DISCUSSION PANEL

Re-charge innovation to re-gain Europe's competitiveness

The European aviation research ecosystem, mainly through its flagships Clean Aviation and SESAR and several collaborative research projects, could achieve a big step towards climate neutral aviation in 2050. Yet, there is still a long way to go up to our final destination, which is a climate-neutral and holistically sustainable aviation. Towards this goal, re-gaining Europe’s competitiveness based on the exploitation of disruptive innovation “made in Europe” is a key aspect. Yet, there are several questions requesting an answer:

• Is high competitiveness which is linked to high quality and performance, low cost, and social acceptance in conflict with the requests for emissions-free, circular, and ecological aviation, or can these requests be handled as complementary?
• Which are the gaps we must close to re-gain Europe’s competitiveness?
• Is the European aviation research eco-system properly efficient, structured and capable of producing the disruptive innovation which will be needed to face the emerging challenges?
• Are there appropriate mechanisms, tools, and funds, to fully exploit the potential of this ecosystem?

These are some of the topics which will be addressed in this plenary session in a discussion between 5 distinguished personalities of the European aviation research community.