Digital European Sky 2025 calls attract record interest from the aviation community

The 2025 Digital European Sky (DES) calls, which closed on 16 September, received 121 proposals, signalling strong engagement and ambition across the European aviation community. With a total EU funding of EUR 254 million, this was the largest call ever organised in the history of the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU).

Interest was high across all topics:

• Exploratory research: 82 proposals requested EUR 113 million in EU funding, nearly five times the indicative budget of EUR 24 million.
• Industrial research: 39 proposals requested EUR 315 million, about 1.4 times the indicative budget of EUR 230 million.

This remarkable level of oversubscription demonstrates the strong commitment of industry and stakeholders to invest in the development priorities of the latest European ATM Master Plan and confirms SESAR's central role in driving innovation across the aviation value chain.

Exploratory research call (HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-ER-03)
The call focused on disruptive technologies and innovative concepts in the early stages of development. Its primary aim was to explore new ideas, methods, and technologies to define future development activities in ATM aligned with the long-term vision of the Digital European Sky.

The call was structured in two working areas (WA):

• Fundamental research (WA1): Advancing concepts and technologies from TRL0 to TRL1, including ATM impact on climate change, digital flight rules, and quantum sensing and computing applied to ATM.
• Applied research (WA2): Bridging fundamental research and higher maturity industrial research (TRL1 to TRL2), addressing research to shape the future regulatory framework for a Digital European Sky and the integration of next-generation aircraft for zero/low-emission aviation.

Industrial research call (HORIZON-SESAR-2025-DES-IR-02)
The call focused on advancing six development priorities defined in the European ATM Master Plan, covering the next-generation ATM platforms. The call was structured into seven work areas-one per development priority, plus an additional area covering transversal activities in support of SESAR JU and the DES programme. These include:

1. Transformation to trajectory-based operations
2. Transition towards high-performance air-ground connectivity (multilink)
3. Future en-route and TMA ground platforms
4. Future airport platforms
5. Autonomy and digital assistants for the flight deck
6. U-space advanced services, innovative air mobility (IAM), and vertiports

The evaluation of the proposals will now get underway, with the selected projects expected to be announced in early 2026.

Stay tuned for more details.