Consortium

University of Belgrade was founded in 1808. Today it comprises 31 faculties, each of them representing an autonomous legal body. University of Belgrade – Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering (UB-FTTE) was set up in 1960 from its forerunner, the Superior School of Transportation (set up in 1950). Since then, the UB- FTTE has turned out more than 7,200 graduate transport and traffic engineers (dipl. ing.), more than 1,200 MSc holders, and over 200 holders of PhD degree. Since 1978 the Faculty has been located in its own 14,000 sqm large building. It has the largest specialized library in the region. In 2007 the library has become the ICAO Depository library, the only one in the Southeast Europe.

The Department of Air Transport at the UB-FTTE was established in 1960, and has since had more than 1,000 graduates (five/four-year programme), as well as 140 of the two-year (ATC) programme. The Department graduates are employed by airline, airport and ATM industry, CAAs, international organizations, consultancies and academia. Many graduates are working abroad, including organisations such as ICAO, EUROCONTROL, FAA, EASA, NATS, Skyguide, NAV CANADA, American Airlines, Ryanair, Airbus, Bombardier, Denver Airport, Doha Airport, University of California, ENAC, Jeppesen, SABRE, etc. A long tradition is also established of final-year students’ internships at aviation system stakeholders Europe-wide. The hosting organisations include airport operators (Belgrade, Munich, Zurich, AENA: Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife Sur, etc.), EUROCONTROL (CFMU/NMOC, DNM, CRDS, EEC Bretigny), airlines (JAT Airways/Air Serbia, Austrian Airlines), etc.

The Division of Airports and Air Traffic Safety (hereinafter: the Division) is a part of the Department of Air Transport at UB-FTTE. It has the history of 60 years of dealing with planning, design, operations and management in air transport and traffic system, both in academic work and as consultants. As of July 2020, the Division has nine members, comprising seven PhD holders and two PhD candidates.

In the field of aviation research and consultancy, the Division’s activities started in mid-1970s. The Division’s research efforts have focused on air traffic flow management, airspace management, airport operations, traffic complexity, risk and safety analysis, and traffic economics. Research activities are performed through national (from Serbian Ministry of science and technological development) and international research grants (from the European Commission, US DoT, SESAR JU, etc.). Concerning the CADENZA project, UB-FTTE’s key relevant expertise includes a thorough comprehension of the European ATM system in general, and specific expertise in air traffic flow and capacity management domain, including network operations and management, as well as airports, with a recent emphasis on economic measures for air traffic demand management, and reputable ATM-related data management capabilities.

The Division has become a centre of academic and professional activities, including conferences, workshops, summer schools, seminars, etc. Most notable recent events include:

• Summer school on ATM and research methods, organised by Engage (SESAR Knowledge Transfer Network), coordinated and hosted by UB-FTTE, 9-13 September 2019;

• 7th SESAR Innovation Days, organised by SESAR JU, hosted by UB-FTTE in 2017;

• Summer School on Air Transport Economics, organised by German Aviation Research Society (G.A.R.S) and UB-FTTE, coordinated and hosted by UB-FTTE in 2013.

• Volcanic Ash Crisis 2010 Seminar, organised by UB-FTTE and supported by EUROCONTROL, hosted by UB-FTTE in 2010;

• Workshop on Fundamentals of Risk Analysis and Safety Assessment of Air Traffic Operations, organised by UB-FTTE and NLR-ATSI, and supported by EUROCONTROL, hosted by UB-FTTE in 2009;

• Summer School on Air Transport Economics and Conference on ATM Economics, organised by UB- FTTE, G.A.R.S. and Berlin School of Economics and Law, and supported by EUROCONTROL, hosted by UB-FTTE in 2009;

• ICRAT 2006, organised by EUROCONTROL, EC, UB-FTTE and NASA, hosted by UB-FTTE in 2006.

WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management is a leading German business school with an exceptional national and international reputation. WHU offers academic programs and continuing education for executives throughout their career. Founded in 1984 on the initiative of the Koblenz Chamber of Commerce and Industry, WHU is a private business school with currently around 1,700 students and 54 faculty members. WHU has two campuses in Germany, namely in Vallendar and Düsseldorf.

The research and teaching excellence at WHU has been recognised throughout Europe and across the globe as WHU is consistently placed in top positions on relevant business school rankings, e.g. the Financial Times European Business School Ranking 2019 sees WHU at #2/#23 in Germany/Europe, and their Global MBA Ranking 2019 lists them as #1/#71 in Germany/globally. The Chair of Professor Strauss is based within the Supply Chain Management Group, which has been ranked 6th globally based on the SCM Journal list in 2019. There is expertise in the group on optimisation, machine learning, logistics and capacity planning, amongst other subjects.

WHU has its own press office, IT support team, HR and research finance teams as well as various other support teams to help with e.g. the preparation of professional film materials (useful for dissemination of our concept). Post-doctoral researchers usually have their own office (sometimes shared with one other person).

