Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking awards funding

Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking (CAJU) has approved over EUR 700 million in funding for 20 projects researching innovative solutions to power the next generation of sustainable aircraft and support EU Green Deal ambitions for a climate-neutral future.

The 20 successful projects cover 14 topics elaborated from the “Clean Aviation Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA)” built around 3 thrusts:

• Hydrogen-powered aircraft
• Hybrid Electric Regional aircraft
• Ultra-Efficient Short and Medium Range aircraft

Swift adoption of these technologies from 2035 will enable the biggest step-change reduction in aviation’s climate impact by 2050, together with the accelerated adoption of low or zero-carbon energy sources and fuels e.g. clean hydrogen and/or sustainable aviation fuels.

The budget of over EUR 700 million has been allocated following a Call for Proposals closed in June and a careful evaluation of the submitted proposals by independent experts. The official launch of projects is still subject to legal redress and to successful completion of grant preparation, which will start in the coming days, targeted to be completed by the end of 2022.

Rosalinde van der Vlies, Chair of the Governing Board, said, “Investing in research to develop disruptive technologies is essential for delivering on our Green Deal objectives, and the Clean Aviation programme will be pivotal in terms of bringing aviation in line with this objective and allowing European citizens to fly without having to worry about their emission footprint.”

Sabine Klauke, CTO of Airbus, said, “The European aviation industry is excited to work in partnership with the EU and the whole eco-system of SME’s, Research Centres and Universities on these promising disruptive projects that will enable us collectively to decarbonise aviation and make it fit for the future.”

Axel Krein, Executive Director of CAJU, said, “After completion of the grant negotiations, we can give the green light to start the critical research and engineering work to accelerate the transition to sustainable aviation.”

The hydrogen power aircraft projects include:

• Cavendish project by Rolls-Royce plc for direct combustion of hydrogen in aero-engines
• Hydeaby project by GE Avio Srl for direct combustion of hydrogen in aero-engines
• Newborn project by Honeywell International Sro for multi-MW fuel cell propulsion system
• H2Elios project by Aciturri Engineering SL for large-scale lightweight liquid hydrogen integral
  storage solutions
• fLHYing tank project by Pipistrel Vertical Solutions doo podjetje za napredne letalske rešitve for near-term disruptive technologies
• HyPoTraDe project by Pipistrel Vertical Solutions doo podjetje za napredne letalske rešitve for near-term disruptive technologies