Pregled razpisa

Digital flight rules

Kratica razpisa/topic identifier: HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA1-2
Zanimivo za IJS: neposredno
IJS področje razpisa: fizika, kemija, biokemija, materiali in okolje, jedrska tehnika, avtomatika, informacijske tehnologije

Povezava na razpis: HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA1-2
Namen razpisa:

Expected Outcome:
To significantly advance the following development priority:

FR-2 Digital flight rules.
Scope:
The following aspects are in scope:

Evolution of ICAO Annex II (Rules of the Air):
This concept builds on previous SESAR research for the integration of IFR RPAS integration in airspace A-G, where the ICAO Annex II responsibility to exercise on-board vigilance to avoid collisions is fulfilled by using CDTI traffic information instead of the traditional out-the-window vigilance used by crewed aircraft. The objective is to analyse how previous research performed in SESAR 2020 PJ.13, PJ.13-W2 and ongoing project IRINA and provide foundational conceptual work to support the development and validation of a new flight rules concept (“digital flight rules”) to complement VFR and IFR, to be applied in environments where all aircraft are equipped with cooperative surveillance.

The new rules should be applicable to certified aircraft, crewed or uncrewed, as a complement IFR and VFR to allow the use a certified on-board system to perform:

The equivalent of the out-the-window vigilance required for all aircraft by Annex II, similar to what has been proposed by previous SESAR research for IFR RPAS, but now applicable to equipped crewed and uncrewed aircraft, VFR or IFR.
The manoeuvres required to remain well clear as per the right-of-way rules in Annex II that IFR and VFR pilots do in current operations when flying in an airspace where ATC does not provide a separation (i.e., in airspace C to G for VFR aircraft and airspace F and G for IFR aircraft)[1].
It is anticipated that digital flight rules will initially be applied only in a cooperative environment; the research should perform an initial analysis on whether in some cases on-board sensors for the detection of non-cooperative traffic may be required to support the safety case (e.g., this might be a requirement for uncrewed aircraft).

Digital flight rules should be compatible with both VFR and IFR and should provide support to crews that need to manoeuvre in accordance with the Annex II right-of-way rules (e.g., with a remain-well-clear system providing guidance for horizontal manoeuvring as per ED-271). Aircraft flying with digital flight rules would not have to maintain visual meteorological conditions (e.g., minimum visibility, distance from clouds, etc.). The research should describe the full operational concept and analyse how ICAO Annex II (rules of the air) and annex XI (ATS services, including flight planning aspects and appendix 4 – airspace classification) would need to evolve to allow this new concept. The research should also perform an initial assessment of the human performance aspects for both on-board pilots and remote pilots.

Evolution of the overall ICAO framework to support a highly automated ATM environment
The objective is to analyse the potential need for evolution other ICAO Annexes and documents (e.g., Annex 11 (Air Traffic Services), PANS OPS (doc. 8168), PANS ATM (Doc. 4444), Manual on ATCO competency-based training and assessment (Doc 10056), airworthiness and certification material, Annex 10 “aeronautical communications”, ICAO doc. 9771 \”Manual on Collaborative Air Traffic Flow Management”, etc.) to allow the implementation of the highly automated vision put forward by the European ATM Master Plan at a global level. The research should consider the potential impact of the evolution of the role of the human operator in the ATM system required to achieve the MP vision. Analysing the changes to the ICAO documentation that might be required to cover the possibility that the functions that are allocated to the controller in the current text be performed by a certified ATC ground system instead of by the human operator, considering, for example CPDLC being handled on the ground side by the ATC system instead of the human operator, automatic delivery of ATC clearances by the ATC ground system without prior validation by a human operator, the move from voice to CPDLC as primary means of communication, etc.

[1] Note that in airspace D and E, IFR aircraft must follow their IFR ATC clearance, which provides separation from all aircraft (VFR or IFR) in class A-C, and from IFR aircraft in class D and E. In airspace D and E, VFR aircraft are not subject to ATC clearance, while IFR aircraft are subject to ATC clearance and the clearance provides separation from other IFR aircraft but not with VFR aircraft.

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 Eligible Conditions

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

This call is subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.

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 subsection 2.5 of the BAWP 2024-2025

Weighting per criteria in additions to the general award criteria:

Excellence: 40%

Impact: 40%

Implementation: 20%

5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

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

The evaluation committee may be composed partially of representatives of EU institutions and agencies (internal experts).

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

described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

The following exceptions apply.

1) A funding rate of 70% applies to all beneficiaries (regardless of their legal status).

2) 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 Programmefor Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under theResearch and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025).

3) Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional dissemination obligations:

beneficiaries must make proactive efforts to share, on a royalty-freebasis, in a timely manner and as appropriate, all relevant results with the other grants awarded under the same call;

beneficiaries must acknowledge these obligations and incorporate them into the proposal, outlining the efforts they will make to meet them, and into Annex I to the grant agreement.

4) Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional exploitation obligations:

For the purpose of complying with the objectives set in Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085, the SRIA and the European ATM Master Plan,

beneficiaries must make available for reuse under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions all relevant results generated, through a well-defined mechanism using a trusted repository;

if the purpose of the specific identified measures to exploit the results of the action is related to standardisation, beneficiaries must grant a non-exclusive licence to the results royalty-free;

if working on linked actions, beneficiaries must ensure mutual access to the background to and to the results of ongoing and closed linked actions, should this be necessary to implement tasks under the linked actions or to exploit results generated by the linked actions as defined in the conditions laid down in the biannual work programme and in the call for proposals.

Beneficiaries must acknowledge these obligations and incorporate them into the proposal, outlining the efforts they will make to meet them, and into Annex I to the grant agreement.

5) Grants awarded under this topic will be linked to the following actions:

Call HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-IR-01

Call HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01

A collaboration agreement is required.

The integration of a gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) into R&I content is not a mandatory requirement.

The maximum project duration is 36 months.

Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from nonassociated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call/topic.

A legal entity means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.

Datum odprtja prijav: 01/04/2025
Rok za prijavo: 16/09/2025
Komentar:: 16 September 2025 17:00:00 Brussels time

Program financiranja: EU Horizon
Vir/steber financiranja:
Funding mechanisms/Prednostna naložba:
Vrednost razpisa: 10 000 000 EUR
Kontaktna e-pošta: andreja.umek-venturini@gov.si

Vpis v bazo CTT:MarijanLeban dne 2025-01-24 11:26:32.409201

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