The EC Flight Path 2050 vision aims to achieve the highest levels of safety to ensure that passengers and freight as well as the air transport system and its infrastructure are protected. However, trends in safety performance over the last decade indicate that the ACARE Vision 2020 safety goal of an 80% reduction of the accident rate is not being achieved. A stronger focus on safety is required. There is a need to start a Joint Research Programme (JRP) on Aviation Safety, aiming for Coordinated Safety Research as well as Safety Research Coordination. The proposed JRP Safety, established under coordination of EREA, is built on European safety priorities, around four main themes with each theme consisting of a small set of projects. Theme 1 (New solutions for today’s accidents) aims for breakthrough research with the purpose of enabling a direct, specific, significant risk reduction in the medium term. Theme 2 (Strengthening the capability to manage risk) conducts research on processes and technologies to enable the aviation system actors to achieve near-total control over the safety risk in the air transport system. Theme 3 (Building ultra-resilient systems and operators) conducts research on the improvement of Systems and the Human Operator with the specific aim to improve safety performance under unanticipated circumstances. Theme 4 (Building ultra-resilient vehicles), aims at reducing the effect of external hazards on the aerial vehicle integrity, as well as improving the safety of the cabin environment. To really connect and drive complementary Safety R&D (by EREA) to safety priorities as put forward in the EASA European Aviation Safety plan (EASp) and the EC ACARE Strategic Research and Innovation (RIA)Agenda, Safety Research Coordination activities are proposed. Focus on key priorities that impact the safety level most will significantly increase the leverage effect of the complementary safety Research and Innovation actions planned and performed by EREA.

Current launchers (ARIANE6 and VEGA C) will guarantee Europe’s independent access to space for the high-end satellite market. These launchers however are significantly less attractive for classes of smaller satellites. The SMILE initiative therefore addresses reliable, affordable, quick and frequent access to space for the emerging market of small satellites up to 50 kg, fulfilling the needs from the European space RTD community and commercial initiatives to put satellites into preferred orbits within a preferred time window. Herewith a market niche is addressed, which is projected to grow significantly in the coming decades and presently lacks availability of a European launcher. The project focuses on research and innovation to obtain European solutions enabling the development and realization of such a launcher system. Main objectives are to: • develop a concept for an innovative, cost-effective European launcher system for small satellites (target price below 50.000 Euro/kg) • design a Europe-based ground facility for these launcher systems • increase the Technology Readiness Level of several critical technologies required for such a launcher including the development and demonstration of component prototypes • create a roadmap defining the development plan for the launcher system from a technical operational and economical perspective These objectives are achieved through combined research into a novel and innovative launcher system following a multidisciplinary concurrent engineering design and optimization approach. The overall design and development process encompasses technology and process advances aiming at cost reduction, such as series production, re-usability, and the applicability of European industrial grade components. The consortium is composed of organizations in relevant fields from eight European countries, from well-established and experienced SMEs to young and innovative start-ups.