Fundamental Science and Outreach for Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Aviation
HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA1-7
- Programme
- Digital European Sky Exploratory Research 01
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- April 7, 2022
- Deadline
- October 13, 2022
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €3,750,000
- Min Grant Amount
- €3,750,000
- Max Grant Amount
- €3,750,000
- Expected Number of Grants
- 1
Description
Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes.
- Environment. Project results are expected to demonstrate that the proposed solutions would have no negative impact on the environment (i.e. in terms of emissions, noise and/or local air quality) or on the potential improvement of the aviation environmental footprint.
- Capacity. Project results are expected to contribute to capacity by addressing the management of airspace in abnormal, disrupted situations.
- Operational efficiency. Project results are expected to demonstrate that the synchronisation and predictability of the ATM system will increase.
- Safety. Project results are expected to maintain at least the same level of safety as the current ATM system.
- Security. Project results are expected to maintain at least the same level of security as the current ATM system.
The SESAR 3 JU has identified the following innovative research elements that could be used to achieve the expected outcomes. The list is not intended to be prescriptive; proposals for work on areas other than those listed below are welcome, provided they include adequate background and justification to ensure clear traceability with the R&I needs set out in the SRIA for the AI for aviation flagship.
- Management of abnormal situations. AI/ML have great potential for predictions/forecasts under normal circumstances, but research is needed to investigate the further evolution that will be needed if they are to be used in the management of abnormal situations: a prescriptive approach will be required to monitor the reality and specify precursors indicating possible deviations from what is expected (R&I need: AI for prescriptive aviation).
- Human-centric AI. Aviation will need to ensure a human-centric approach, as described in the EASA AI roadmap. Humans should understand what the systems are doing and also maintain the right level of situational awareness (i.e. to understand the situation well enough to enable human–machine cooperation) (R&I need: human–AI collaboration: digital assistants).
- Air and ground synchronisation. AI-powered systems are expected to be integrated into ground and cockpit systems, enhancing communication for trajectory management and much more. The scope of this research includes the identification of innovative applications / AI-based solutions that could improve such synchronisation (R&I need: human–AI collaboration: digital assistants).
- AI for higher automation. This element covers the development of an AI-powered cloud-based infrastructure and services (supporting higher levels of automation). In addition, the aim is to develop automation of ATM processes in which analysis and prediction are particularly likely to benefit from AI, and to develop AI-powered ATM environment requirements, infrastructure, and common regulation and certification guidelines (R&I need: AI improved datasets for better airborne operations).
- Datasets. Datasets are essential for the development of AI-based applications. Starting from an assessment of the state of the art, this element involves researching new ideas to generate and enable the automation of aviation-specific datasets from a large variety of on-board and ground communications across the network, which could then enable a broad range of AI-based applications for aviation. The research will also cover legal (e.g. liability), financial and regulatory aspects and will take into account the issue of how complete the datasets need to be to meet ATM requirements (R&I need: AI improved datasets for better airborne operations).
- Interoperability of ATM systems with different levels of automation. Although there is consensus on increasing automation levels to improve the efficiency of ATM systems and reduce costs, it is clear that not all functions will be at the same level of automation, and collaborating control centres and other stakeholders may have different levels of implementation of highly automated systems, even for the same functions. A methodology to produce automation strategies (roadmaps) providing a safe stepwise route to the full implementation of high automation levels is therefore needed (R&I need: trustworthy AI powered ATM environment).
- Cyberthreat intelligence services in aviation/ATM. The use of techniques based on ML to support cyberthreat detection and mitigation is quite widespread in the state of the art of various industries (e.g. internet services, e-commerce, content delivery networks); observation of anomalous traffic patterns or transactions enables the detection of cyberattacks. The transfer of these methods to ATM is not straightforward and, given the current tendency in ATM to enhance information-sharing to implement machine-to-machine automated functions (e.g. through SWIM implementation, increased bandwidth air–ground communications) while maintaining legacy systems built without any proper security policy, research in this area is needed (R&I need: trustworthy AI-powered ATM environment).
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility conditions: 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 eligibility conditions: 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
5. Evaluation and award:
- Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in subsection 2.1.3 of the BAWP 2022-2023.
- Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
The following exception applies:
To ensure a balanced portfolio, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to those that are the highest ranked within set topics, provided that the applications attain all thresholds.
- 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: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes
The following exceptions apply:
Grants awarded under this work area will have to submit the following deliverables:
- Concept outline
- Exploratory research plan (ERP)
- Exploratory research report (ERR)
- Data Management Plan (DMP) (to be submitted at the beginning, at mid-term and towards the end of the project)
- plan for dissemination and exploitation including communication activities - CDE (to be submitted within 6 months after signature date and periodically updated)
Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional dissemination obligations:
- Beneficiaries must make proactive efforts to share on a royalty free basis, in a timely manner and as appropriate, all relevant results with the other grants awarded under the same call.
- Beneficiaries must acknowledge and incorporate these obligations in the proposal, outlining the efforts they will make towards meeting them and in Annex I to the Grant Agreement.
Beneficiaries will be subject to the additional exploitation obligations:
For the purpose of complying with the objectives set in the Regulation 2021/2085, the SRIA and the European ATM Master plan, beneficiaries must:
- make available for re-use under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions all relevant results generated in the action, through a well-defined mechanism, in trusted repositories;
- in case the purpose of the specific identified measures to exploit the results of the action is related to standardisation, grant the non-exclusive licence to the results royalty-free;
- in case on linked actions, ensure mutual access to the background and to the results of on-going and closed linked actions, should this be needed for implementing tasks under the linked action(s) or for exploiting results generated by the linked action(s) as defined in the conditions laid down by this (bi)annual work programme and by the call for proposals.
Beneficiaries must acknowledge and incorporate these obligations in the proposal, outlining the efforts they will make towards meeting them and in Annex I to the Grant Agreement.
Specific conditions
7. Specific conditions: described in the specific conditions and topics description per Work Area:
- The maximum project duration is 30 months including a 6-month period at the end of the project life cycle to undertake Communications, Dissemination and exploitation activities on the research results.
- The integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in R&I content is not a mandatory requirement.
Documents
Call documents:
Standard HE RIA/IA templates - Available directly in the Submission system. Please note that only Part A of this template is applicable for this call. For Part B, see below.
SESAR 3 application form (RIA/IA) - Part B — this call-specific application form is also available in the Submission System
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) – it will be used with the necessary adaptations based on the specific award criteria (see BAWP, Annex II, section 2.1.3 - Award criteria).
MGA
Additional documents:
SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking Bi-Annual Work Programme (BAWP) 2022-2023
SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking Multi-Annual Work Programme (MAWP) 2022-2031
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 8. Climate, Energy and Mobility
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 12. Missions
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Support & Resources
SESAR 3 JU Call Helpdesk: [email protected]
Please note that the deadline for addressing queries related to SESAR 3 DES Call for proposals to the Q&A functional mailbox ([email protected]) is Friday 23 September 2022 (eob).
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Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe.
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CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk – the European Standards Organisations advise you how to tackle standardisation in your project proposal.
The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment – consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers.
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Latest Updates
Call HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01 has closed on the 13-10-2022.
72 proposals have been submitted.
The breakdown per topic is:
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA1-1 8
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA1-2 5
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA1-3 3
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA1-4 4
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA1-5 9
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA1-6 7
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA1-7 3
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA2-1 4
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA2-3 6
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA2-4 8
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA2-5 1
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA2-6 2
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA2-7 3
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA2-8 7
- HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA3-1 2
Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in February 2022.