Clean Aviation Third Call for Proposals
The Call 3 for Proposals is centred around the following areas:
- Aircraft Concept Integration & Impact Assessment (ACI&I): €15 million
- Ultra-efficient Short-Medium Range (SMR) aircraft architectures: €205 million
- Ultra-efficient Regional (REG) aircraft architectures: €145 million
The upcoming Call 3 will support technologies aligning the aircraft concepts described in the Strategic Research Initiative Agenda (SRIA). Major projects corresponding to Hydrogen Powered Aircraft should be planned in the fourth Call.
Boosting the EU's global competitiveness through Research & Innovation is a top priority. This Third Call for Proposals is an excellent opportunity to harness public EU funding alongside industry investment, driving forward the technologies that will shape the future of sustainable aviation.
A key highlight of this call is the introduction of 'Fast Track Activities'—a simplified funding mechanism designed to empower start-ups, SMEs, academia, and research centres, in accelerating their innovations.
With this third call for proposals, we are accelerating the maturation of transformative technologies that will redefine aviation as we know it. By advancing innovations to fully functional prototypes (TRL 6), we ensure that they move beyond the lab and into the real world. Achieving net-zero aviation requires bold collaboration, breakthrough ideas and sustained investment, and this initiative is a critical step in turning that ambition into reality. To meet this challenge, cutting-edge solutions and expertise from across the aeronautical sector will be essential. Raising awareness of the diverse capabilities and solutions within the ecosystem, as we are doing today, is key to being better prepared to achieve these objectives.
Axel Krein, Executive Director of Clean Aviation, reinforced the organisation's commitment to transformative change:
This third Call for Proposals is another crucial step in our mission to redefine the future of aviation. We are calling for disruptive innovations that will shape the next generation of ultra-efficient aircrafts in the short & medium and regional aircraft segments and will bring us closer to the very challenging journey towards a climate-neutral aviation sector by 2050.
New Initiative
A major new feature in this call is the Fast Track Activities (FTAs) initiative designed to:
- Simplify the application process and aim at a faster time-to-grant with respect to standard Call 3 topics
- Support innovation and broaden contributions to the Clean Aviation Programme,
- Encourage proposals and projects coordinated by start-ups, SMEs, Universities and Research Organisations
- De-risk alternative or complementary technical solutions while enabling industrial end-user support to foster exploitation
Clean Aviation will be defining its 4th Call for proposal in close cooperation with its public and private members in the course of 2025.
More information about the call on the clean aviation website.