European industry is keen to raise research spending, including doubling the amount for aeronautics. But who will benefit?
Europe's aerospace industry wants a huge boost in research funding at a time when government support for civil aircraft development is a hot topic in US-European trade relations. In countering the US attack on European launch aid for Airbus, the European Union has accused Boeing of receiving billions in government subsidies via research contracts with NASA and other federal agencies. This comes as US government funding for civil aeronautics research and development, through NASA, is declining dramatically and the European Commission is moving to increase its research spending. NASA's total 2006 budget request for aeronautics is $850 million. Far less than that is for actual research.
In April, the EC revealed proposals to double funding for the next round of research in Europe, which includes aeronautics. Each wave of spending is known as a framework programme. So far there have been six, and while the budget for the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) – covering 2007 to 2013 – has yet to be approved by ministers of EU member states, aeronautics is tipped to get at least €2.5 billion ($3.16 billion) over the seven years – up from €840 million allocated in the 2002-6 FP6.
The recommended doubling of the EC's R&D budget from the level set for FP6 is part of its plan to drive up European public and private spending on R&D from the current 1% of EU gross domestic product to a more globally competitive 3%. As a result FP7 could get a total of €67.8 billion in funding if the EC has its way.
While aeronautics and space were combined in FP6, space is now linked to security for FP7 and aeronautics has been moved to the transport sector. The EC has proposed a budget for transport R&D under FP7 of €5.25 billion. This is the third largest chunk of funding after information technologies and health, because transport is considered to be one of nine priority areas. According to sources in the EC's Director General (DG)-Research, aeronautics could receive as much as half of transport's share of the funding.
DG-Research decided this level of increase was needed, and was realistic, after consulting European industry. For aerospace, this consultation was primarily through the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE), created following publication of the European Aeronautics: A Vision for 2020 report in January 2001. This stressed the need for a new advisory council, tasked with developing and maintaining a strategic agenda for aeronautical research.
ACARE's members are representatives from EU member state governments, the EC, Eurocontrol, aerospace companies, universities (including members of the European Aeronautics Science Network, which gets universities to operate in parallel with industry and national research establishments) and interest groups. Not surprisingly, the funding increase expected by DG-Research is roughly in line with proposals put forward by ACARE.
At the end of March, ACARE published the second edition of its Strategic Research Agenda (SRA2). This proposes combined European industry and government R&D funding of €165 billion over the next 20 years. This is a 65% increase over the initial SRA1 report, published in October 2002, which proposed only €100 billion.
The one-third of the total that is public funding is expected to come from both the EC and individual governments, and the ACARE's influence is great enough to affect the national programmes, with the SRA documents being used as references for developing the research programmes of Italy and France at least.
Research themes
SRA2 differs from SRA1 in having broader subject areas. There are now five research themes: the ultra-secure air transport system (ATS); the ultra-green ATS; the highly cost-efficient ATS; the highly customer-orientated ATS and the highly time-efficient ATS. Projects funded under FP7 are expected to reflect these themes.
For all the EC's confidence that its research spending will be doubled, this year will see member states renegotiate their contributions to the overall EU budget. This is the first such negotiation since the EU's 1 May 2004 expansion from 15 to 25 nations; all of which will want to maximise the value of their membership.
The largest line item in the EU's budget is the common agricultural policy. Then there is the regional development aid that funnels money to poorer parts of Europe. Research will have to fight its corner between these two heavyweights. Whatever battle the EC and industry find themselves in, they will use the successes of the first six framework programmes to push their case.
Research under the European framework programmes differs substantially from the US approach. Once an FP's budget is approved by member states, the EC calls for research proposals that fit within the programme's themes. These calls are issued annually, and organisations have three months to respond. At this stage, the process is similar to a broad agency announcement issued by NASA or one of the other US government agencies – but with a key difference. In the USA, companies are invited to bid for 100% government-funded projects. But under EU rules the Commission can only provide 50% of funding where the research is pre-competitive – in other words it does not lead directly to a product. Where it is competitive – where a prototype is the outcome, for example – the EC has to reduce its share to just 35%.
Another hurdle for framework projects is that proposals must involve at least two companies, which must be from EU member states or associated countries, which are Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Turkey. For FP7 Romania and Bulgaria will be included. Companies in non-EU countries' can be part of proposals, but their financial contribution will not be matched by the EU.
