The project will develop enhanced, lightweight, cost effective multi-layer/multi-material structures to resist shock-pressure impulse and impacts from land mine and free air explosive events. Increased occupant survivability is considered against blast and ballistic threats, including behind armour spall effects. The solution, based on a back-bone of fibre composite materials for light structural weight, will be augmented with tailored interlayers of shock dissipation, energy absorption and high failure strain materials. Dedicated models will be developed for optimised design and material selection, based on detailed material and failure characterisations. The project builds on partners’ blast/ballistic knowledge and modelling capability. The main innovations derive from novel multiple layered material solutions optimised by leading edge modelling tools.

Effective EU support to a large external crisis requires new approaches. In response to this challenge and to identified user and market needs from previous projects, Reaching Out proposes an innovative multi-disciplinary approach that will optimize the efforts, address a wide spectrum of users and maximize market innovation success. This approach results in five main objectives: to 1. Develop a Collaborative Framework, with distributed platforms of functional services, 2. Implement a flexible and open “collaborative innovation” process involving users and SMEs, suppliers, operators and research organisations, 3. Develop, upgrade and integrate 78 new connectable and interoperable tools, 4. Conduct 5 large scale demonstrations on the field: o health disaster in Africa (Epidemics in Guinea, with strong social and cultural issues), o natural disaster in a politically complex region and a desert environment (Earthquake in the Jordan Valley, led jointly by Jordan, Israel and Palestine), o three global change disasters in Asia targeted at large evacuation and humanitarian support in Bangladesh (long lasting floods, huge storms and associated epidemics,), EU citizen support and repatriation in Shanghai (floods & storm surge), radiological and industrial disasters impacting EU assets in Taiwan (flash floods, landslides, storm surge and chemical and radiological disasters), supported and co-funded by local authorities, 5. Provide recommendations and evaluations for future legal and policy innovations. The project will be conducted under the supervision of senior end-users. It will be performed with flexible and proven procedures by a balanced consortium of users, industry, innovative SMEs, RTO and academia in the EU and the demonstration regions. The main expected impact is to improve external disaster and crisis management efficiency and cost-benefit and increase the EU visibility whilst enhancing EU industry competitiveness and enlarging the market.

OPTICS2 aims at providing a comprehensive evaluation of relevant Safety and Security R&I in aviation and air transport. The main objective of the project is assessing if Europe is performing the right safety and security research and if the research is delivering the expected benefits to society. OPTICS2 will be the continuation of the work started in OPTICS. The successful methodology for assessing EU Research developed in OPTICS will be further refined in OPTICS2 – based on the lessons learnt over the past four years – and extended to the security research. The purpose is to offer to ACARE and to other key aviation stakeholders a wider perspective on the recent and on-going research in Europe and to show where are the main gaps and bottlenecks towards the achievement of FlightPath 2050 Safety and Security goals. The overall OPTICS2 concept is to work like a magnifying lens, seeing all the way from the Safety and Security Goals of FlightPath 2050 through the clusters of R&I activities necessary to realise these goals, down to the research projects. The bottom-up approach, based on the identification, selection and assessment of R&I projects, focuses on how these projects and programmes cover the ACARE Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) Capabilities – and hence the Enablers, clusters and FlightPath 2050 goals. This approach allows the identification of research strengths and gaps, as well as bottlenecks or constraints affecting research progress. But there is always the chance that the SRIA is missing a relevant research avenue. The bottom-up assessment is therefore complemented by workshops with aviation experts and stakeholders intended to identify the research priorities and the impact on stakeholders’ activities. The results from bottom-up and top-down processes are reviewed and compiled to provide strategic recommendations to the EC and/or ACARE via an annual ‘State-of-the-Art’ report, including suggested corrective actions and priorities.

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