Society Collaborations

With members comprised of leading Research Institutes, Universities and SME’s from across Europe, ECATS International Association is firmly established as a centre of excellence within the aviation research community. Our purpose is to act as the link and professional liaison between the aviation sector and the expert members within the association.

The objective of ECATS as laid down in its Statutes is to promote and support its Members’ joint activities and interests in the field of aviation & environmental impact. Its high-level aim is to help making aviation sustainable, by:

• Advancing and developing new scientific expertise;
• Linking and integrating expertise in diverse thematic areas to exploit the multi-disciplinary platforms available in ECATS and foster innovation through new opportunities;
• Driving the technical, strategic and political debate by identifying knowledge gaps to initiate the evolution of novel concepts and new research;
• Promoting knowledge exchange as well as educational and professional development through specialist thematic workshops and training events mapped to the needs of the sector;
• Promoting communication through media mapped to the needs of the target audiences;
• Enhancing the effectiveness of research and innovation through improved resource efficiency, greater visibility, and enhanced professional leverage through a unified voice.

ECATS is a not-for-profit International Association. It started in 2005 as a Network of Excellence on Aviation and Environment of more than 100 researchers within the European Framework Research Programme. After 5 years of joint research and exploring closer collaboration, the Network of Excellence was conferred into ECATS International Association, officially registered in 2010 by Royal Decree of Belgium.

EASN is an open Association, structuring and representing the European Academia in Aviation research related issues. On 06.05.2008, the EASN Association was established by 22 founding members, with the support of the European Commission and several University professors throughout Europe. However, the establishment of EASN goes back to 2002 and is based on two subsequent support actions funded by the Commission.

The long-term goal of the Association is to build up an open, unique European platform in order to structure, support and upgrade the research activities of the European Universities active in Aviation Research as well as to facilitate them to respond to their key role in realizing the European Research Area.

The role of EASN in the European Research Community is:

• To promote, encourage, coordinate and focus joint efforts between Universities, Research Organizations, Industry and SMEs which are active in Europe in the field of aeronautics.

• To support innovative research in general and support European Universities at department and institute level, as well as University research staff to perform aeronautics related research in particular.

• To support the scientific and technological cooperation and human mobility within the area of its cognitive subject and the organization of and the participation to relative activities.

• To consolidate and express a unique European Academia voice on policy related issues and on issues related to the future of Aeronautics research.

• To disseminate knowledge and technological innovation and execute dissemination work through its participation either on its own or within the framework of consortia in national or international projects and research programs related to aerospace.

• To act as a communication platform between the European Aeronautics Academia and the professional Associations of other stakeholders, governmental and state authorities, such as ASD, EREA, SME’s as well as the European Commission, etc.