US companies can bid for projects, and this openness to non-EU involvement is why European industry claims it is harder for them to participate in US research. Earlier this year Airbus raised the subject of transatlantic negotiations on equal research access and intellectual property rights (IPR) in the EC, as it views the current US-EU IPR arrangements as inadequate. Airbus wants bilateral agreements on joint aeronautical research and related IPR.
Expert panels
Meanwhile, once the pan-European bids for framework programmes are received, expert panels assess them, a process that can include hearings involving both bidders and experts. This may change slightly with FP7 as a new European Research Council (ERC) will take on the assessment role instead of the ad hoc panels.
If the experts recommend a project for funding, negotiations begin between the EU and the proposing consortium. Once a contract is signed the project is assessed annually and/or at a halfway point to justify continued funding.
But first there is the proposal assessment process – and that takes several months. It involves background checks on bidders to make sure they have the matching funds they claim they have, and to ensure they are not getting funds for the same research through a different route, for example national programme funding.
Since 2002, approved FP6 projects have covered aerostructures, pilotless aircraft, lower-emission engines and air traffic management. A continuous structural health monitoring system is one such project. It uses ultrasonic signals with active and passive sensors placed throughout an aircraft to detect micro-cracks, composite delamination, weakening of adhesive bonds and thermal and chemical damage in fuselages, wings and helicopter rotors. The information is presented on a cockpit display and could be transmitted to a maintenance centre.
The feasibility of a pilotless passenger aircraft has also been the focus of a 30-month study, the Innovative Future Air System, with researchers examining the technical and practical aspects of operating a passenger aircraft with no pilots.
Lower engine emissions are the focus of the four-year Vital project, led by French propulsion company Snecma (now part of Safran). Vital aims to reduce engine noise and carbon dioxide emissions, building on previous research programmes including the Efficient and Environmental Friendly Aero Engine and Silencer.
Another project – the More Auton-omous Aircraft in the Future ATM System, led by BAE Systems – involves separation assistance using automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast (ADS-B). This did not examine the complete delegation of self-separation to pilots; instead it is investigating the approach of controllers, asking pilots to identify and confirm a target aircraft and then execute a manoeuvre to maintain a specific distance apart.
Final calls
The final round of calls for the current framework begins soon, as this coming financial year is the final 12 months for FP6 and there is €245 million left to spend. However, because of the annual nature of the calls for proposals, FP6 projects will still be running well into FP7. Calls sent out in 2005 for 2006 will include projects that will last two, three or four years, finishing half way into the FP7 period.
The Commission is aiming to improve upon FP6 with FP7. Its measures include simpler funding instruments, smaller documents, less jargon, cutting the amount of pre-project checks and streamlining the selection process. This streamlining will involve the creation of the European Research Council.
These changes are aimed at increasing the participation of small and medium-sized companies (SME) and research teams, groups found to have the most difficulty in joining framework projects. Another idea is to offer a risk-sharing finance facility to SMEs to improve their access to European Investment Bank loans for their participation in large projects.
For major projects the Commission is also seeking to bring yet more private funding in by creating Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI). These will be public/private partnership arrangements that will allow funding instruments such as financial market loans. Discussion on how these will work is ongoing and agreement is expected in October. JTIs will be used in particular for projects that are of major European public interest, for example lower-emission aeroengines.
Whatever research and procedural changes emerge for FP7, the process of research evolution will not end with the likes of the ERC and JTI. European industry is making it clear to member states that it needs continued and intensified government co-operation.
With the USA pushing hard for a ban on launch aid, government support for civil aircraft manufacturers in the form of R&D funding is taking on greater significance. As it fights to reverse cuts in NASA's aeronautics budget, US industry is looking nervously at Europe's plans to increase its R&D funding.
Europe, meanwhile, looks enviously at the scale of R&D funding for the US aerospace industry as a whole, and laments the fact that few of the contracts carry the cost-sharing requirement placed on European research. "The US has had 100% [government research funding] contracts. We think they should not have that", says Dieter Schmitt, Airbus research and future projects vice president.
With the dispute between the USA and Europe over subsidies reaching a critical point, their different approaches to supporting civil aircraft research and development threatens to become the next powderkeg.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE/BRUSSELS
Source: Flight International
