Final Report Summary - CATER (Coordinating Air transport Time Efficiency Research) Executive Summary:CATER is a coordination project designed as a research and innovation (R&I) observatory and policy centre run by an authoritative group with deep industry knowledge, access to a network of all relevant R&I organisations and excellent information gathering and knowledge management processes and tools. CATER delivered valuable and insightful reports and recommendations which have been packaged and disseminated effectively.CATER conducted an annual review of the state of the art of R&I, identify gaps in the landscape and bottlenecks to innovation and formulate strategic recommendations to address these. It reviewed the landscape in the context of the activities defined in the Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda (SRIA) of ACARE, tightly connected to ACARE WG1 goals (i.e. Meeting societal and market needs).As a valuable complementary service CATER provided a dashboard of relevant funding programmes. From an R&I perspective CATER shall cover the entire door-to-door set of domains which influence air transport time efficiency in order to provide stakeholders with a panoramic view.CATER developed a web-site and a specific tool-set and knowledge base (CASK platform) that centralises and updates information by way of advanced automated information search tools. The website acts as network hub for time efficiency stakeholders enabling them supply and harvest relevant knowledge.Project Context and Objectives:Europe, through the High Level Group on Aviation Research, ACARE and the European Commission, has a vision for air transport in meeting societal & market needs over the coming 30 years. Central to this is time efficiency, meaning reduced door-to-door journey times, seamless inter-modal connections and reliability. For this, Europe will engage in large scale, intensive and coordinated research & innovation. In order to plan and manage this process, stakeholders, policy makers and research directors need a full picture of what research is being conducted, of gaps present and of how EU funded R&I meets the ACARE goals. To this end, CATER (Coordinating Air Transport Time Efficiency Research), a coordination and support action, has been set up with the aim of acting as a Research & Innovation observatory and policy centre whereby air transport time efficiency stakeholders can be provided with a panoramic view of what research and innovation is being conducted, of existing gaps and bottlenecks in the research landscape and of how EU (an non EU) funded research projects meet the relevant ACARE WG1 goals (i.e. meeting societal and market needs). Accordingly, CATER delivers valuable and insightful reports and recommendations, packaged and disseminated effectively.In particular, towards the achievement of this goal, CATER conducts an annual review of the state of the art of Research and Innovation (R&I), identifying gaps in the research landscape and bottlenecks to innovation and consequently formulates strategic recommendations to address these gaps. Explicitly, it reviews the landscape in the context of the six Activities of the Specific Programme and the Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda (SRIA) of ACARE. Moreover, as a valuable complementary service, CATER provides a dashboard of all relevant funding programmes, as well as, when appropriate, complementing SESAR and other similar EU research coordination initiatives. From an R&I perspective CATER aims at covering the entire door-to-door set of domains which influence air transport time efficiency and thus achieve the desired panoramic view. CATER develops a web-site, tool-set and knowledge base that centralises and updates information by way of advanced automated web search tools. The CATER policy advisory centre acts as network hub for time efficiency stakeholders supplying them with relevant knowledge. Dissemination of the reports and findings are through consultation with stakeholder leaders and through the online platform, workshops and outbound communications. The assets developed by CATER are designed for the long term and shall be assimilated into some permanent organisation when CATER comes to a close.The CATER project reports, dissemination and advisory approach are intended to directly foster market take-up and deployment of innovative solutions through its recommendations for TE R&I planning and coordination, through its support for strategies and roadmaps definition, through the benchmarking of data compiled (i.e. the current TE statistics), as well as by its identifying funding/finance opportunities and barriers & bottlenecks to the achievement of EU TE goals.The CATER communications and networking strategy forms a valuable instrument for those other innovation-related aspects such as mobilising all innovation actors (particularly researchers), disseminating results and creating the shared awareness of a common vision, goal set and roadmap.Project Results:During the project, activities related to the definition of an extensive knowledge base search and analysis were concluded, providing detailed statistics and monitoring information about technology trends and R&I results. The consortium deems these results and the assessed methodologies and tools as one of the main heritage of the CATER projects. Concerning the R&I state of the art (WP2), the definition of Travel Efficiency (TE) baseline model, current TE statistics and vision were completed. Also, the definition of the R&I framework and needs/opportunities was concluded. A yearly review of the undertaken Research and funding opportunities has been presented with increasing detail, defining a set of “champions” stakeholders and projects. The detail of relevant national opportunities among EU member states has been introduced. An R&I frame “tool” from the detailed classification of analysed projects has been developed. The analysis is completed by an increasing Industry Watch where non-funded R&I has been monitored looking at direct outcomes from industry and the market.The assessment of past FP6 and FP7 programme has been done as most projects approach their end, as part of the impact assessment of Travel Efficiency goals (WP3). Activities of WP4 “Gaps, recommendations, report” have been completed and deliverables have been reviewed internally and externally providing a basis for their improvement in the yearly releases. After development, the maintenance and update of CASK environment was continued during the period: the user base has been extended including relevant stakeholders and its functionalities presented in official ACARE meetings with the presence of the Project Officer. Furthermore, important dissemination actions (WP6) were realised. The project website and communication material were prepared at the very beginning of the project to be ready to give visibility to the activities in progress. Regular CATER Newsletters have been published and disseminated to a broad audience. Meanwhile contacts with stakeholders were enhanced with CATER attending the ACARE WG1 meetings providing updates of the work performed. A bilateral meeting with ACARE WG1 chairman was organised with the intent of synchronising activities and maximizing the value of CATER output for the benefit of ACARE. A large dissemination event was organised in the third year in Oporto (Portugal) as part of the EASN conference. The last year of the project saw a considerable effort dedicated to dissemination, as a final event was organised in Madrid, coinciding with an ACARE meeting and a DATA SET20250 workshop so as to maximise its impact. In addition CATER was presented during the EASN conference in Warsaw at the very end of September 2017. Potential Impact:Europe’s highly ambitious and holistic vision for Air Transport is explicitly articulated in ACARE’s Flightpath 2050 and SRIA publications. Meeting societal and market needs is one of the key themes of the SRIA goals, and these are highly dependent on aviation industry progress in time efficiency. Precisely, Europe’s headline Air Transport time efficiency goals are clear and intuitive:- By 2050, ninety percent of travellers within Europe shall be able to complete their journey, door to door, within 4 hours;- Flights shall arrive within one minute of the planned arrival time regardless of weather conditionsOperationally, EU policy makers and research directors require accurate data and intelligence concerning the EU capacity for R&I, ongoing and recently completed R&I work, the effectiveness of past efforts and the barriers and opportunities for future programmes. The CATER centre for air transport time efficiency research coordination, was designed to be a vital instrument for Europe’s Air Transport stakeholders, in achieving these Flightpath 2050 goals. CATER has been designed for the operational level to provide the intelligence, data, information, assessment, insight and recommendations and is therefore intended to be the “navigation instrument panel” of the European time efficiency research and innovation stakeholder community. Namely, CATER is an organization based on a rigorous research and analysis methodology, on smart tools and platforms, on a network of organizations covering the entire aviation industry, and most importantly on the industry acumen and insight of highly experienced air transport research professionals. In this regard, and to bring about the expected impacts, CATER created and maintained a high quality R&I observatory and reporting capability and provided exceptionally good R&I intelligence in order to:1. Enable policy makers to make the informed plans and decisions and be confident of receiving future feedback on the effectiveness of those decisions.2. Foster greater awareness among the wider R&I community of the collective EU goals and efforts to meet the goals.3. Help create the holistic door-to-door mind-set, which will be vital for transitioning to the smooth, multi-modal, adaptive and high capacity system envisaged for 2050.More in detail, the project has delivered:- A detailed methodology for the analysis of Door-To-Door based relevant R&I and Industrial outcomes- A database containing the results of this analysis over the whole FP6, FP7 relevant initiatives.- A strong analysis of funding and projects in the 2014-2017 period- IT tools to continue searching, archiving and analysing future projects- A match between these analysis results, stakeholders vision and the EU targets identifying Gaps and providing recommendations for the project main stakeholdersCATER team has been sensitive to the needs of all stakeholders at all levels. Project networking, reporting and communications has been conditioned by this understanding.CATER has been structured to be an effective platform for supporting the European Union in meeting the cross-cutting socio-economic challenges of Market take-up and Other innovation aspects which were described in the original Work Programme (2013 Theme 7). Cater has put a lot of effort in maximising the impact of its work through its dissemination actions as well as through the development of the CASK information sharing platform which will remain in operation beyond the end of the project and which is intended to enable the wider community to continue the work set out during the years of the project. List of Websites:http://www.cater-transport-time-efficiency.eu/
