 months later. Workshop 4 was not connected to an FP7 Call and was to present and discuss the evaluation of Canadian/EC collaboration in FP7 and preparation for involvement in H2020, and was held at Canada House, London. The audience was intended to be limited to influential representatives and CANNAPE partners. It was organised by AIAC and the CANNAPE Core Group. The main objectives to be presented were:
• Assessment of the strategy taken regarding technology mapping,
• Success stories, along with the long term view on future collaboration,
• Views on continued international collaboration with Canada in the H2020 framework.
Attendance was exactly as planned with high level representatives from all of the influential organisations such as Industry Canada, European Commission, ACARE, IMG4 and DGAC. In addition to these representatives, all of the CANNAPE partners were present which therefore included high level representation on behalf of AIAC, NSERC, NRC, Airbus, EADS, Bombardier, various government organisations and more. The first day was restricted so that focussed discussion could take place on future collaboration between relevant entities. The Canadians expressed how much they had got from CANNAPE and the EC declared CANNAPE to be their most successful international project. The Europeans all welcomed further collaboration with an eye to having a Co-ordinated Call. Industry Canada described the internal processes ongoing, to assist with Research and Innovation in this important field for Canadians. However, it was stated that the there was still some way to go before Canada would be in a position to have a Co-ordinated Call with Europe. In particular, the first call of H2020 in 2014 was out of the question.
The second day focussed on successful outcomes of Canadian and EC collaboration resulting from CANNAPE, the technology mapping exercise and the views of different organisations, and different organisations that can maintain support beyond the end of the CANNAPE project. The technology mapping exercise produced significant discussion. The outcome of the exercise was 17 topics for future collaboration, of which the top 9 were presented. The discussion that ensued was related to how TRLs were affixed to particular Canadian topics. It was recognised that for common topics to be agreed for collaboration, further consideration of the results are needed.
The key outcome of all of the networking activities of CANNAPE were:
• The 5th Call had 11 Euro-Canadian collaborative proposals submitted, 3 of which were funded and 7 were above the pass-mark threshold. The overall success rate was 20%, with a success rate of 100% for L2 projects with 2 out of 2 projects being funded and 11% for L1 projects with 1 out 9 projects being funded.
• In the 6th Call, 9 Euro-Canadian collaborative proposals were submitted. 1 out of 2 L2 proposals were funded, with more than an 80% funding success rate. The competition was much stiffer for L1 projects and here there was a 30% success rate, with one funded project. The L1 projects with Canadian participation mostly received good marks.
Work Package 3 - Promotion of Canadian participation in the aeronautics and air transport activities of the Framework Programme
The deliverables for this work package were:
D3.1 Series of road shows in Canada for central and regional purposes
D3.2 A number of side meetings (information) in Europe to showcase Canadian capabilities to the EU aerospace community
D3.3 Canadian support exercise
D3.4 Existing and Potential Mechanisms to Support Canadian and European Collaboration in H2020
This work package was one specifically designed by the Canadians and was led by AIAC and Airbus SAS. Road shows were perceived by the Canadians as to be necessary for promoting awareness road on CANNAPE and its objectives to be disseminated to Canadian SMEs and more regionally based organisations on a face-to-face basis. As well as achieving this, the road shows were to provide assistance on and an introduction to participation in projects. The road shows were developed alongside the workshops in WP2. The small team of Canadians and Europeans presenting the road shows tended to be Airbus, presenting on IP, APRE or Aerospace Valley, presenting on administrative issues, and Industry Canada and NSERC on funding and other Canadian initiatives. For this task, the audience was often different, being widely geographically spread and from different disciplines. In many cases, the CANNAPE road show teamed up with a provincial organisation.
The road show was unable to explain the technology mapping process and provide results on the latest technology road map as planned, as this process was not developed to a level that could be used during the CANNAPE project. Other aspects, that have been covered in a road show package, produced by the European partners, are as follows:
1. Explain some aspects the meaning of involvement in FP7 and the networking that can be used to find partners.
2. Provide examples of international, collaborative projects.
3. 1-1 meetings
Road shows have taken place at Ottawa (an extra day before Workshop 2), Vancouver, (hosted by CRN), Winnipeg, (arranged by CIC and CCMR&D), and Toronto (arranged by OAC and UTIAS). A number of side meetings and opportunities in Europe have taken place to showcase CANNAPE and Canadian capabilities to the EU aerospace community.
