# Integration of the next generation aircraft for zero/low emission aviation
EUACC page: https://www.euacc.ai/calls/HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA2-2
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## Public content

**topic id:** HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA2-2
**call id:** HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03
**title:** Integration of the next generation aircraft for zero/low emission aviation
**programme:** Horizon Europe
**cluster:** SESAR
**status:** closed
**deadline date:** 2025-09-16T00:00:00+00:00
**deadline model:** single-stage
**start date:** 2025-04-01T00:00:00+00:00
**url:** https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA2-2
**description:** Expected Outcome:
To significantly advance the following development priority:
• AR-3 Integration of the next generation aircraft for zero/low emission aviation.
 Scope:
1. Integration of the next generation aircraft for zero/low emission aviation
The future vision of air transport without net carbon emissions supporting the Green Deal goal includes the introduction of hydrogen (combustion and/or hydrogen fuel-cells), battery-electric and hybrid-electric powered aircraft. These aircraft are currently in the development phase, and their entry into service is not expected until the next decade. Once operations start, their numbers are expected to increase rapidly, which is why the ATM Master Plan sets an objective to ensure that the ATM system is ready to fully integrate them from the start. The goal is that these operations can take place safely, efficiently and without a disproportional impact on conventional (i.e., current generation of kerosene-powered aircraft) air traffic operations.
It is anticipated that these new aircraft will present challenges to ATM in the following areas:
• Evolution of the fleet-mix with increase diversity in aircraft performance: the new aircraft present different performance envelopes than current aircraft for example in terms of cruising levels, cruising speed, final approach speed and rates of climb and descent. This is a challenge for ATM because operations are currently organised considering the current fleet mix.
• Different requirements for airport operations (e.g., turnaround times, ground handling, etc.), which will affect the airport operations plan (AOP)/network operations plan (NOP) integration concepts (e.g., new / adapted airport infrastructure longer turn-around times, new refuelling processes, etc.).
• The new aircraft will have lower range and will also carry a lower number of passengers per flight, which may lead to an evolution of the traffic demand (e.g., new city pairs, more flights to carry the same number of passengers, etc.).
 This analysis must take into consideration the different aircraft type / models and propulsive systems under development. The objective of the research is to collect requirements for the seamless integration of the new models / propulsive systems in European airspace, and where appropriate provide recommendations for ATM developments (potentially proposing roadmap if appropriate), addressing, for example:
• Trajectory based operations (TBO) already provides a framework to allow the optimisation of individual flights powered by conventional fuel or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). There is a need to assess how this framework can support the optimisation of low or zero-emissions aircraft, and where necessary propose enhancements.
• Applicability of new ATM concepts supporting sustainability (e.g., green taxi, wake energy-retrieval, etc.).
• Adaptation of ATM platforms to support the evolution of the fleet to include increased diversity of performance envelopes.
• Potential impact on airports (including regional airports) and AOP/NOP integration due to the impact on the predictability of airport operations (e.g., due to longer turnaround, changes to airline scheduling patterns, new flight planning/flight plan acceptance processes, new fuelling procedures, new engine start-up requirements, etc.).
• Evolution of aircraft design characteristics, for significantly increased fuel efficiency and minimising emissions, for example with new generation single-aisle model for long-haul, triggering the need for additional wake turbulence research in order to define criteria and guidelines establishing boundaries between wake categories (e.g., around medium aircraft) regarding refined decay characterisation and initial vortex spacing factor, for facilitating design and certification in relation to optimised assignment to advanced wake separation schemes (RECAT-EU or Pairwise, complementing reference analysis), and limiting potential impact on airports capacity and on operational efficiency, related to arrival and departure runway throughput.
• Different propulsion characteristics and failure cases could impact take-off and/or landing distances, heavier H2 aircraft (at landing) could drive higher approach speeds or increased wake vortex class compared to equivalent Kerosene powered aircraft, etc. There is a need to assess the potential impact on route design (e.g., standard instrument departure routes (SID) and standard instrument arrival routes (STAR) design, approach procedures, RNP specifications, etc.).
• Potential impact on traffic synchronization (e.g., sequencing and separation of traffic with different descent / approach performance, take-off / climb characteristics, etc.).
• Potential impacts in terms of traffic demand (e.g., less capacity per aircraft in terms of passengers) as well as complexity and finally capacity to manage aircraft with different performances.
• Impact on airspace management, network management and traffic flow management processes due to the different optimum cruise altitude/speeds for the new aircraft and propulsion concepts (e.g., impacts on airspace configuration, air traffic flow and capacity management (ATFCM) processes, etc.).
• Prediction of the evolution of traffic demand, due to e.g., shorter routes, more flights to accommodate the number of passengers. The impact of different policy scenarios could be considered (e.g., short-haul ban, multimodal regulations, etc.).
 Research also includes the definition of a potential future scenario(s) representative of future demand for 2035 including:
• Different combinations of future fleet composition, models / propulsive systems with different capabilities (payload / range / speed), with expected entry into service (EIS) by 2035 and different ramp-up / infrastructure scenarios, covering the Hybrid-Electric Regional, short medium range aircraft (SMR), a Hydrogen-powered options considered in Clean Aviation.
• Different future ATM concepts expected to be implemented by 2035, considering the impact of the variety of vehicle performances and their impact on traffic management.
 Oher future scenarios could address a longer-term vision (e.g., 2040+ (SMR H2), 2045+ (Long-range aircraft (LR)) combined with more innovative Phase D ATM operational concepts.
Research shall evaluate the impact on performance such as the reduction of the CO2 emissions, the environmental impact of H2 and water (contrails) from hydrogen-powered fuel cell systems on at fleet scale, etc considering the scenarios defined above. Research may also address the impact on other relevant key performance areas (KPA) such as capacity, access and equity, etc.
Research shall identify the needs for the adaptation of the regulatory framework for air navigation and aerodromes (including new requirements, means of compliance) and the related safety standards.
The research shall consider the work performed under the AZEA initiative (i.e., CONOPS) and the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking programme, and coordinate as necessary with EASA to ensure that safety concerns have been sufficiently addressed.
**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 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 Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.
The award criteria are described in subsection 1.4 of the BAWP 2024-2025.

