Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
The SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking is an institutionalised European partnership between private and public sector partners set up to accelerate through research and innovation the delivery of the Digital European Sky.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
WA1 (ATM excellent science and outreach) comprises the exploratory research activities necessary to develop new concepts for ATM beyond those identified in the European ATM Master Plan and will help to develop emerging technologies and methods to the level of maturity required to feed the applied research conducted by the SESAR 3 JU. WA1 covers innovative content at pre‐TRL1 (TRL0) maturity level and the minimum target maturity level is to complete TRL1.
The future ATM environment foreseen by the Digital European Sky vision will be increasingly complex, integrating new airspace users’ needs, new airspace vehicles with different performances than conventional aircraft e.g., different speeds and altitudes, etc. The challenge is to propose and develop innovative or unconventional ideas to increase the level of automation (i.e., level 4 (high automation) and level 5 (full automation)) and digitalization in Europe’s ATM and design a future ATM infrastructure that would help reducing rigidities in the ATM system and making it even safer than today’s while improving its scalability and resilience. Secure data sharing between all the components of the ATM infrastructure and the relevant non-ATM stakeholders is another cornerstone of this vision. Research proposals shall aim at leveraging and exploiting emerging digital technologies that could help transforming the sector, in support of new airspace users and design a future ATM infrastructure commensurate with the performance required by each airspace user type and environment. This includes those environments in the transition areas between Europe and neighbouring ICAO regions, which may have specific regulations and challenges.
Detailed Call Description
The SESAR 3 JU has identified the following innovative research elements that could be used to meet the challenge described above and achieve the expected outcomes.
- Moving from magnetic to geographical bearings. This research element aims at moving from magnetic to geographical bearings. The objective is to investigate the operational aspects and potential impact on different actors e.g., airspace users, pilots, ATCOs, procedure design, aerodrome operator, etc.
- Autonomous runway inspections and surveys. Research aims at addressing technical and operational aspects related to autonomous runway inspections and surveys (e.g., laser scans, cameras, drones, etc.) for assessing runway conditions under the EU Global Reporting Format. The scope covers foreign object or debris (FOD) detection, inspection of runway (RWY) aids, etc. Research shall address the impact on the aerodrome operations e.g., performance aspects (R&I need: runway use optimisation through integrated use of arrival and departure TBS tools).
- Review separation principles at and around airports (risks analysis vs. separation standards). Research aims at reviewing the principles of minimal runway separation for both independent and dependent operations and developing potential solutions to minimise separation through automation. The research element aims at building a minimum acceptable safety model based on the probability of collision and taking account of geometry, relative speed, ground and airborne systems capabilities, adherence to a planned trajectory, etc. The objective is to increase capacity by safely placing aircraft closer together and to make a better use of available infrastructure.
- Automated ATC in airports operations. Research aims at developing and validating operational concepts for higher levels of automation in airport operations (levels 4 and 5 as per the ATM Master Plan).
- Safety, ethical and liability challenges of increased automation. Research aims at investigating the safety, ethical and liability challenges associated with increased autonomy and automation level in air traffic management (ATM).
- Models and theories of behaviour change. Research is needed to understand and manage the impact of system changes on human performance and workload in the long term.
- ATCOs up-skilling, reskilling and de-skilling in the face of new technologies. Research aims at analysing the potential of these new technologies to disrupt established patterns in coordinated activity between ATCOs’ and between ATCOs’ and flight crews.
- Innovative ways to present traffic to ATCOs. Research aims at exploring innovative ways to present the traffic to the ATCOs, so that the flight representation on the screen does not necessarily imply their visualisation on the zenital view of a sector.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
The maximum expected EU contribution per project for each of the topics under Work Area 1 is €1 000 000.
The maximum expected EU contribution per project for each of the topics under Work Area 2 is €2 000 000.
Thematic Categories
- Environment and Climate Change
- Other Thematic Category
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
Eligibility for Participation
- Other Beneficiaries
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
Eligibility For Participation Notes
Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional dissemination obligations:
- Beneficiaries must make proactive efforts to share, on a royalty-free basis, in a timely manner and as appropriate, all relevant results with the other grants awarded under the same call;
- Beneficiaries must acknowledge these obligations and incorporate them into the proposal, outlining the efforts they will make to meet them, and into Annex I to the grant agreement.
Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional exploitation obligations:
- beneficiaries must make available for reuse under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions all relevant results generated, through a well-defined mechanism using a trusted repository;
- if the purpose of the specific identified measures to exploit the results of the action is related to standardisation, beneficiaries must grant a non-exclusive licence to the results royalty-free;
- if working on linked actions, beneficiaries must ensure mutual access to the background to and to the results of ongoing and closed linked actions, should this be necessary to implement tasks under the linked actions or to exploit results generated by the linked actions as defined in the conditions laid down in this biannual work programme and in the call for proposals.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
EU Contact Point
SESAR 3 JU
Email: info-call@sesarju.eu