Deliverable 3.4 echoes the outcome of Workshop 4 of CANNAPE on future collaboration in H2020. Essentially, Canada is willing to collaborate with Europe and is doing so already. There is no central funding available for this purpose at the moment, but D3.4 provides a list of funding sources that can be used by Canadians for international collaboration in aerospace R&D. Following the collection of data for CANNAPE WP1 purposes, D3.4 was able to show the breakdown of R&D investment in aerospace in 2012, i.e. $501.5m by Canadian funding organisations and $2b by Canadian industry. There is also a plot of funding against TRL, from the data as used by WP1. It is noted that most of the funding goes to projects working at TRLs>7.
To assist Canada with preparation for a Co-ordinated Call, the EC provided several presentations giving details of the EC process and examples of other countries’ workings. Canada says that it needs further discussions and the formation of a Research and Innovation Working Group at governmental level will be useful. D3.4 states that Canada is moving towards the position of aligning funding for a joint Call, and refining CANNAPE topics, until 2015 when the opportunity may be realised.
In terms of support to the process, most of the Canadian CANNAPE partners will remain involved. DFAIT will continue to provide international support, having officers focussed on innovation, science and technology, placed at Canadian Embassies within Europe. There is also a ‘Mission of Canada to the EU’. Details are listed in D3.2.
Work Package 4 -
The deliverables for this work package were:
D4.1 Contractual reporting - technical and management reports, gender and transformation reporting, financial statements, audits
D4.2 Reports on monitoring and evaluation
D4.3 Final plan for future
CANNAPE’s project organisation and management structure is the responsibility of the co-ordinator with project management duties, including finance, delegated to Cranfield University. Coordination of the individual work packages falls under the responsibility of the consortium work package leaders.
CANNAPE has partners that are widely distributed, both in Canada and Europe. The project tasks are mainly such that there needs to be evenly distributed involvement by multiple partners. Hence coordination is more difficult to achieve than with other EC projects, where tasks can be partitioned. Hence, to assist with coordination and facilitation in the most efficient and effective way, it was decided to form two management groups, the Steering and Core Groups. The project has a Steering Group which has turned out to include all CANNAPE partners as well as associated partners, such as CRIAQ and GARDN. The reason for this is that some associated partners have proved to be very active in making CANNAPE function, whereas some CANNAPE partners have provided lesser input. Within this Steering Group, it was planned that there was a Core Group of 7 individuals for the Europeans and 5 individuals for the Canadians, who are able to enable facilitation in a direct fashion. The reality is that about 10 individuals, (50:50 Canada: Europe) took part in Core Group activities and that this Core Group led activities and took key decisions and actions for the project.
This group met or teleconferenced regularly and were responsible for running the project, formulating and revising its strategic objectives, disseminating and exploiting the results and conflict resolution. Despite some resource changes during the project, the success criteria have been more than met by both the Core and Steering Groups. For example, for the Core Group, successful workshops and road shows have taken place as planned, which has entailed regular communication, the production of material, use of the website and reporting. Networking across the multiple networks has been excellent and several projects with suitable partners have been funded. Identification of potential Canadian funding opportunities/mechanisms for collaborative projects was led by NSERC. Finally, the Core and Steering Groups pulled strongly together in the last year of the project to facilitate the production of a list of priority topics and a strategy for the future.
The most important deliverable of WP4 is the final plan for the future. The CANNAPE initiative is considered by its partners as a continuum that will not end. The objectives of CANNAPE remain the same and the plan is that the CANNAPE network will still be in place, beyond the end of the EC project, to assist in achieving them. Three of the Canadian partners from AIAC, IC and UTIAS have volunteered to act as champions until 2015, when it is hoped that there will be a Co-ordinated Call. A proposed, formal arrangement is the formation of a Research and Innovation Working Group. This group would be a high, governmental, level one and, therefore, would be in the position to instigate the level of engagement deemed possible, as 2015 is approached.
A schedule of meetings has also been proposed. The first will be a ‘CANNAPE’ event on the 3rd day of the CRIAQ Aerospace Innovation Forum at Montreal on the 4th December. It will not be a part of the Forum, so as to allow free entry. An electronic flyer will be produced to provide venue, date, and topics chosen from the CANNAPE prioritised list of 10, and will be used as a marker for diaries. Distribution will take place through the CANNAPE networks for further dissemination.
