Ref. Ares(2022)3112512 - 20/04/2022 05 June 2020 – 13:30-14:30 webex with Aeronautical stakeholders Scene setter This time you will not only meet industry representatives but also other stakeholders as Research Organizations (RTO) as well as Universities (EASN). This meeting will mainly aim at exchanging about concrete means to align the current aviation research and innovation agenda to the current post COVID crisis economical context while maintaining it as main tool to bridge the gap between maintaining EU competitiveness and reaching environment /climate objectives. In addition some aspects of the MFF recently adopted proposal might be discussed. The main issue which triggered this meeting is laying on the ground that the proposed European Partnership on Clean Aviation (EPCA) is at a pivotal point. Stakeholders made a substantial effort to accommodate the ambitious Green Deal targets (after intensive discussions with the Commission) in order to focus mainly on disruptive technologies with concrete climate neutrality results by 2035 under their Strategic Research and Innovation forthcoming agenda (SRIA). Post-COVID economic and social recovery altered the global short-term (~4 years) aviation 1 landscape. European and US aircraft integrators and their suppliers layoff staff , cut costs (incl. R&I) and production rates (by 1/3 or more), while airlines defer aircraft orders. Passengers are reluctant to fly. While the recovery Plan is an opportunity for European aviation to prepare for a better future for the next generation (repairing the immediate economic and social damage, climate-neutrality by 2050 and digital transformation), aviation stakeholders are looking for additional help for maintaining the European aviation research base (which is endangered from cost cuts and market uncertainty). This meeting is a follow up to the one that took place in your office on 14/02/2020. At that meeting you passed two messages:     ambitious towards climate-neutrality;     focus to limited demonstrators with the earliest possible deployment. Since then, your Services had weekly meetings and steered the definition and set the boundaries and expectations of the proposed EPCA. It is important to mention that also CS has acknowledged that the high number of demonstrators foreseen in its program (more than 100) has not been 2 beneficial for ensuring the expected impact. The private side Strategic agenda has been released for public consultation (until 11 June 2020). The 78-pages strategic agenda has three clear priorities:     Disruptive technologies for a Hybrid Electric Regional Aircraft     Disruptive technologies for an ultra‑efficient short and medium-range aircraft     Disruptive technologies to enable non drop in (including hydrogen) powered aircraft 1 Boeing announced $1.7 billion loss the first quarter of 2020 and cuts 16,000 jobs (15% of the workforce). Airbus declared loss of nearly €0.5 billion with jobs at risk. The CEO of French aerospace giant SAFRAN has warned of major job cuts in the coming months. Rolls-Royce will cut 8,000 jobs while the US-based General Electric Aviation is cutting 13,000 jobs. Lufthansa announced €1.2 billion loss the first quarter of 2020, and overall Europe’s airlines have announced that as many as 35,000 jobs are at stake. 2 http://clean-aviation.eu/files/Clean Aviation SRIA R1 for public consultation.pdf

Bearing in mind the current MFFs context, the European Commission services are firm in foreseen for the forthcoming European Partnership on Clean Aviation only few disruptive actions leading to concrete demonstrators and leave other incremental activities to the collaborative research under HE, Member States funding and to the private sector. In this context a call for manifestation of interest is going to be explored to mobilise directly the market and allow new comers (out of the traditional CS partners) to propose possible innovative research paths. Line to take    Thank the aviation stakeholders for their substantial efforts in increasing the ambitions of their Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda towards acceleration and deployment of the most promising climate neutral solutions with concrete demonstrators by 2035 as intermediary step towards 2050.    Recognise that the post COVID 19 crisis context has a large impact of EU aviation competitiveness and that EU research and Innovation has a substantial role to play in bridging the gap between increasing its competitiveness and meeting the climate neutral Green Deal challenges. However, the EC services believe that short-term post-COVID-19 challenges do not alter the European Green Deal 2050 climate neutrality objectives.    Listen about aviation stakeholders concerns regarding the ambition of the forthcoming EPCA as well as about concrete proposals from their side to accommodate these concerns in line with the climate neutrality ambitions of the sector.    Recall that an important public support for preserving the European aviation research area is already foreseen in CS2, which is expected to complete its research activities up until 2024.    Get their acknowledgement and support on the final shape of the forthcoming partnership in particular about the need for a more ambitious agenda with disruptive technologies.    Recall that the past and current Join Undertakings have primarily offered to the European aviation stakeholders a stable environment for research and largely contributed to secure the long-term industrial commitments needed for long innovation cycles, which are positive and not negligible outcomes. However, the lack of focus and the very large number of projects undertaken has not been beneficial since very few of these projects have been market uptake and none of the major ones has been considered mature for integration and deployment on new aircraft.    Discuss and request the commitment of the stakeholders on more collaboration, transparency and better planning between EU partnership, EU Programmes, National programmes and private R&I.    Exchange about the opportunities offered under recently adopted Recovery Plan, which will prioritise the actions needed to propel Europe's recovery and resilience.    Inform the stakeholders about the possible impact of the Climate Law, bearing in mind also the scarcity of the resources available.    Finally, express your satisfaction on the efficient collaboration between the Commission and Clean Sky towards working together on possible scenarios along the above lines after RSB (e.g. Terms of reference to be agreed before involvement of the aviation community). Background 1 Proposed European Partnership on Clean Aviation (EPCA)    The proposed European Partnership on Clean Aviation is aiming towards accelerating the development, integration and validation of climate-neutral aviation technologies for earliest

