The overall objective of ITAKA in the field of Research and Innovation is to develop a full value-chain in Europe to produce sustainable Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK) at large scale enough to allow testing its use in existing logistic systems and in normal flight operations in Europe. ITAKA will assess its sustainability, economic competitiveness and technology readiness, in order to identify and address barriers to innovation.

Being the first-of-its-kind collaborative project in the EU, ITAKA will link supply and demand by establishing a relationship under guaranteed conditions between feedstock grower, biofuel producer, distributor and final user. Therefore, ITAKA will address challenges in two main areas:

1. Development of commercial scale production and study implications of large-scale use.
2. Research on sustainability, economic competitiveness and technology readiness.

Beyond this main technological and research objectives, ITAKA is also willing to contribute to the achievement of a further EU objective: The need to coordinate efforts and complementarities among European Initiatives on sustainable aviation fuels, what has been highlighted during the Flight Path definition 1 and identified in SWAFEA2 recommendations: 'Setting up a knowledge and test capability network within the EU to provide an EU-based fuel evaluation capability'.

ITAKA has been built aiming to engage key stakeholders participating in different EU initiatives in the field, to make a first significant step in the establishment of such European network.

The biojet used in aviation is already certified 4 for a maximum blend of 50% with fossil Jet-A1 fuel allowing its use in the existing infrastructures and aircraft, but there is also a need to investigate environmental, social and economical side effects and barriers, to be fully understood, as identified in EU FP7 funded projects DREAM5 and SWAFEA.

The integration and organisation of the whole aviation biofuel value-chain must be optimised to reduce fuel costs. This goal will require research and engineering/logistics breakthrough in all sectors involving the production and deployment chain.