Potential Impact:
Before the start of CANNAPE, there has not been very much collaboration in the fields of aeronautics and air transport in the Framework Programme between Canada and Europe. The project CANNAPE has acted as a catalyst to determine the need for, and encourage collaboration, by identifying potential and preferred areas of common interest that can pave the way for joint funding. In CANNAPE, Europeans and Canadians have been working together so that they could identify the barriers and work on solutions to improve cooperation in research and technology development. CANNAPE has provided recommendations for future actions with indications of priority technology areas to be considered.
Four of the five Canadian partners of CANNAPE represented the government departments: Industry Canada, NRC, NSERC and DFAIT. These departments provided significant funding for CANNAPE. The impact of this was to enable prestigious events to take place which has encouraged wide engagement from the R&D community and policy makers. The other partner, AIAC, has been a very useful and important resource as well.
CANNAPE’s successes and impact assessment are based on the following:
• Success in bringing about increased networking and partnering in the aeronautics R&D community, measured by determining the greater extent of FP7 consortium arrangements, and range and number of EU partner organisations with which Canada collaborate:
• Involvement of key Canadian organisations who can assist with Canadian engagement in joint activities,
• The extent to which cooperative relationships are leveraged through joint identification of needs and priorities for collaboration, and
• An overall increase in participation in FP7 by the Canadian aeronautics research communities.
These 4 successful, impact statements have meant a significant change in collaboration between the EU and Canada. This is an outstanding result for CANNAPE. As importantly, the CANNAPE consortium is committed to making a continued impact for the duration of the project and beyond.
4.1 Increased networking and partnering in the aeronautics R&D community
An aim of the project was to build a platform of research organisations (industry, research establishments, and academia) and/or institutions in Europe and Canada for communication and strategic planning. This has been achieved by a consortium membership of both Canadians and Europeans, whose links were established previous to the start of the project and have been strengthened further by the project. All of the consortium members have large networks, in the aeronautics sector, with which they have used for wide spread dissemination of coming events, results and the fostering of encouragement to develop collaborative projects in various technology fields. Some of the networks with which CANNAPE has established links are the National Contact Points and ETNA; university network EASN; ACARE, the European Technology Platform for aeronautics and air Transport; ASD and the IMGs for European industry, Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) that links the industrial world, particularly SMEs with the research community; AirTN (ERA-Net) for the member states ministerial and government funding agency level; EREA the European aeronautics research establishment network; GARDN, a Canadian environmental network for aeronautics, ACCESS Canada and ERA-Can, AIAC, the Canadian Trade Association, CCMRD, CIC, as well as regional networks such as CRIAQ.
The aeronautics and air transport industries have key design and manufacturing capabilities in Europe and Canada. For some years, Canada and Europe have been independently developing comprehensive strategies, with regard to research funding and technology road-mapping, to ensure that the industry both survives and grows. The aeronautical industrial landscape of Canada has been found to complement that of Europe, and Canada wants to position itself as suppliers to the larger European OEMs. The concept of having European industry having Canadian suppliers, with technical excellence and know-how, has proved a difficult concept at times. Although it could mean that both sides of the Atlantic will achieve success in building the best products, the competitiveness issue is more difficult. The project has facilitated contact between multiple organisations that has and will lead to joint, collaborative proposals in FP7 and Horizon 2020. Better understanding of each other’s capabilities has already led to 3 L2 and 2 L1 funded, research projects of mutual and global benefit. The impact of achieving this will enable aeronautics industries in Europe and Canada to remain or become world class with access to world class facilities, such as NRC’s wind tunnels and flying laboratories. At Workshop 2, NRC provided visits to their world class facilities which quite a few Europeans found very interesting.
A key impact has been an increased awareness in the EU research community about opportunities in Canadian research and innovation programmes for aeronautics. At the same time, the Canadian research community – especially through the Canadian research and innovation programme holders – have been informed about opportunities for cooperation. Clearly, although there isn’t a national funding system to align with European funding, the Canadians have demonstrated their many other funding opportunities open to international collaboration, and their willingness to collaborate.
There are a number of sustainable tools that will enable CANNAPE to achieve its aims, including special CANNAPE events, the CANNAPE website; the Canadian Front Office; Information Days in Europe; presentation of new opportunities during R&I events in Europe and Canada; webinars (web-based information sessions); and the dissemination of information.
4.2 Website
The creation of special areas on existing websites in Canada and Europe took place at the start of the project. In particular, the UK’s Aviation and Defence Knowledge Transfer Network has been used most significantly for all of CANNAPE’s operations. This has meant that costs have been minimised, sustainability ensured as the website is already funded by a UK government agency, and that networking has been enhanced, as the website already has access to large, aeronautical community.
