Overview
The air transport industry is one of the pillars of Europe's economy and is vitally important to many regions throughout Europe. More than 3 million jobs depend directly or indirectly on it and this amount is set to rise to 5-7 million by 2020. The air transport industry makes a massive contribution to the prosperity of Europe, both in terms of a globally competitive manufacturing sector and also in terms of providing transfer of people and goods within Europe and globally.
Competitiveness and a sustainable growth of this highly technological industry, relies heavily on developing superior knowledge and applying technological innovation. In this context, Universities play a key role in the chain of the Aeronautics stakeholders. Scientific development at Universities, from the production of new knowledge, through to the development of innovative concepts and breakthrough technologies, are crucial for the success of the industry. Critical is also to provide top level scientific and technological education and training for the employees of the aeronautics industries.
In the EASN-II project, the emphasis has been given to face the fragmentation, effort multiplication and high scatter in academia research activities by further developing the established thematic and regional network structures of the European Aeronautics Universities in terms of representativeness and performance and upgrading them into incubator mechanisms for developing new knowledge, innovative concepts and breakthrough technologies in aeronautics.
To achieve a successful exploitation of the above mechanisms, existing links with the industry have been used and further strengthened. The network structures have also been exploited to facilitate and foster the mobility of researchers in Europe. Specific attention was paid to the integration of the Universities of the New Member States and regions which are less developed in aeronautics as well as to the Co-operation with countries outside the European Union. The above mentioned EASN-II structures provided the starting point for the establishment of a permanent and self-funded University association for aeronautical research.
Funding
Results
As a result of the work, the EASN-II will be further established as a collective voice for the European Universities in research related issues. The number of EASN members has already increased to about 250 University Institutes with over 9 000 individual members. The existence of a collective University voice and representation in aeronautics research related issues will appreciably facilitate the links between the European Universities and the European Commission, the European Parliament and the other Stakeholders in Aeronautics, i.e. the Industrial, SMEs and Research Establishment's Associations and also support realizing ACARE's goals.
EASN-II provides the missing infrastructure for making the contribution of the European Aeronautics Universities to the realisation of the European Research Area efficient and manageable.
The EASN website (www.easn.net) has been redesigned so as to facilitate constant updating by the Regional Contact Points as well as provide useful information regarding Aeronautics research and the EASN activities. Furthermore, through the EASN webpage, applications for EASN membership and for the formation of new Interest Groups can be made online.