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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RINGO (Research Infrastructures - Needs, Gaps and Overlaps)

Teaser

Summary

The Flightpath 2050 (FP2050) strategy document has provided Europe with a vision for aviation and air transportation, identifying goals for the research community and policy makers alike. In order to achieve these challenging long-term goals, it is imperative to ensure that the required infrastructure for research activities addressing these challenges is available both to the necessary extent and in the required timeframe.
The aims of RINGO are to deliver a cohesive and coordinated approach for the identification and assessment of the needs, gaps and overlaps for strategic aviation research infrastructures in Europe; and to analyze potential sustainable business models and funding schemes for maintenance and improvement of existing and development of new research infrastructures.
This cohesive and coordinated approach for the identification and assessment of aviation research infrastructures in Europe, needed for meeting FP2050 goals, will be delivered through:
1. Establishing an overview of the existing situation of currently available research infrastructures in all European countries and owned by any entity in- or outside of the RINGO consortium.
2. Identifying and assessing the needs, gaps and overlaps related to all strategic goals defined in Flightpath 2050 for strategic aviation research infrastructures in Europe.
3. Analyzing potential sustainable business models and funding schemes for the maintenance and improvement of existing or development of new aviation research infrastructures.
In order to achieve these objectives, RINGO will both join forces with project partners â€“ contributing high levels of expertise and broad experience in this area â€“ and involve further experts from relevant key stakeholders in the European aviation community. Such experts and key stakeholders will be specifically identified and invited to attend structured sessions â€“ i.e. workshops, interviews and surveys â€“, organized to assess and investigate all relevant FP2050 topics within the RINGO study.
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Work performed

During the first reporting period the project has progressed as planned. A methodology to collect and assess expert knowledge regarding RI needs, to combine available data on existing RI into a single catalogue (RI Landscape), and to identify Gaps and overlaps by matching the Needs with the available RIs has been developed. In a first phase a simplified approach based on expert interviews rather than workshops focusing on specific topics has been applied to collect the data required for a Preliminary Report, which the project was tasked to deliver 9 months after project start. Following that period the methodology has been refined and the first series of expert workshops has been performed.
The RI landscape has been built up mainly from two existing sources, the catalogue developed by the AirTN project, covering mainly large facilities from research institutions and industry, and the catalogue from the EASN network, covering facilities from European universities. In the first phase the focus was on large RIs (replacement value greater 10Mâ‚¬) to support the Preliminary Report, following that smaller RIs have also been included. Currently the catalogue contains 247 facilities.
The Needs identified by the interviews in the first phase and the corresponding initial large RI catalogue have been matched to identify an initial set of gaps reported to the commission in the Preliminary Report.
The project also carried out an analysis of existing funding and operational models for large RIs and identified some shortcomings and problems that will be addressed in the next reporting period.
Looking at the main objectives of the project the following was achieved in the reporting period:
1. Establishing an overview of the existing situation of currently available research infrastructures in all European countries and owned by any entity in- or outside of the RINGO consortium:
A first version of the RI landscape has been produced by RINGO and used as a basis in the production of the Preliminary Report. This first version focused large RI facilities.
A number of facilities from the EASN catalogues have been integrated and some new facilities have been added.

2. Identifying and assessing the needs, gaps and overlaps related to all strategic goals defined in Flightpath 2050 for strategic aviation research infrastructures in Europe:
An initial assessment of Needs and Gaps has been performed based on expert interviews and reported in the Preliminary Report. 41 Gaps have been identified in this report.
A first series of workshops (4 out of 18) has been performed in the second project phase.

3. Analysing potential sustainable business models and funding schemes for the maintenance and improvement of existing or development of new aviation research infrastructures:
An initial assessment of available business models has been performed and also reported in the Preliminary Report.
A survey has been designed to collect experience from RI operators/owners.

Final results

The project has developed a methodology to collect and assess information about RI Needs from experts, to gather data about the existing RIs, and to match this information to identify RI Gaps and Overlaps. It also developed a methodology to identify shortcomings in operational and funding models of large RIs in Europe and to identify concepts how these can be overcome. The methodology development started out by looking at methodologies used in other projects (like the very successful OPTICS project). It combines top-down and bottom-up elements, starting from an analysis of the FlightPath 2050 goals (high level), looking at the SRIA , but also asking open questions to experts in the field. This methodology has helped the project to achieve the goal of submitting a Preliminary Report in time and to go into more detail for the second phase of the project.
The output of the project will be highly useful to the entire aviation community to help in strategic planning of RI development. The Preliminary Report delivered in Dec 2017 is already in use by policy makers to help shape the Horizon Europe research programme.