4.2 Involvement of key Canadian organisations who can assist with Canadian engagement in joint activities
Canada’s qualities lie in the design, development and manufacturer of civil and regional aircraft, which is underpinned by a strong R&D community and supply chain. The Canadian federal and provincial governments recognise the economic importance of the aeronautic sector, and provide support to assist its growth. Hence, since the start of the project, as well as the 5 main Canadian partners, CANNAPE has drawn in the involvement of its associate partners, some of which have become very proactive. For example, Quebec has earmarked $70 million research funding for environmentally friendly aircraft. Hence, CRIAQ became an important participant in CANNAPE by assisting with the organisation of the workshops, presenting at workshops and promoting Canadian projects at EC Information Days. Similarly, CCMRD, the Canadian Composites Manufacturing R&D Inc., has been involved in setting the stage for CANNAPE events and road shows, and has taken part in many of the teleconferences. Another area where collaboration is being encouraged through another associate partner, GARDN, is Canada and Europe’s interests in the green agenda, including bio fuels. CRIAQ and GARDN have been strongly involved in all of the CANNAPE workshops, particularly in the facilitation of Workshop 3. In fact, for Workshop 3 they used their own funding to initiate projects for collaborative working with Europe. The huge advantage of this was that the Europeans were aware of the Canadian projects’ aims and proposed partnerships ahead of FP7 6th Call publication, as well as having Canadian funding more or less promised in time to align European funding. This approach was both unprecedented as well as being innovative. Using $4m of government funding, $24m was leveraged for Canadian projects. Canadians were invited to present their projects at Workshop 3 and Europeans were invited to attend, and in some cases present. Information on the Canadian projects was disseminated through the CANNAPE website and CANNAPE networks, following the 3rd workshop.
Canada has very few tier 1 system integrators that are able to fund large integrated demonstrators, etc. and so collaboration in R&D with European manufacturers and tier 1 companies is a natural progression for Canadian companies. CANNAPE has impacted on the strategy for increased collaboration. Canada’s aerospace industry must more fully participate in the early concept definition and validation phases of new programmes and invest in order to transform its traditional manufacturing base and to leverage its technology discriminators to deliver more value-added products and services to higher tier suppliers. The ‘supply pool’ of Canadian-based OEMs could also be more fully capitalized on to induce higher levels of collaborative technology development and demonstration and domestic supply chain interaction including product/solution integration. Leaders in Canadian aerospace organisations have shown their willingness to collaborate in supporting CANNAPE initiatives by attending and presenting at events. They have also invited Europeans to their events, such as the 1st AIAC Summit, using CANNAPE as the vehicle.
Examples of Canadian industry and expertise include de Havilland, Bombardier, Pratt& Whitney, the world’s largest aircraft landing gear test facility in Ontario, and CAE. Canada also has developed some specialised R&D infrastructure, such as its Icing Facility and UAV Flight Test Centre, which are particularly suited to the country.
The win-win situation for Europe partially realised, resulting from strategic partnerships with Canadian scientists and companies in selected fields, are:
• Support to European competitiveness;
• Facilitating contacts with partners in Canada with the aim of providing better access to excellent research and facilities
• Focus on aligning the support mechanisms with industry needs and achieving market-driven technology development through combined resources;
• Tackling the specific global challenges faced by both countries.
CANNAPE has acted as an introduction mechanism for both parties, i.e. industrial and governmental. Work package 3 kicked off this activity through some road-shows across Canada that facilitated the familiarisation with funding organisations and processes, whilst assisting the potential to harmonise funding and processes. It also established a clear network of interested parties, and highlighted the key role of the Canadian front office for Framework Programme. Work Package 1 was not able to highlight Technology Roadmap overlaps and develop R&D strategies that contain common objectives, but instead highlighted priority technology topics for future collaboration. This was achieved following an enormous data collection exercise. This change in direction was due in part to Canada not having a national strategy similar to that of ACARE, and the Canadian Aerospace Review not delivering an implementation plan as yet.
