Fast-track Enabling innovative air mobility (IAM) / Vertical take-off and landing capable aircraft (VCA) (crewed and uncrewed) operations
Funds innovation projects on vertiport management, automated flight and IFR procedures for crewed and uncrewed air taxis.
The SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking, operating under Horizon Europe, expects to fund one Innovation Action for this topic, with a EUR 2,000,000–5,000,000 EU contribution as a lump sum at a 70% funding rate. Proposals go through the standard single-stage EU Funding & Tenders Portal process over a maximum 36-month project, and winners must sign a collaboration agreement linking their project to earlier SE…
This call funds innovation-stage development for vertical-take-off-and-landing capable aircraft (VCA), such as air taxis, covering vertiport traffic management, booking and release of landing sites, and instrument flight rules procedures adapted from existing rotorcraft solutions. It also wants cockpit automation and digital ATC communication that let one remote pilot oversee multiple VCAs, plus automatic take-off and landing technology progressing toward an autopilot-based system, and flight-information-service automation. Proposals should build on named ongoing SESAR projects (EUREKA, OPERA) rather than starting fresh, and address both crewed VFR and, progressively, IFR operations.
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