The Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), developed by the Advisory Council for Aeronautical Research in Europe (ACARE), remains a key starting point for the EU’s overall aeronautics research programme. In the second edition of its SRA, ACARE expands the scope and ambition of this highly influential R&D plan.
Europe’s ambitions in the future aeronautics sector were first laid out in the report entitled ‘European aeronautics – a vision for 2020’ and in the White Paper ‘European transport policy for 2010: time to decide’. The SRA is essentially a roadmap for realising those ambitions.
Two years after the launch of this R&D plan for the aeronautics sector, at the presentation of the second edition of ACARE’s SRA in 2005, European Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potočnik,” said. “ACARE has truly become a symbol of consensus building and co-operation within the aeronautics sector. With strong industrial leadership, it has remained focused on future markets and has given Europe the necessary impetus to realise its potential in cutting edge technologies.”
ACARE Chairman Bengt Halse, former President and CEO of SAAB AB, said, “Air transport is our ticket to the increasingly global economy. Europe has some of the finest universities in the world. We have the world’s leading aerospace companies. We have now overtaken the United States in aircraft production. And we have best brains. But we need to maintain a coherent and strategic approach. The SRA-2 gives us that strategic perspective, a proper roadmap for harnessing our tremendous European assets.”
Specific objectives for European aeronautics include 50% and 80% cuts in CO2 and NOx emissions; respectively, a five-fold reduction in accidents; reduction of noise by 50%; and increased punctuality across the board, meaning 99% of all flights should arrive and depart within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. The updated SRA also puts forward an array of research solutions and technologies to meet and go beyond the ambitions expressed of the ‘Vision 2020’ report.
The mechanisms identified by ACARE as crucial to meeting the EU’s vision for the aerospace industry include: adequate research infrastructure; a competitive supply chain; certification and qualification processes; an adequate educational system; and trans-European synergy.
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