Closed

Next generation aircraft autonomy technologies for cockpit / pilot assistance applications

HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

Basic Information

Identifier
HORIZON-CL5-2025-03-Two-Stage-D5-09
Programme
Cluster 5 Call 03-2025 (2-stage) (WP 2025)
Programme Period
2021 - 2027
Status
Closed (31094503)
Opening Date
May 6, 2025
Deadline
September 4, 2025
Deadline Model
two-stage
Budget
€7,000,000
Min Grant Amount
€3,500,000
Max Grant Amount
€3,500,000
Expected Number of Grants
2
Keywords
HORIZON-CL5-2025-03-Two-Stage-D5-09HORIZON-CL5-2025-03-Two-Stage

Description

Expected Outcome:

Project results should contribute to the European civil aircraft cockpit technology roadmaps on crew assistance/automation/autonomy, with focus to next generation aircraft autonomy technologies for cockpit / pilot assistance applications.

Project results are expected to contribute to at least two of the following expected outcomes:

  • Increasing safety in cockpits, by providing to the crew’s assistance new systems or functionalities. with new capabilities for new aircraft platforms, new Human Machine Interface concepts and technologies.;
  • Contribution to the roadmap of cockpits digitalisation and autonomy, by conceiving new cockpit capabilities, allowing an enhanced Human-System Relation (new ways for the crews to interact or collaborate with the cockpit). Technological breakthrough could bring to future cockpits the development potential necessary to take up the challenges of the next decades;
  • Increased efficiency of cockpits performances: reduction of size, weight and power consumption (SWaP) of systems and equipment, reduced total lifecycle costs, integration levels by reduced production times and, first-time-right delivery.
Scope:

Next generation aircrafts will be even more digital and automated, with more interactive and automated cockpits. This will be even more reliant on automation evolution and it is expected to mitigate an always-increased complexity of aircraft systems and operations, ensuring safe and efficient operations. However, automation is also prone to significant errors when misused or misunderstood, especially if this is combined with new aircraft platforms (incl. new systems/capabilities) or new types of operations.

The projects should develop new technology bricks in line with the aircraft concepts proposed in the updated Horizon Europe Clean Aviation Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda[1] and possibly exploit lessons learned from the H2020-CS2 Large Aircraft Disruptive Cockpit Demonstrator[2]. Synergies may also be sought with Horizon Europe SESAR Single Person Operations projects.

The technology bricks should be aligned with the needs of future aircraft generations and operations, new requirements, and cockpit philosophy of European aircraft integrators for the next generations of aircrafts, while they should be cyber-resilient and controlled by a single pilot and without the assistance of an on-board human co-pilot. Development of simulation tools, use of artificial intelligence models, human factors, and cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of various technical solutions is within the scope of the topic. Interfacing with the European Union Aviation Safety agency (EASA) on safety and new testing and certification processes as well as alignment with the EASA AI roadmap should be considered, if applicable.

The focus is on development of new technologies up to TRL 4, rather than on integration and demonstration.

[1] https://clean-aviation.eu/sites/default/files/2024-09/2024-Clean-Aviation-SRIA.pdf

[2] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/807097/results

Destination & Scope

This Destination addresses activities that improve the climate and environmental footprint, as well as competitiveness, of different transport modes.

The areas of rail and air traffic management will be addressed through dedicated Institutional European Partnerships and are therefore not included in this document.

This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic OrientationsGreen transition’, ‘Digital transition’ and ‘A more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe’.

In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the ‘Achieving sustainable and competitive transport modes’.

The main impacts to be generated by topics under this Destination are:

Zero-emission road transport

  1. Clean solutions for zero tailpipe emission and environmentally friendly mobility for a climate neutral and zero pollution mobility with a higher level of circularity;
  2. Affordable, user-friendly, inclusive, safe, and secure concepts and technologies that are easy to deploy, considering needs, behaviours, and socio-economic status of end-users;
  3. Increased global competitiveness of the EU transport sector;
  4. Increased responsiveness of zero tailpipe emission vehicles and systems to diverse societal interests and concerns;
  5. Use cases and concepts for zero-emission road mobility of people and goods are successfully and innovatively demonstrated.

Aviation

  1. New and updated Aviation Research and Technology Infrastructures, where the new research and technologies will be developed and tested;
  2. Increased understanding and analysis of mitigation options of aviation’s non-CO2 climate impacts. New technologies for significantly lower local air-pollution and noise;
  3. Accelerated uptake of sustainable aviation fuels in aviation, including the coordination with Member States and private initiatives.

Waterborne transport

  1. The shipping industry (shipowners, equipment manufacturers, port authorities, terminal operators, and shipbuilders) will have access to high-power low and zero emission fuel solutions by 2030, leading to lower costs, enhanced energy efficiency, risk mitigation, standardised implementation, and improved operational efficiency through data science.
  2. Port operators and ship owners will benefit from increased safety and technical standards on ammonia and hydrogen bunkering, including failure scenarios and risk mitigation;
  3. The shipping industry will benefit from lower-cost and flexible battery-based solutions as primary sources of energy, higher safety standards and broader electrification solutions;
  4. Shipowners, ship operators and port authorities will have access to OPS (Onshore Power Supply) solutions that will enable them to comply with the current and incoming legislative framework;
  5. Policy makers and shipowners will benefit from access to accurate information and assessment methods on the direct energy savings resulting from the use of wind-assisted propulsion (WAP) systems under current legislative frameworks like FuelEU Maritime, contributing to the assessment of GHG intensity of energy used on-board. Shipowners, shipbuilders, and European shipyards will have access to commercially viable, cost-efficient, and easy-to-retrofit WAP solutions deployed at commercial scale, particularly for long-distance shipping;
  6. Shipyards will have innovative holistic intelligent design tools for various retrofit solutions, enhancing the competitiveness of European shipyards and marine equipment providers;
  7. Governments, port authorities, and shipping companies will benefit from access to standardised systems and tools for monitoring air pollutants and fuel consumption of ships, enabling compliance with current and incoming regulations on ship emissions;
  8. Policymakers and enforcement bodies will benefit from innovative tools to fulfil the requirements of the Ship Sourced Pollution Directive resulting in an increased environmental protection of sea waters.

Transport related environment and health

The better monitoring of the environmental performance and enforcement of emissions regulation and biodiversity protection in order to reduce the overall environmental impact of transport (e.g., as regards biodiversity, noise, pollution and waste) on human health and ecosystems.

Eligibility & Conditions

General conditions

1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout

described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

2. Eligible Countries

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

3. Other Eligible Conditions

If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).

The following exceptions apply: subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion

described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds

are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.

5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement

described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].

described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Specific conditions

Not applicable.

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Latest Updates

Last Changed: September 16, 2025

The call for proposals HORIZON-CL5-2025-03-Two-Stage-D5-09 closed on 04/09/2025. 9 proposals were submitted to the call.

Last Changed: May 14, 2025
The submission session is now available for: HORIZON-CL5-2025-03-Two-Stage-D5-09
Next generation aircraft autonomy technologies for cockpit / pilot assistance applications | Grantalist