Innovative air mobility and services for sustainable and smart urban, peri-urban transport – Societal Readiness pilot
Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The proposal is expected to develop the conditions and guidelines for a sustainable, smart, safe and resilient ecosystem for urban air mobility and services, with a focus on the urban logistics sector, where drones could be demonstrated and adopted more readily than in passenger mobility.
Detailed Call Description
- Prepare a roadmap to define the needs for new or upgraded infrastructures and logistics, to facilitate innovation in IAM technologies and operations;
- Collaborate with city authorities to develop guidelines for integrating and co-designing drone infrastructure, such as vertiports, landing areas, and charging stations, into Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans, ensuring environmental, safety, security, and privacy considerations;
- Assess the effects of IAM traffic, including electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) downwash/outwash[2] on urban microclimate, as well as the requirements for a vertiport area, to enable safe IAM operations (incl. take-off and landing), for different VTOL aircraft and rotor configurations;
- Building on EASA’s work and other studies on drone noise, assess and define the noise monitoring needs and tools that cities will have to implement, in areas where drone and IAM infrastructures and operations are planned, to ensure compliance with noise limits;
- Analyse and make a proposal on how IAM could be integrated in the existing freight transport flows in cities, to boost multimodality;
- Perform demonstration activities on IAM for cargo delivery (e.g. medical supplies), with data collection and flight monitoring between different landing/take-off areas/vertiports, while ensuring safety of operations in densely populated areas;
- Evaluate and quantify the impact and potential benefits of cargo delivery by drones and eVTOLs on city congestion, noise, pollution, as well as on current and future airspace capacity to accommodate large scale operations;
- Develop viable business models for sustainable IAM services for logistics operators, identifying key use cases where the benefits are the highest;
- Collaborate with city authorities to align IAM services with citizen needs, developing strategies to raise public awareness and secure buy-in for drone integration. Identify attractive benefits and incentives for early adopters to accelerate market uptake of IAM operations and services;
- Report on lessons learnt and recommendations to be shared with other cities for replication, and develop training / competence building packages for the relevant stakeholders (e.g., cities authorities involved in the design of a sustainable IAM ecosystem);
- Analysis of potential rebound effects and arising questions of (energy) sufficiency with regard to extensive use and large-scale operations of IAM.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
Expected EU contribution per project: €10.00 million
Thematic Categories
- Education and training
- Environment and Climate Change
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Information Technology
- Public Administration
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Shipping - Marine Transports
- Social Affairs & Human Rights
- Telecommunications
Eligibility for Participation
- Associations
- Businesses
- Central Government
- Chambers
- Consumer Organisations
- Educational Institutions
- Employees
- Employers
- Legal Entities
- Natual person / Citizen / Individual
- NGOs
- Non Profit Organisations
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Semi-governmental organisations
- Services Providers
- State-owned Enterprises
- Training Centres
- Youth
Eligibility For Participation Notes
The following exceptions apply: subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.
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.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Research and Innovation Foundation
Address: 29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia, P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/
Persons to Contact:
Mr. Christakis Theocharous
Scientific Officer A’
Email: ctheocharous@research.org.cy
Mr. George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy