EC Launches Research for Greener, Safer, More Competitive Air Transport

October 19, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

€217 million is available for these projects funded by the European Union (EU), out of a total of €2.1 billion for aeronautics research in the years 2007 to 2013.

The best proposals, as identified by independent external evaluators, were selected for funding. They include research into key areas, such as flight physics and alternative fuels to reduce CO2 emissions; new systems to improve aircraft safety in bad weather; advances in "self-repairing" capability for aircraft materials; and blast-proof cabin secondary structures.

Competitiveness was also a key concern, with a number of winning projects specifically targeting production and development costs of airframe, structures, engines and components.

The 36 highly innovative projects selected in this first call should bring important advances into greener, safer, more secure air transport and improved cost efficiency in aeronautics - FP7's research priority themes.

Janez Potočnik, EC commissioner for science and research, said, "Research holds the key to many of the challenges we face in today's world, including how to make air transport safer, greener, quieter and more efficient. The projects selected from the latest round of proposals all address one or other of these vital issues. Today's announcement once again highlights how important it is for our quality of life to invest in bringing new technologies to the market."

The projects include 26 collaborative research projects; six coordination and support actions aimed at stimulating the participation of small to medium-sized enterprises and a wide range of member states; and four large projects aimed at bringing innovative avionics technologies closer to market. The four largest projects, which alone will receive half of the funding, involve major players in the air transport industry and have the dual goals of reinforcing Europe's industrial leadership and responding to environmental and safety concerns. These projects are:

• DREAM (Validation of Radical Engine Architecture Systems). This project has 47 partners from 13 countries and is led by Rolls Royce. It will develop new engine concepts based on open contra-rotating rotors, with a target of a 7% reduction in CO2 emissions and a three-decibel reduction in noise. It will also develop specifications for alternative fuels as well as assessing and testing future potential fuels. The project will receive around €25 million from the EU budget.
• MAAXIMUS (More Affordable Aircraft Structure through Extended, Integrated and Mature Numerical Sizing). This project has 58 partners from 18 countries and is led by Airbus. It focuses on improving the composition and design of fuselages to cut assembly time in half and reduce structural weight by 10%. The lighter airframe will lead to lower CO2 emissions. MAAXIMUS will receive around €40 million.
• HIRF SE (High Intensity Radiated Field Synthetic Environment). This project gathers 44 partners from 11 countries, with Alenia in the lead. It will create simulators to test new aircrafts' reactions to electromagnetic interference. More research is needed in this field because of the growing use of composite materials in aircraft building. HIRF SE is set to receive around €18 million.
• SCARLETT. This project, led by Thales, will develop new and advanced modular avionics platforms for a range of aircraft types. It will receive around €23 million.

This first call brought in nearly 200 proposals coming from across Europe and beyond. There was particularly strong interest from central and eastern Europe and third countries.

Final budget figures and project details are now subject to final contract negotiations between the project teams and the EC. The first projects should start their research in January 2008.

Source: European Commission.