Maintaining safety and cost-efficiency of air transport operations while increasing the capacity will push the next generation of ATM systems towards digitalization. In the mid-term, a digitalized system in the human operated ATM environment will be capable of delivering reliable predictive analytics based on automated information processing, providing decision support for human operators. SafeOPS supports these future services by investigating the use of big data analytics together with new risk assessment methodologies. ANSP and airlines are the relevant stakeholders of the aviation business, forming the SafeOPS consortium. Several research institutes complement the consortium. To ensure the high confidentiality levels of the associated datasets, SafeOPS utilizes DataBeacon, a platform that allows fusing and analyzing confidential aviation data. As an exemplary safety-critical scenario, SafeOPS considers go-arounds that are of high safety relevance for both, airlines and ANSPs. Based on successful unstable approach predictions, developed in the Horizon2020 project SafeClouds.eu, SafeOPS will carry out go-around predictions and analyze their impact onto the safety and resilience of ATM in detail. As recognized by the SESAR Single Programming Document, data-driven and machine learning technologies are a cost-efficient asset to reduce current fragmentation and upgrade inefficient old technologies. In turn, they introduce new challenges for ATM stakeholders, from controllers and their training to regulators and certification agencies. SafeOPS addresses some of these challenges by fostering the ATM modernization based on AI tools with an application on safety and resilience through an exemplary case study. It puts a special focus on the interaction among humans (controllers) and within the socio-technical system under the influence of this breakthrough technology. Therefore, it addresses both key performance areas from the Safety and Resilience ATM Master Plan.

The DIALOG project aims to improve collaboration between air traffic controllers (ATCOs) and artificial intelligence (AI) systems in air traffic management. It addresses a very ambitious goal of enabling AI members of human-AI teams to anticipate when and what kind of assistance their human teammates need and to respond on that. DIALOG will develop an AI-based digital assistant called Teamwork Assistant that uses speech recognition and understanding of pilot-controller exchanges to infer ATCOs' intent and goals. It also utilizes machine learning-based methods to assess ATCOs' workload and attention in real-time based on voice, physiology, and behavioral data. The actions of the digital assistant are determined based on the ATCOs' current state, attention allocation, traffic situation, and general context. The project will develop prototypes and conduct validation exercises in close collaboration with end-users to assess the performance and usability of the proposed solutions.

U-Space Initial Services project aims to demonstrate the technical and operational feasibility of providing in a very short time frame U-Space services to UAV/RPAS operators and to authorities focusing on: * UAV/RPAS/Pilot/Operator Registration Service * Flight Wish/Mission Notification & Authorization Service * U-Space NOTAM Service (including dynamic NOTAM for VLL) * UAV/RPAS Trafic Monitoring (including non-conformance vs regulation/authorized mission) The project combines the expertise of key stakeholders of the future U-Space (Civilian Aviation Authorities/Air National Service Provider, UAV/RPAS Operators, Industries and Law enforcement authorities) in order to insure that the services demonstrated fit for purpose to their requirements, constraints and needs. By bringing 4 Nations together, the consortium puts a particular focus on demonstrating services that can be deployed at a EU level. The consortium will consider any type of operations (from visual line of sight to very long range beyond visual line of sight) in all environments (from rural to urban). The demonstration will prove that U-Space services can be deployed in short time frame enabling safe, secure and efficient UAV/RPAS flight while contributing to their societal acceptance.

iTEC SkyNex ATC platform This project aims at evolving the iTEC platform architecture to support the virtual centre concept, by making use of state-of-the-art digital technologies and underlying architectural principles. The platform evolution will eventually provide a consistent contribution to enhance safety, resilience and scalability of the ATM network, allowing a more flexible provision of ATM services. This technical evolution will enable the full implementation of target architecture defined in the European ATM Master Plan (Phase D) through the instantiation of concepts such as platform as a service (PaaS) ATM data service Provision and highest automation level. This project is proposing the implementation of the most architecturally significant changes defined in the iTEC V3 being already agreed by all iTEC partners. In addition, the project will also continue the research of airspace delegation concept using Virtual Centre technologies, focusing on the delegation of the ATM services provision amongst ATSUs in a D-architecture. This work will be used as the main reference for the activities of the DEVICE project related to D architecture, requiring a strong coordination of both projects and alignment of their project plans.

The drone business sector is growing rapidly, but in Europe today is held back by the absence of a harmonized approach for the integration of drones into Very Low Level (VLL) airspace. The CORUS (Concept of Operation for EuRopean UTM Systems) project gathers experts from aviation (manned and drone), research and academia to develop a reference Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for UTM (UAS Traffic Management) in VLL airspace in Europe. Building on the state-of-the-art, CORUS will develop an operational concept enabling safe interaction between all airspace users in VLL considering contingencies and societal issues. Specifically CORUS will: 1. Establish a CONOPS for nominal situations, developing use cases for major scenarios 2. Address drones operations in the vicinity of airfields and controlled airspace and for transfer between controlled and non-controlled airspaces. 3. Describe how losses of safety in non-nominal drone situations can be minimized. 4. Examine non-aviation aspects, identifying key issues for society and offering solutions to ease social acceptance 5. Identify necessary technical developments, quantifying the level of safety and performance required The broad acceptance of the CORUS CONOPS is paramount. To this end CORUS will establish a “UTM community Network” drawing on a wide range of stakeholders, to guide and review the development through a series of workshops. A subset of the “UTM community Network” will form an Advisory Board to review draft documents and answer questions. Through these bodies coordination with other ongoing research and rulemaking initiatives from the European Commission, EUROCAE, EASA, JARUS and NASA’s UTM research project will be ensured, as well as the regular interaction with the Work Area 2 projects of the same Call. Comprehensive communication and dissemination activities will be implemented to ensure the widest possible outreach of the project outcomes throughout the project’s life.