Overview
A policy-driven European aviation research and innovation (R&I) framework is needed to assist the aviation sector in achieving technological breakthroughs, reducing its environmental impact, and complying with new EU policies and priorities. The EU-funded PULSAR project will support European policymakers to identify critical aviation research efforts to perform until 2050 and beyond concerning environmental targets, associated regulations and the expectations of European citizens. The project will develop the European Aviation R&I Roadmap and provide recommendations considering environmental aspects such as aviation noise and emissions, impacts on climate and local air quality. PULSAR will also deliver an educational roadmap to guide the training of future experts for sustainable aviation and communicate to citizens the sector’s environmental efforts.
Aviation sector faces many challenges such as achieving technological breakthroughs, reducing its environmental impact and increasing the sector’s workforce skills while complying with new EU policies and priorities such as the European Green Deal, the new European industrial policy as well as the European digital strategy. A policy-driven European aviation R&I framework is needed more than ever. The primary goal of PULSAR is to support the European policy-makers in identifying the key aviation research efforts to carry out until 2050 and beyond with respect to environmental objectives, associated regulations and expectations of the European citizens.
PULSAR will develop the European Aviation R&I Roadmap and will provide associated recommendations. PULSAR will focus on the environmental aspects of the overall roadmap, i.e., on technologies that may affect aviation noise and emissions, both for impacts on climate (CO2 and non-CO2 effects) and for Local Air Quality (LAQ). The project also aims at fostering connection of aviation R&I with education and skills, and communicating about European aviation R&I to citizens and relevant stakeholders.
Coordinated by ONERA, PULSAR gathers a multidisciplinary consortium of 12 partners, composed of industrial partners, SMEs, RTOs, universities and an association, relying on a large group of experts such as ENEA and ECATS and clusters whose expertise and complementarity are crucial for the achievement of the project’s objectives. PULSAR will deliver:
- A R&I roadmap assessing the impact of technologies on environmental issues and stating the R&I effort needed to achieve environmental goals;
- An educational roadmap to guide training of future experts for sustainable aviation;
- A thorough communication towards citizens on how the sector is committed to lower its environmental footprint;
- A European platform for Environmental Aviation, embedding all project outputs, being an open access reference for environmental aviation.