Prof. Spiros Pantelakis, President of EASN, European Aeronautics Science Network.
"In Europe, we have the research tools to support both the development and the maturation of innovation.
The EASN was officially constituted in 2008, although the launch meeting was held in 2002. How did the need to create such an institution arise and for what purpose?
The EASN was founded with the purpose of creating a tool to help European universities better perform their indispensable role within the European aeronautics community. Their role is not only indispensable because universities provide education for high-level scientists and, in particular, for engineers recruited from industry and research centres, but also because they carry out world-class applied and fundamental research. The main objective of setting up the EASN is to promote university research in aeronautics in Europe through networking and regional and thematic structuring. A second essential objective is to address the fragmentation of the academic world. The voice and opinions of academia must be heard by politicians and decision-makers. However, it is understandable that decision-makers may be confused if each professor tells them his or her own personal and individual opinion. And these may be very valuable opinions, but it is not an efficient process. A final, and also important, objective is the dissemination of knowledge generated with European taxpayers' money - i.e. in European research projects - to the right recipients and in the right way. Knowledge cannot be disseminated to industry, SMEs and universities in a single format, so there is a need for specific policies and different tools for communication with the different actors in the aeronautics sector and with the public. The EASN offers this service.
In a nutshell, I would say that the EASN association is the association of the European academic world that actively supports aeronautics research - threatened by fragmentation - and is dedicated to disseminating the knowledge generated.
In a few months the EASN will celebrate fifteen years of work in the field of aeronautics. How have the global challenges changed and what are the main objectives for the coming years?
The EASN was set up and developed in the context of the Sixth and Seventh Framework Programmes, i.e. within two programmes designed and implemented during the era of financial euphoria in Europe. That kind of policy context supports the kind of research that ensures European growth in the long term. Today, by contrast, we are immersed in the era of a financial crisis. In this context, maintaining employment is of fundamental importance. It is therefore not surprising that aeronautics research focuses on integrating technologies and demonstrating them on the ground or even on products in flight. However, we would be making a terrible mistake if we forgot to think about the future. Therefore, the main objective in the coming years will be to strike a balance between research dedicated to developing innovation and technological breakthroughs on the one hand and more applied research for the integration and demonstration of technologies on the other. I am optimistic, and I am convinced that the European aeronautics community is sufficiently mature and has the mechanisms in place to achieve this balance. And the EASN is ready to work on it.
How many members are in the network, what kind of members are involved, what is the working methodology?
The European Aeronautical Science Network currently has about 400 individual members across Europe. The individual members of the EASN are mostly from European universities active in aeronautics research. In addition, we have around 50 associate members. Associate members are entities, such as universities, university departments or laboratories. Associate members are represented in the General Assembly of the Association with one vote. The EASN is structured geographically and thematically. The geographical structuring is developed on two levels, national and regional. This means that we can create the network of EASN members within a country and, on a second scale, within a wider European geographical region. Europe is divided into 5 geographical regions. Thematic structuring is done by creating dynamic networks of members with identical or similar scientific and technological interests, wherever they are located within Europe. I would like to take this opportunity to underline that the EASN is an open network and we would like to invite our Portuguese colleagues to join us. The more of us there are, the stronger the voice of the academic world will be in Brussels and elsewhere.
The EASN supports aeronautics research projects currently under development on how to improve the sector. Is it easy to implement the latest developments in the aerospace sector and put them into practice?
As you know, in aeronautics the cycle from the development of a new technology or a new idea to its implementation is relatively long and goes through several levels of technological maturity. Universities tend to be more active in research at the lower levels of technological maturity, although in recent years a new trend is emerging and we see that they are also working at higher levels of technology maturity. However, the fact that research is collaborative (i.e. we do not work alone, but in most cases in close collaboration with research centres and industry) ensures that promising innovations are developed and implemented as soon as they reach an appropriate level of maturity. I would like to stress that in Europe we have the necessary research tools to support both the development and the maturation of innovation.
Last month saw the EASN Congress 2016, where distinguished researchers from industry and academia discussed technologies, products, services and processes for the research of the future. What were the main conclusions of this annual meeting?
Indeed, the Congress was a great success. We had more than 220 participants and around 200 high quality presentations. We presented the latest results of more than 20 European aeronautics research projects currently under development and numerous innovative ideas that may become the basis for future collaborative projects. I am proud to say that the papers presented at the EASN Congress underline the high quality of aeronautics research in Europe and the indispensable role of universities in this respect. We are also very pleased with the new tool that Clean Sky announced during our Congress: the thematic calls. These will be calls for projects that will invite research in broad thematic areas and will require the generation of new knowledge and technologies through the production of PhD theses. The first calls are expected in 2017. Some of the most important conclusions of the EASN Congress were the following: the need for close collaboration between academia and industry; the need to find the right balance between fundamental research in universities and research dedicated to the integration of emerging technologies; and finally, but also very importantly, the need for networking in academia.
