On 9 April 2024, the Horizon Europe project PULSAR was introduced at the European Parliament in Brussels, thanks to the Honourable Member of the European Parliament, Marian-Jean Marinescu, who hosted an exchange on European aviation collaborative research and innovation roadmaps. PULSAR gathered policymakers, industry leaders, and citizens to explore solutions for reducing noise, emissions, and climate impact in the aviation sector.
MEP Marian-Jean Marinescu, EPP Coordinator in the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) and Rapporteur of the Single European Sky SES2+ Package, emphasized that “addressing the environmental goals by means of research and innovation and developing concrete results is key in ensuring sustainable growth”. Initiatives like PULSAR, pointing at new technologies, are instrumental in improving the quality of life of European residents.
CINEA, the European Commission agency implementing EU sustainable growth programmes, highlighted the EU efforts and the role of research, innovation and deployment in advancing policy goals. 40 years of highly competitive EU collaborative research & innovation have underpinned current EU industrial leadership in aviation, with increasing synergies among sectors and actors from diverse Members States in EU programmes at CINEA and beyond.
PULSAR approach & future aviation insights
The event emphasized the significance of collective progress in advancing environment- and climate-friendly aviation technologies and solutions. The PULSAR project presented its approach to define a European Environmental Research & Innovation Roadmap, aimed at reducing noise, local pollution, CO2 and non-CO2 emissions, and increasing the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels. The roadmap provides a transition path for the aviation sector to achieve ambitious 2030, 2050 and 2070 goals for the aviation sector.
Laurent Leylekian, the PULSAR Project Coordinator and European Affairs Officer at ONERA provided an overview of the project, outlining its objectives to support European policymakers in identifying key aviation research efforts until 2050 and beyond, with a focus on environmental objectives, considering regulations, citizens’ expectations and industrial stakeholders' needs, including education and skills. Leylekian highlighted that “PULSAR aims at connecting scenarios with technological roadmaps to deliver information on the most promising technologies and their capability to support the EU policy goals”.
In this sense, PULSAR’s work package 2 delves into future aviation scenarios considering various social, economic, and geopolitical factors, providing insights into advanced technological innovations projected beyond 2050. Roalt Aalmoes, Leader of PULSAR Work Package 2, explained that “the results of the PULSAR scenarios are used to develop roadmaps for further technology development. The progress achieved for each scenario is compared with the expectations of all stakeholders, including European citizens”.
Cross-fertilisation with Impact Monitor
PULSAR project invited Impact Monitor, a complementary Horizon Europe project, to join the event at the European Parliament, in efforts to defragment and accelerate the EU innovation efforts. Impact Monitor focuses on demonstrating collaborative assessment of future technologies, vehicles and operational strategies. Prajwal Shiva Prakasha, the Project Coordinator of Impact Monitor from DLR, underlined the project’s holistic impact assessment framework and toolbox, focusing on environmental, economic, and societal impacts at aircraft, airport, and air transport system levels.
This event, through the examples of PULSAR and Impact Monitor projects, showed the importance of collaboration in achieving concrete results supporting environmental goals in the aviation sector.