Innovative air mobility and services for sustainable and smart urban, peri-urban transport – Societal Readiness pilot

Expected Outcome:Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Enabling very low-level unmanned aviation, specifically Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) and services, for sustainable and smart urban mobility in cities, by developing and refining tools for urban planning, outreach, and system forecasting in line with the Drone Strategy 2.0[1] . Climate-neutral, smart, resilient, and safe IAM, accepted by local communities;
• Institutional capacities to enable IAM are built up;
• New tools and services for optimising IAM in cities and other areas, as well as workable governance arrangements for a multimodal transport network;
• Evidence-based guidelines and recommendations, co-designed with and provided to cities, on how to develop a sustainable urban air mobility eco-system (e.g. planning and development processes for local authorities, integration of IAM in Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans, etc.);
• Advanced understanding and quantification of the value of IAM, its benefits and use cases, particularly in the urban logistics sector;
• Enhanced multimodality, urban logistics planning/flow and communication between stakeholders, which can be replicated by other cities to enable IAM;
• Creation of jobs and economic growth by implementation of urban air mobility services in the long-term;
• Responsiveness to a deeper understanding of the needs and concerns of diverse social groups involved in or potentially affected by the R&I development, thereby increasing the potential for beneficial societal uptake, and building trust in results and outcomes.

Scope:The proposal is expected to develop the conditions and guidelines for a sustainable, smart, safe and resilient ecosystem for urban air mobility and services, focusing on the urban logistics sector, where drones could be more easily demonstrated and accepted than for passenger mobility.

Proposals will have to address at least seven the following points:

• 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.

Projects must involve cities authorities (multi-level governance) and logistics operators, to ensure user needs are duly considered. Projects should build on previously funded Horizon 2020 projects such as AiRMOUR[3].

The action aims to exploit synergies with the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and with the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking, while the alignment with the activities of EASA is highly recommended.

This topic is a Societal-Readiness pilot:

• Proposals should follow the instructions applying to the Societal readiness pilot, as described in the introduction of the Horizon Europe Main Work Programme 2025 for Climate, Energy and Mobility. They entail the use of an interdisciplinary approach to deepening consideration and responsiveness of research and innovation activities to societal needs and concerns.
• This topic requires effective contribution of the relevant SSH expertise, including the involvement of SSH experts in the consortium, to meaningfully support Societal Readiness. Specifically, SSH expertise is expected to facilitate the socio-technological interface and enable the design of project objectives with Societal Readiness related activities.

[1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022DC0652

[2] Downwash is the downward flow of air produced by the propulsion system of an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, such as the thrust from rotors. Outwash refers to the outward flow of the air that results from the downwash.

[3] https://airmour.eu/