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).
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 topics within the same work area, provided that the application attains the threshold.

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) 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 Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025).
2) 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 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.
3) 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.

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 in relation to the research results.

Call documents:
 SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking Bi-Annual Work Programme (BAWP) 2024-2025 - Annex III

Application form templates
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) - 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 application form specific for this call is available in the Submission System
Detailed budget table (HE LS)
Evaluation form templates 
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) - will be used with the necessary adaptations based on specific award criteria (see BAWP, Annex III, section 1.4).
Guidance
HE Programme Guide 
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Lump Sum MGA 
Call-specific instructions 
Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?"

Additional documents:
 SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking Multi-Annual Work Programme (MAWP) 2022-2031
SESAR 3 Project Handbook
SESAR 3 Q&A Document
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 8. Climate, Energy and Mobility
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 12. Missions
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 13. General Annexes
Council Regulation 2021/2085 of 19 November 2021 establishing the Joint Undertakings under Horizon Europe (SBA)
HE Programme Guide
HE Framework Programme 2021/695 
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764 
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment 
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement 
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual 
Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions 
Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement
**action type:** HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions
**budget:** 
  **budget Years Columns:** 
    - 2025
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        **deadline Dates:** 
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        **expected Grants:** 1
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        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-04-01
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        **budget Year Map:** 
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        **deadline Model:** single-stage
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    **109155:** 
      -         **action:** HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA2-2 - HORIZON-JU-RIA HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions
        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 14000000
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          - 2025-09-16
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        **min Contribution:** 1000000
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-04-01
      -         **action:** HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA2-1 - HORIZON-JU-RIA HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions
        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 14000000
        **deadline Dates:** 
          - 2025-09-16
        **deadline Model:** single-stage
        **expected Grants:** 1
        **max Contribution:** 2000000
        **min Contribution:** 1000000
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-04-01
**keywords:** HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03-WA2-2, HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03
**last synced at:** 2026-11-09T17:23:17.403+00:00

## Review record

No independent verification record is available.

## Source metadata