EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities under "Research to help shape the future regulatory framework for a DES"

_Call ID: HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA2-1_

1. Single Market Access

• Gain first-mover advantage in the Digital European Sky (DES) market that spans 450+ million consumers and 44,000+ aircraft operators.

• Results (e.g. AI-safety toolkits, fatigue-monitoring systems) can be certified once under EASA and commercialised in all 27 Member States without re-approval, lowering go-to-market costs by up to 30 % compared with a country-by-country approach.

• Creates a common procurement base with EUROCONTROL, ANSPs and airports via SESAR deployment waves.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Mandatory multi-national consortia unlock access to operational data from a wide spread of ATSPs, airlines, military users and drone operators – critical for machine-learning generalisation and fatigue studies.

• Leverages pan-EU testbeds such as EUROCAE WG117/127 and EASA Data4Safety sandbox, accelerating validation cycles.

• Facilitates staff mobility and joint PhD/industrial doctorates funded by Marie-Skłodowska Curie, enriching human-AI teaming expertise.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

• European Green Deal & “Fit-for-55” – climate-driven route-charging research supports CO₂ and non-CO₂ reduction targets.

• Digital Europe & EU AI Act – project outputs (XAI, ML robustness, automated SecRA) directly feed upcoming secondary legislation and standards.

• Strategic Compass for Security & Defence – explicit assessment of impacts on military aviation fosters dual-use innovation and civil/military interoperability.

4. Shaping & Benefiting from Regulatory Harmonisation

• Direct conduits to EASA rulemaking tasks (RMT.0744, AI Roadmap 2.0, Part-IS) allow partners to influence the next wave of regulation and de-risk later certification costs.

• Harmonised airspace-classification framework enables seamless pan-European drone/U-space and eVTOL operations, expanding addressable markets.

• Shared liability models and SWAL/HWAL methodologies will become de-facto reference beyond Europe, boosting export potential.

5. Plug-in to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Access SESAR JU’s Project Handbook, Common Simulation Infrastructure and Validation Platforms, cutting CAPEX for labs.

• Synergies with Clean Aviation, EUROCONTROL’s NM Lab, ESA’s Iris satellite comms provide high-TRL pathways.

• Networking via the SESAR Digital European Sky Industrial Research & Innovation Community (IRIC) gives visibility to 300+ aerospace SMEs and primes.

6. Funding Synergies

• Combine with

• Connecting Europe Facility (CEF2 Transport) for large-scale deployment of certified ATM equipment.

• Digital Europe Programme for cybersecurity & AI testing facilities.

• European Defence Fund for dual-use human-AI teaming demonstrators.

• Use European Investment Bank Innovation Finance Advisory to scale validated solutions post-project.

7. EU-Scale Deployment & Impact

• Lump-sum model and 30-month duration favour rapid prototyping → standardisation → industrial uptake across all Member States.

• Potential to feed into common requirements in Eurocontrol’s Network Manager Plan 2029 and to be referenced by Single Sky Performance Scheme (RP4) KPIs.

• Supports EU ambition to cut ATM-related safety occurrences by 50 % and enable traffic growth to 16.2 million flights by 2030 without extra runway capacity.

8. Strategic Differentiators vs. National Calls

• EU-wide datasets (ECR, D4S, ECCAIRS2) unavailable at national level → better AI model reliability.

• Unified certification and standards pipelines reduce fragmentation risk and guarantee larger return on R&I investment.

• Visibility in EU fora (Standards Developing Organisations, High-Level Expert Groups) accelerates global market entry (ICAO, FAA harmonisation).

9. Immediate Action Points for Applicants

• Map your technology to one (or several) of the 13 research elements; articulate how it closes gaps identified in EASA studies & MLEAP report.

• Build a consortium that covers at least 4 Member States + 1 associated country, mixing ANSPs, OEMs, AI labs, human-factors groups and military stakeholders.

• Plan cross-programme exploitation: reserve budget for standardisation participation (EUROCAE, CEN-CENELEC) and alignment workshops with ongoing SESAR Wave 2 projects.

• Define data-sharing & IP strategy compliant with call-specific FRAND and repository obligations; exploit EU Data Act provisions for value-added services.

• Embed gender & diversity targets and ESG criteria to score higher on Horizon impact evaluation.

Bottom line: Operating at EU scale through this SESAR 3 RIA not only maximises scientific excellence and market reach but also positions consortia at the heart of the rule-making process that will govern the Digital European Sky for decades to come.