Ref. Ares(2020)4327402 - 19/08/2020
05 June 2020 – 13:30-14:30
webex
with Aeronautical stakeholders
Scene setter
On this occasion, you will not only meet industry representatives, but also other stakeholders
including research organisations as well as Universities (European Aeronautics Science Network).
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
landscape. European and US aircraft integrators and their suppliers layoff staff1, cut costs (incl. R&I)
and production rates (by 1/3 or more), while airlines defer aircraft orders.
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 follows up a previous such meeting on 14 February. At that meeting, you passed two
principal messages on the future aviation partnership:
ambitious towards climate-neutrality;
focus on 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. The private side Strategic agenda has been released2 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 an intermediary
step towards 2050).
Recognise that the post COVID 19 crisis context has a large impact on EU aviation
competitiveness and that EU-funded R&I has a substantial role to play in bridging the gap
between increasing its competitiveness and delivering on the Green Deal challenges.
Stress our belief that short-term post-COVID-19 challenges do not alter the European Green Deal
2050 climate neutrality objectives.
Listen to concerns regarding the ambition of the forthcoming EPCA and take note of the
concrete proposals from their side to accommodate these concerns, in line with the climate
neutrality ambitions of the sector.
Obtain support for 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 Joint Undertakings continue to offer a stable environment for
research and have largely contributed to secure the long-term industrial commitments needed
for long innovation cycles.
o However, the lack of focus and the very large number of projects undertaken has not
been beneficial, since very few of these projects have led to market uptake nor
considered mature for integration and deployment on new aircraft. This is
acknowledged by Clean Sky as well, in terms of the demonstrators they have supported.
Request the commitment of the stakeholders on more collaboration, transparency and better
planning between EU partnerships, EU and 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.
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.
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
climate neutrality for all GHG emissions (CO2 and non-CO2)3 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
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.
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.