February 6th, 2024

On behalf of the EASN Association and the University of Salerno we would like to cordially thank all the participants of the 13th EASN International Conference on Innovation in Aviation & Space for Opening New Horizons.

Special thanks are due to the prestigious Keynote Speakers, Session Chairs, Authors and Presenters, the International Scientific Committee, and the Organizing Committee for making this event one more successful gathering of the European Aviation & Space Community!!!

The event included 8 Keynote Speeches, more than 380 technical presentations and feedback slots distributed in 65 sessions and workshops.

Moreover, 65 Aviation & Space Projects disseminated their latest research results as well as the future trends in the respective technological fields. In total, 410 participants from 39 countries attended the 13th EASN International Conference

Like its predecessors, the conference has proved to be a major European Dissemination event for research in Aviation & Space, providing a forum for EU funded project s activities, where innovative ideas, breakthrough concepts, and disruptive technologies are presented and discussed with the aim to establish new research partnerships and possible synergies. In addition, a number of European policy development projects also found the floor to present future strategic priorities.

The Keynote Speeches given by distinguished personalities of the European Aviation& Space sector have been among the highlights of the event. The conference delegates were updated on the future Industrial trends and the European priorities with respect to the medium and long-term goals. More specifically:

• Mr. Andreas Boschen, Executive Director of SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking, presented the topic "Delivering the Digital European Sky".
• Dr. Stefania Cantoni, Head of Large Ground Testing Facilities, Demonstrators and Prototyping at CIRA (Italian Aerospace Research Centre), gave the speech entitled: "Space Structures: the role of new materials and innovative structures".
• Mr. Daniel Nölke, DG DEFIS | Strategy for EU Space Research and Innovation, made a presentation about "EU Space Research and Innovation 2.0 - Preparing (for) the Future Space Ecosystem".
• Prof. Sabine Klinkner, Chair of Satellite Technology, Institute of Space Systems at the University of Stuttgart, gave a keynote speech on "Enabling technologies for lunar exploration".
• Mr. Axel Krein, Executive Director of the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking, shared his viewpoint about "Clean Aviation: the ticket to zero-emission flight".
• Mr. Pascal Piot, Head of EU & International Cooperation for R&T programs department at Dassault Aviation, gave a fruitful presentation entitled "Towards decarbonisation of bizjets and digital certification of disruptive technologies".
• Dr. Marco Protti, Vice President of Advanced Research at LEONARDO, presented on "Sustainability and Digitalisation: the paradigms for a new era of aeronautics".
• Mr. John Santurbano, Director of Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC), spoke about "Bridging research and operations in ATM: The MUAC success stories".

Furthermore, significant conference highlights were:

The 5 workshops organized with the support of CINEA - European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency with the participation of 25 running aviation-related projects on:

• Local Air Quality
• UAS Safety
• Hydrogen in Aviation
• Sustainable UAM concepts
• Digitalization of Manufacturing, Sustainable Manufacturing and MRO

The stimulating discussions and productive exchanges between the projects and the audience proved once again of the bottom-up approach of the collaborative research, the strong interaction between projects through clusters and the need of such projects to feed higher TRL projects closer to the market.

The 6 Clean Sky 2 and Clean Aviation showcases presenting the achievements made so far and the ambitious concepts and roadmaps in achieving the mid- and long-term targets set in the programme. In particular, the dedicated sessions included:

• Propelling the future with efficiency and sustainability: The promise of Distributed Electrical Propulsion for a New Era of Aviation (CS2)
• The GENESIS project (CS2)
• The T-WING project (CS2)
• Certification Aspects in Aviation (Clean Aviation)
• Ultra-Efficient Short and Medium Range (SMR) aircraft (Clean Aviation)
• The HERWINGT project (Clean Aviation)

On the fourth day of the event, conference attendees had the chance to visit the Aerospace Research Center (CIRA) and gain valuable insights into the Italian research ecosystem.

The Proceedings of the 13th EASN International Conference will be published by IOP Publishing Ltd in the respective open-access volume by the Journal of Physics: Conference Series. Proceedings are an important part of the scientific record, documenting and preserving work presented at the EASN Conferences throughout the years.

Further to the proceedings, selected full papers will be published in three international journals, following peer review: Aerospace - Open Access Journal, Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology (AEAT) and Journal of Composite Science - MDPI.