European funding for sustainable aviation - Mapping of technological trend based on European funding analysis

The climatic issue is becoming more and more worrying and impeding. Based on World Meteorological Organization data, from 2023 the global temperature has stabilized close to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial level, which represent an irreversible situation according to the scientist opinion. Population is more and more attentive to this issue and, even if the greenhouse gases emission attributable to the aviation sector is about only 2%, it is important that it become carbon free. Furthermore, this is a continuously growing sector so it is foreseeable that this percentage will grow quickly. For these reasons, if action is not taken in time, aeronautics will become one of the main sectors in terms of environmental pollution in the future. The European Commission has set a goal through the Green Deal: climate neutrality by 2050. Within the Aviation Sector some specific goals have been set, and they will be achieved through new propulsion technologies and through the improvement of the pre-existing ones, to bring the emission level to 0 by 2050. Clean Aviation, the main joint undertaking for what concern the European aviation sustainability, has created a roadmap which is periodically updated: the SRIA (strategic Research and Innovation Agenda), in which it is explained how they will arrive to this goals. Within this document, they identify three main aircraft concept, each one with its own Research and Innovation program: •??Hybrid electric aircraft, which has the main application in the short period in regional range, maximum 500/1000 km •??Ultra efficient aircraft, which has the main application in short medium range •??Hydrogen aircraft, technology still immature in the aeronautical field but which sees long-term application in many sectors, and which is the most promising vector with regards to climate neutrality. This thesis deals with analyzing how the aeronautical sector is reacting and will react to the climate emergency, in terms of new technologies and new sustainable fuels. The mechanisms through which the institutions are trying to limit the emissions are analyzed, both through economic containment measures and by making research and development tools available to find new fuels and propulsion models. The thesis presents an analysis of the projects within the framework programme Horizon Europe, and considers the investments by the most relevant actors in the sector, divided by industries, research centres and universities. It divides the projects into the three macro categories identified by the SRIA of Clean Aviation and creates a mapping of them. The goal is to create a European mapping of the direction and preferences of the various actors involved towards these innovative technologies, analyzing how the European states are approaching the new propulsion technologies.