The commercial UAS (unmanned aerial system) industry, commonly known as drones, is a rapidly expanding sector on a global scale, bearing large potentials for economic growth, jobs, innovation. Potential fields of application can bring broad social benefits, i.e. in public safety, logistics, environmental protection and monitoring, agriculture, etc. These potentials are also picked up by the European Commission through its Communication COM/2014/0207 that highlighted that UAS technologies offer huge potential for the development of innovative civil applications in a wide variety of sectors that benefit European society and constitute an emerging market that is able to significantly add to the creation of jobs and growth.

The industry however faces some unique challenges within the EU, caused by a lack of unified European standards and a fragmented landscape of regulatory bodies & policies, as well as limited knowledge, awareness and low level of public acceptance of this emerging technology. Although many policies targeting UASs are made at national and EU levels, significant work can be done at local / regional level to exploit innovation potential of UAS applications, as well as economic and societal benefits particularly in an urban context. Regional development policies shall create a favourable environment, allowing a flexible framework for experimentation, demonstration and market uptake of drone technology.