possible deployment. The agreed SRIA priorities blend well the Green Deal and the new European Industrial policy.     Next step is an even more detailed definition of the agenda and its measurable targets with an intermediate objective towards climate neutrality by 2050 (regional and narrow-body aircraft for short range towards 2035 and for narrow-body for medium/longer range towards 2050).The proposed disruptive climate-neutrality should aim at tangible gains by 2035 (possibly more than 30% between the existing single aisle aircraft and the next generation one, and this compared to smaller % achieved by incremental research in previous introduction of new aircraft and still achievable without disruptive research).     The proposed disruptive technologies towards entry into service by 2050 (Hybrid-electric architectures, new aircraft configurations and versatility in energy carriers) are crucial to achieve 3 climate neutrality for all GHG emissions (CO2 and non-CO2) compatible with EU policies, regulations and UN Sustainable Development Goals.     Sustainable Aviation Fuels (in particular drop-in) research is outside the scope of EPCA (dealt in the energy-related partnerships, missions and collaborative research).     The results of the joint Hydrogen & Clean Sky report will help exploring further technological development and integration for hydrogen-powered aircraft.     Low-TRL research is out of the scope of accelerated deployment of technologies, therefore out of the scope of EPCA. However, limited and essential low-TRL activities which are directly linked to development, integration and validation can be included in EPCA (if duly justified).     The collaborative aviation R&I program, under Cluster 5 of Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe, will cover other aspects of the aviation research (safety, security, digitalisation, etc.) and potentially set foundations for disruptive R&I towards the demonstration and validation beyond 2035+.     The forthcoming Climate Law might lead to reconsider short term aviation R&I objectives (2021 – 28 and 2029 – 2035) by accommodating the constraints imposed under this Law on the aviation sector. 2. Aviation and the Recovery Package Aviation could have pronounced impact in two of the three pillars of the Recovery Plan – namely:    Kick-starting the economy and helping private investment;    Learning the lessons from the crisis. Beyond the Horizon Europe Synergies in the three pillars (especially with Air-Traffic Management and Hydrogen partnerships), it therefore is a great opportunity to develop a coherent plan and alignment with the new recovery instrument as well as the Next Generation EU. Under the Commission recent MFF Communication it is foreseen that Horizon Europe will amount to EUR 94.4 billion to increase European support for health and climate-related research and innovation activities. The issue to which extend this funding allocation will benefit to the aviation sector will be linked to its climate neutrality ambitions. Regarding COVID-19, RTD took recently a prompt initiative on the management of health risks from communicable deceases in aviation, consulted all aviation stakeholders and built a portfolio of projects and recommended actions to be taken in the short and medium term. The objective is 3 The impact of aviation to environment and climate is driven by long-term effects (several years to hundreds of years) from CO2 emissions and shorter-term ones (several hours, days, weeks or years) from non-CO2 emissions (mainly from water, NOx, SOx, soot, contrails and contrail cirrus). The CO2 effects are well understood and are proportional to the fuel used. The non-CO2 effects are still poorly understood and carry large uncertainties. The total impact of global aviation to GHG emissions in 2005 was estimated to represent 4.9% of total anthropogenic forcing, where 1.6% was attributed to CO2 and 3.3% was attributed to non-CO2 emissions.

towards preparedness, technological innovations at aircraft and airport level, research policy coordination with ECDC, DG.SANTE, DG.MOVE, EASA, WHO, ICAO and ACI, as well as establishing an early warning system for the next pandemic. An enthusiastic and positive response from the aviation community (incl. airlines) has been also received.

Participants:

Industrial Representatives:
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Research Establishments and Universities
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DG Research & Innovation:

 
 
 
 

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Mr, D3
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Mr N, D3

Clean Sky JU
Mr, Cs21U
Mr, C52JU