EU-wide Advantages and Opportunities for "Digital flight rules" (HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA1-2)

1. Strategic Alignment with Core EU Policies

• European Green Deal & Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy – Digital flight rules (DFR) enable smoother trajectories, shorter routes and fewer holding patterns, directly contributing to the EU-wide target of –55 % CO₂ by 2030.

• Digital Decade / Digital Europe – DFR embodies advanced cooperative surveillance, certified automation and data-driven ATM, showcasing Europe’s digital leadership in a safety-critical domain.

• Single European Sky ATM Research 3 (SESAR 3) JU Master Plan – The topic is explicitly embedded in the Master Plan “Digital European Sky” roadmap, guaranteeing strategic continuity from research to deployment streams (CP1/CP2).

2. Access to the Single European Aviation Market (450 + million citizens & >30 ECAA States)

• Harmonised DFR rules remove today’s VFR/IFR weather-dependency barriers, unlocking year-round, all-weather GA, drone and eVTOL operations across airspace classes C-G.

• Uniform equipage and procedures lower certification & adaptation costs for European OEMs and operators, accelerating market entry in all Member States, EFTA & candidate countries simultaneously.

• Pan-European acceptance creates a home market large enough to reach volume production, lowering unit-costs and strengthening EU competitiveness versus US/Asia.

3. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• The call encourages consortia that mix ANSPs, regulators, OEMs, airlines, U-space providers, research labs and academia from multiple countries – ideal for sharing operational data (e.g. CDTI performance, RPAS trials) that no single State could provide alone.

• Joint concept definition of Annex II/ XI evolutions forms a common European negotiating position at ICAO, boosting Europe’s regulatory influence globally.

• Multinational live trials (e.g. corridor flights from Spain-France-Germany) demonstrate interoperability and build trust among authorities.

4. EU-wide Regulatory Harmonisation

• SESAR-funded R&I is the fast-track into EASA rule-making tasks (RMTs). Successful DFR outcomes can be channelled into EU Implementing Rules and AMC/GM, ensuring one-stop compliance instead of 27 divergent national amendments.

• Aligned certification pathways for on-board “remain-well-clear” systems (ED-271, ED-78C, forthcoming MOPS) create mutual recognition between National Aviation Authorities, accelerating approvals for crewed, remotely-piloted and autonomous aircraft.

• The project will feed directly into the EUROCONTROL Regulatory Framework (ERF) and Network Manager procedures, guaranteeing consistency from flight rules to network level.

5. Leverage of Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Direct access to over 35 SESAR 2020/3 projects’ data lakes (PJ.13, IRINA, PJ.38, etc.) via the JU Knowledge Transfer Network avoids duplication and speeds maturation.

• Possibility to integrate Copernicus weather data, Galileo authenticated PNT and 5G/EDP4.1 data links – assets uniquely European and subsidised by other EU programmes.

• Collaboration with EIT Urban Mobility & EIT Digital nodes supports downstream commercialisation for UAM use-cases.

6. Funding Synergies & Blended Finance Options

| Stage | EU Instrument | Opportunity |

|-------|---------------|-------------|

| R&I (2025-2028) | This HORIZON-JU-RIA lump-sum | Up to ~€4-5 m per project, 100 % funding, simplified reporting |

| Large-scale demo (2027-2030) | Connecting Europe Facility-Transport (CEF-2) SESAR Deployment Call | 50 % co-funding for cross-border ATM ground upgrades |

| U-space / vertiport roll-out (2026-2032) | European Regional Development Fund & Recovery/Resilience Plans | State-aids for dual-use CNS/ATM infrastructures |

| Commercialisation (TRL 8-9) | InvestEU EIC Accelerator & EIF Space Fund | Blended equity/guarantees for avionics manufacturers |

7. Scale and Impact Potential

• Coverage – Once Annex II/ XI amendments are adopted, DFR can be mandated EU-wide in specific airspace classes, impacting >11 million GA flights, 7 000+ drones/day (forecast 2030) and the entire RPAS sector.

• Safety & Capacity – Cooperative “remain-well-clear” logic is modelled to cut mid-air conflict risk by >80 % and unlock up to 10 % additional en-route capacity without new sectors.

• Economics – Elimination of VFR weather minima and reduced IFR routing can save €3.2 bn in fuel & delay costs annually (EUROCONTROL studies).

8. Concrete EU-Level Actions for Applicants

1. Build a consortium covering ≥3 EU Member States + 1 associated country to score high on excellence & impact.

2. Obtain letters of support from EASA, EUROCONTROL and at least two NAAs to demonstrate regulatory pull-through.

3. Plan joint workshops with ICAO EUR/NAT & RPAS Panel to channel results internationally.

4. Map deliverables to the SESAR Performance Framework KPIs (safety, environment, capacity, cost-efficiency, societal) for easier uptake by Deployment Manager.

5. Include a Human Factors work-package leveraging European laboratories (e.g. DLR, ENAC, NLR) to address pilot & ATCO interaction – a listed evaluation focus.

6. Explore data-space interoperability via GAIA-X or EUROCAE WG-114, showcasing alignment with EU data strategy.

9. Unique Value of Acting at EU Scale vs. National Level

• Only an EU-level mandate can ensure critical mass of equipped aircraft and ground systems, avoiding the “patchwork” trap that stymied ADS-B Out adoption in some regions.

• Joint EU funding derisks early R&I, allowing SMEs and mid-caps from smaller Member States to participate in high-tech ATM developments they could not self-finance.

• The SESAR-JU governance model offers a single entry point to regulators, standardisation bodies (EUROCAE, ETSI) and deployment financing, something no single State can replicate.

10. Take-away

The "Digital flight rules" call is more than a research project – it is Europe’s pathway to globally harmonised, automated, all-weather airspace access for crewed and uncrewed aviation. Exploiting the EU’s integrated market, regulatory clout and layered funding instruments maximises impact, accelerates deployment and positions European industry as the world leader in next-generation flight operations.