Europe’s skies to get digital upgrade thanks to EUR 350 million innovation investment

The SESAR Joint Undertaking has announced the selection of 42 new research and innovation projects within the framework of its Digital European Sky programme, representing a total investment of just over EUR 350 million by the European Union and the aviation industry. This latest funding boost is expected to pave the way for a major digital update of Europe's skies, strengthening Europe's competitiveness, technological sovereignty, and environmental performance.

With the financial backing of the European Union through Horizon Europe and considerable contributions by industry, the projects mark the first steps in executing the European ATM Master Plan, the comprehensive roadmap for transforming air traffic management (ATM) in Europe, adopted in December 2024. This effort reflects Europe's vision of becoming the most efficient and environmentally friendly sky to fly in the world.

The selected projects bring together a broad range of beneficiaries with entities from 26 EU Member States and 8 countries associated to Horizon Europe participating across the portfolio. This wide geographical representation underlines the truly pan-European nature of SESAR and ensures that innovation benefits from diverse operational, industrial and research perspectives.

The 17 selected exploratory research projects with a budget of just under EU 24 million will explore a wide range of novel concepts and applications, from quantum computing for real-time trajectory optimisation and quantum sensing for precise navigation, to AI-driven climate impact modelling, automated decision-support systems, and explainable AI for safe, resilient operations. Other areas to be addressed include the integration of mixed fleets of conventional, hybrid, and fully electric aircraft, and the development of digital flight rules and tools to manage multiple simultaneous drone operations in U-space.

Meanwhile, the 25 industrial research projects with a total investment of EUR 326 million will advance critical transformation levers such as trajectory-based operations, automation, next-generation ATM service provision, as well as the swift uptake of solutions that boost resilience to GNSS jamming and spoofing, improve climate-neutral operations, and provide situational awareness and conflict detection of drones.

The projects were selected as a result of a call for proposals in 2025 followed by a rigorous evaluation of the submitted proposals by independent experts. The official launch of the projects is subject to the completion of grant preparation in the coming weeks.