RFAs: Fundamental Research for Air Traffic Management/U-space

The objective is to bring new knowledge encouraging scientists to develop innovative ideas, concepts, emerging technologies, methods, and theories that explore the current boundary of knowledge on ATM/U-space and that have potential for the evolution of the future air traffic management / U-space system

Scope

• The proposals shall demonstrate their innovation/breakthrough potential, justify how the scope of the proposed research is aligned to the ATM Master Plan vision and how the expected outcomes will contribute to one or more of the five key transformation levers described in the ATM Master Plan.
• The five transformation levers are described in the ATM Master Plan as follows:
  • Trajectory optimisation: the proposed research shall contribute to guarantee a systematic, continuous, and precise optimisation of all aircraft trajectories throughout their lifecycle, from planning to execution, from gate to gate and within the context of congested airspace.
  • Data volumes: the proposed research shall contribute to collect and process large volumes of data (e.g., aircraft performance characteristics, user preferences, real time traffic information and meteorological information throughout the network, etc.). Increased real-time sharing of secure and trusted data will enable airborne and ground systems and actors to stay interconnected and share the same situational awareness.
  • Automation: the proposed research shall contribute to realise an effective teaming up of human operators and systems (i.e., human-machine teaming), which will be necessary to make best use of a large volume of data to optimise trajectories. To that end, higher levels of automation will be introduced in ATM. This requires advanced artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital support tools, to deal safely with complex decision-making while optimising capacity and environmental performance.
  • Dynamic airspace: the proposed research shall contribute to enable a near real-time configuration of the airspace with human operators and systems teaming up to meet needs of all airspace users (civil and military) and to manage capacity more efficiently. For certain phases of flight, the system will be fully automated and able to handle both nominal and non-nominal situations.
  • Role and function of human operators: the proposed research shall contribute to the gradual evolution of the role and skills of the human operator (e.g., air traffic controllers, air traffic safety electronic personnel, flight crew and operators, etc.), as well as the emergence of new roles.

Funding Information

• The total indicative budget for this work area is EUR 14.00 million.
• A maximum EU contribution of EUR 2.00 million.
• The maximum project duration is 30 months, including a 6-month period at the end of the project life cycle to undertake communications, dissemination and exploitation activities in relation to the research results.

Eligibility Criteria

• Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from no associated 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 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.

For more information, visit EC.