4.3 The extent to which cooperative relationships are leveraged through joint identification of needs and priorities for collaboration
The CANNAPE project started out with mapping out some opportunities for collaboration. These were used in the workshops to encourage projects and consortium building. Through the workshops and dissemination of material the following has been achieved:
• Reach as large an audience as possible, whilst taking the benefits of economies of scale;
• Cover all the Member States Countries of FP7 and provinces of Canada;
• Provide the target beneficiaries with information on research and to identify research and horizontal themes;
• Raise mutual awareness of opportunities for research collaboration and researcher mobility between Europe and Canada;
• Increase contact between Canadian and European researchers, research managers, research administrators and funding organisations at individual, institutional and government levels;
• Improve the provision of information regarding S&T policies and programmes;
• Facilitate the exchange of best practice with respect to the planning and implementation of policies and practice to support research and innovation;
• Identify, demonstrate and raise the profile of S&T collaboration between Canada and Europe to encourage the translation of new knowledge into technological applications or policy advances.
As well as the industrial, competitive side of Aeronautics and Air Transport, the industry faces global challenges, such as the environmental impact, safety, security and the interoperability of operational systems. As Canada and Europe do have synergies where there are important global challenges, then with joint working, the impact will be for the industry to have more opportunities and hence increase their competitiveness. In this area, in Workshop 2 and 3, common synergies have been identified that have lead to joint funded, collaborative projects, and would also have the effect of producing common goals. The impact of this has been to align strategic objectives, e.g. ACARE top level objectives and Canadian objectives, so that there will be significant benefits obtained for the future Air Transport System. The effect of Europe and Canada working together in research activities, dealing with key issues of the challenges facing the sector on a global scale, should help to improve the environment, the safety and security of air travel, as well as producing trans-Atlantic interoperable systems.
4.4 An overall increase in participation in FP7 by the Canadian aeronautics research communities
The large attendance at the 3 workshops by both Canadians and Europeans has been indicative of the expected increase in participation in FP7. The results for the FP7 5th and 6th Calls show a marked increase in participation by Canadians. Here, there were a high number of proposals, with Canadian partners submitted, as predicted, and many of them received good marks that were well above the threshold. Of these, two level 1 proposals and three level 2 proposals were ranked successful in terms of receiving FP7 funding. This success rate compares well with the overall success rate of the competition, especially as Canada has not aligned any funding nationally.
4.5 Canadian Funding
The funding issue has been found to be complicated, even from a Canadian perspective. Canada is a federal state composed of ten provinces and three territories. The Constitution Act of 1876 distributes powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Canadian research system is organised around three institutional structures: governments (federal and provincial), industry, and higher education. Each level of government is involved in research policy which makes for a decentralised research system with varying degrees of overlap and partnering. The backbone of the Canadian research system is the federal government’s 20 departments and agencies which fund and/or perform R&D. In addition, the National Research Council (NRC) is the Government of Canada's premier organization for research and development in a wide variety of disciplines which has been active since 1916. The NRC undertakes research and development in support of the Canadian aerospace community, in a wide range of areas including design, manufacture, performance, use and safety of aerospace vehicles. NRC has had a drastic reorganisation since the start of CANNAPE. This has caused little disruption to the project but has shown an increased desire by NRC to collaborate. The principal research performers in Canada are the 100 universities and colleges, 120 federal government laboratories, 90 provincial laboratories, several dozen university and industry centres of excellence consortia, and a core of some 100 principal corporate R&D investors. In the higher education sector, the federal government is the principal funder of R&D undertaken despite education being a provincial responsibility. Industry Canada is the lead federal government department in the portfolio for science, technology and innovation policy. The government, through the Minister of Industry, is advised by a Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC). With regard to most Canadian research funding, it appears that universities receive funding on the condition that an industry is involved.
Hence, Canada has a number of funding bodies, relevant to the aeronautics sector, at the federal level that have a clear match to European bodies. These are:
• Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative (SADI)
• Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP)
• The National Research Council (NRC)
• Industry Canada (IC)
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
• Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
• Federal Partners in Technology Transfer (FPTT)
• Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT)
• Provincial funding such as for CRIAQ and GARDN
A major strength of CANNAPE has been that the Canadian members of the consortium or associate partners belong to many of these organisations, both nationally and regionally. Although CANNAPE has not been able to make any direct influence on Canadian funding streams, such as arranging a Co-ordinated Call, it has had the impact of influencing government bodies to address the issue of aligned funding. In the case of the Quebec province, distinct funding was offered to the Canadians with the intention from the outset of some collaborative projects emerging from the FP7 6th Call, using these funds.
With regard to national funding, the Canadians have not been in a position to undertake a Co-ordinated Call, much to the frustration of some Canadians. Through CANNAPE, they have been provided with material on the purpose of Coordinated Calls and examples of working cases. This has led to internal discussions at high level in Canadian departments.
List of Websites:
https://connect.innovateuk.org/web/cannape