Open Call for Proposals: Aircraft Concept and Key Technologies Integration and Impact Assessment

Deadline: 15 May 2025

The European Commission is inviting proposals for the Aircraft Concept and Key Technologies Integration and Impact Assessment topic.

Scope

The second phase of Clean Aviation (2026-2030) will concentrate on integration and demonstration of technologies into aircraft concepts powered either by Sustainable Aviation fuel (SAF), as a single source of energy, or combined with electric hybridisation.
From the four aircraft concepts proposed as part of Clean Aviation SRIA, this topic shall focus on the following aircraft configurations:
- An ultra efficient short and medium range concept with 200-250 pax capacity and a design range up to 3000NM.
- An ultra-efficient regional concept with 50-100 pax capacity with a design range up to 500NM.
The proposed concepts at the start should depart from aircraft concepts and technologies developed under Clean Aviation Phase1, and/or funded by national/regional or other European programmes with a minimum technology maturity of TRL4.
The proposals shall explore the most promising routes around various aircraft concepts and critical technologies having the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by no less than 30%. Selected aircraft concepts should meet a technology readiness level of TRL6 and demonstrate a route to a certification readiness level of CRL6, compatible with new products and services for an Entry into Service (EIS) by 2035.
Additional technologies in which a high level of innovation and promising benefits are expected – but where exploitation is forecast by 2040 – could also be integrated and demonstrated to keep some alternative solutions to reach climate-neutral aviation by 2050.
With regards to certification, EASA Certification Readiness Level (CRL) framework shall be used. A route to CRL6 at integrated aircraft level, will have to be demonstrated at the end of Phase 2. The aircraft concept integration topic shall lead the regulatory discussions with the objective to minimise the number of contracts and interfaces with the certification authorities. Exchange of sufficient technical knowledge to feed the regulatory discussions between the techno project and the aircraft concept topic shall be established.
With the aim to define the route to exploitation, operational assessment should be performed to support the successful deployment and continuous operation of future regional and sort-medium range aircraft concepts, including ground operations, repairability and maintainability.
In addition to the aircraft concept studies, the ultra-efficient regional aircraft proposals should also support the physical integration into a Flight-Test Demonstrator platform. For the regional segment, this demonstration is expected to be a high wing configuration with 2 engines, considering aerodynamic, structural/loads, and system integration. Although the FTD execution is not included in this topic, the exchanges of models, data, and hardware deliveries should be adequately planned to support a subsequent Flight-Test Demonstration up to TRL6/CRL6, including all elements needed to achieve a Permit To Fly, and the support needed during a flight-test campaign.
The project is required to exploit the involvement and expertise of EASA in the proposal to de-risk and secure the certification of novel aircraft concepts with the aim to assess and define how the envisaged solutions will have the potential for certification (ref topic conditions related to “Involvement of EASA”).

Funding Information

The maximum EU contribution for the topic is EUR 15 million.
The maximum EU contribution for the ultra-efficient regional project funded under this topic is EUR 10 million. The maximum EU contribution for the ultra-efficient small and medium range project funded under this topic is EUR 5 million.
Indicative project duration Maximum 60 months.

Expected Outcomes

Project results are expected to provide or contribute to the following expected outcomes:
- Develop and deliver high-potential disruptive aircraft concepts achieving a minimum – 30% reduction3 in CO2 emissions (fuel burn) for the market segment, with the aim to achieve up to TRL6 for critical technologiesfor the aircraft concepts considered at project end with the potential for exploitation by 2035.
  - For each aircraft concept, a comprehensive integration assessment of all key contributing technologies and systems shall be performed. Critical technologies developed under other funding programmes and contributing to the overall aircraft architecture definition, shall be included in the integration assessment.
  - An adequate number of meaningful design iterations shall be performed to assess the evolution of the aircraft and technology development.
  - A description of the aircraft concept architecture, including a description of the main aircraft components and the critical and enabling technologies characteristics (including those critical technologies developed outside clean aviation) shall be delivered.
  - A concept ranking and concept selection study to down select the relevant aircraft concepts and technologies compatible with new products entering service by 2035 shall be performed.
  - The decision-making mechanism used to perform the concept ranking and down selection must be defined as part of the project proposal. Aircraft performance, industrialisation, maintenance, commercial and environmental criteria should be considered.
  - The technological and potential industrial readiness of innovations shall be considered in support of the launch of disruptive new aircrafts by 2035.
- De-risk the conditions to support the exploitation route for the selected aircraft concepts (related to activities part of Clean Aviation), with the objective to meet a Certification Readiness Level (CRL) 6 by end of the Clean Aviation programme, for aircraft concepts entering into service by 2035.
  - A plan to support the CRL6 achievement, including activities being either inside or outside Clean Aviation should be provided.
  - The results and progress related to activities implemented in Clean Aviation on the certification readiness must be regularly monitored and reported.
  - Confirmation of the CRL progress (encompassing IPC and other contributions) and CRL achievements by 2030 at aircraft concept level should be provided.
  - The operational requirements to support successful entry into service should be identified.
- Assess and monitor on a yearly basis, the overall aircraft performance and the contribution of the aircraft components and technologies to the achievement of the Clean Aviation SRIA objectives and the topic performance targets.
  - The proposals shall deliver quantitative performance based on a high-fidelity model for the various integrated aircraft concepts, in line with the impact monitoring framework defined in Phase 1. Key parameters needed to assess CO2, non-CO2 emissions (including NOx, water and non-volatile Particulate Matter emissions, and other relevant parameters for contrails formation assessment) and noise emissions, to ensure compliance with future regulations for a 2035 EIS shall be included.
  - This assessment should be performed for the full typical mission profile, reporting on the various emissions species and noise with sufficient level of granularity. Reporting should support the climate assessment of CO2 and non-CO2 emissions with a potential GHG effect and the demonstration of compliance with ICAO/CAEP emissions regulation.
  - The same performance modelling methodology shall apply to all aircraft concepts of the same category. The performance modelling shall rely on industrial tools or on tools where evidence of the actual validation of industrial models is demonstrated.
  - The monitoring and reporting should be aligned with the Impact monitoring process defined in Clean Aviation Phase 1. The aircraft concept topics will aggregate all contributions and will coordinate the monitoring of the Clean Aviation impact for their aircraft segment and report the status in a yearly basis.
- Ensure proper coordination, as aircraft architect and integrator, between the contributing projects to the different aircraft concepts, ensuring that:
  - Requirements, interfaces and other reference documents are up-to-date and there is alignment in terms of TLARs (Top Level Aircraft Requirements) and performance data and to support the potential of exploitation.
  - Proper arrangements to regularly report performances and maturity progress of the proposed aircraft concepts are provisioned.
  - An integrated aircraft concept and technology development plan is issued at the beginning of the project and updated on a regular basis to reflect interfaces and exchanges of information with contributing project
  - The end-to-end decision-making process and technology performance modelling with full data continuity is sufficiently documented.
- Identify and implement synergies with activities funded under research and innovation programmes at regional, national and European level, and demonstrate how the project will benefit from these activities by detailing the specific contributions to the expected outcome(s).

Eligibility Criteria

Entities eligible to participate:
- Entities eligible to participate Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from nonassociated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call/topic.
- A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality .
Entities eligible for funding :
- To become a beneficiary, legal entities must be eligible for funding. To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
  - the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions:
    - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
  - the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States:
    - Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
  - countries associated to Horizon Europe;
    - Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.