Furthermore, the newly established Mercator Endowed Chair of Sustainable Urban Transport includes a permanent budget for a Personal Assistant (0.5 FTE) and a Research Assistant (0.5 FTE) working under line management of Professor Strauss. The Chair holder has substantial autonomy over the use of the Chair’s budget. These resources will be useful in supporting the project over and beyond the financial support by the European Commission.

Worms University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule Worms) has three academic departments: InformationvTechnology, Economics, and Tourism and Travel Management. With widespread connections within the industry, the university offers a robust and up-to-date academic portfolio to over 3,000 students.

The Department of Tourism and Travel Management has built a solid reputation in the industry for more than 40 years. Over 20 full-time professors are working for the department, all of them combining high-level industry experience with applied research activities. They are complemented by several research associates in the department. Three bachelor programs focus on the air transport industry. The “Aviation Management” (B.A.) program concentrates on management issues and is offered as a dual program with currently more than ten industry partners, including airlines like Austrian Airlines and Condor as well as airports like Stuttgart, Frankfurt-Hahn and Leipzig-Halle. The “Aviation Management & Piloting” (B.Sc.) program is a dual bachelor program with a certified partner flight school, providing students with the opportunity to obtain an Air Transport Pilots Licence together with their Bachelor degree. The “Air Traffic Management” (B.Sc.) program is offered as a dual program in cooperation with dfs – Deutsche Flugsicherung and combines Aviation Management Modules with an ATCO training at dfs.

The Competence Center Aviation Management (CCAM) is an institution within the Department of Tourism and Travel Management. It conducts applied research projects and teaching activities in the area of aviation management. Ten professors from the Department of Tourism and Travel Management have joined the Center in order to promote research in the air transport industry. The members of the CCAM have conducted many research projects together with representatives of the industry and have published a large number of papers in leading transport journals as well as comprehensive textbooks on the subject.

EUROCONTROL is a pan-European, civil-military organisation dedicated to supporting European aviation. It is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1963, with currently 41 member states and some 1900 Agency staff members.

EUROCONTROL helps its Member States run safe, efficient and environmentally-friendly air traffic operations throughout the European region to deliver a Single European Sky that will help overcome the safety, capacity and performance challenges facing European aviation in the 21st century. This involves working with air transport stakeholders from the national authorities, air navigation service providers, civil and military airspace users, airports, and other organizations. This covers all gate-to-gate air navigation service operations: Network Management, training, regional control of airspace, safety-proven technologies and procedures, collection of air navigation charges, regulatory support functions and R&D.

EUROCONTROL has a long history in ATM related research. It is a founding member of the SESAR Joint Undertaking and the main contributor to SESAR R&D. Through its recognised capabilities and expertise, EUROCONTROL contributes actively to the research, development and validation of future technical and operational improvements of the European ATM system and network .

The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), or Technical University of Catalonia - BarcelonaTech, was founded in 1971 with the union of several engineering schools. Today it is composed of more than 30,000 students, 42 departments and 1,782 full time faculty members. The UPC is a university with a consolidated worldwide reputation and an international vision that generates technological innovation and attracts talent. It is also the Spanish university with more strategic research projects funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program. All the researchers involved in this project belong to the ICARUS research group and are assigned to the School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering located in Castelldefels Campus (EETAC), which is the school of UPC specialised in technical and scientific courses in Aeronautics and Telecommunication disciplines (BSc, MSc and PhD).The ICARUS group is a multidisciplinary research group at UPC, with 8 faculty, 12 PhD students, several undergraduate students and temporary collaborators from foreign universities and research institutions. The background of the different researchers is diverse,including computer scientists, telecommunications engineers, aeronautical engineers, and business and administration graduates. Some members of the group have double diplomas, such as telecommunication and aeronautical engineering degrees, or computer science and aeronautical engineering. This diversity and complementarity becomes an important asset to carry out the different research and teaching activities. The group initiated its initial activities in 2005 and was formally recognised as an emerging research group by the Catalan government in 2009 (AGAUR grant SGR-1012). The group focuses its research activities in two big areas:

1) the development of new technologies improving ATM automation and the integration of remotely piloted aerial systems (RPAS) into non-segregated airspace; and

2) the improvement of air transportation efficiency, while reducing its environmental impact, focusing on optimisation and analysis strategies for aircraft operations ATM processes and ATM analytics.

To address these objectives, the group uses extensively Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), along with methods and techniques coming from Computer Science, Operational Research, Applied Mathematics and Data Science disciplines. Moreover, it also develops specific high added value applications for both RPAS and air transportation research lines. The group has experience in formulating and solving complex (multi-objective) optimisation problems, highly non-linear and non-convex. One of the most relevant contributions has been an optimisation framework able to compute optimal aircraft operational trajectories, either for climb, cruise or descent/approach. Trajectories can be optimised according to one or several criteria, such as fuel, direct operating costs, noise or gaseous emissions. Direct applications of this framework include the design of optimal noise abatement procedures; the computation of optimal on-board self-separation manoeuvres; advanced demand and capacity balance algorithms in the context of trajectory-based operations, studies related to ATM performance and ATM analytics, etc. More recently, the group has launched pyBADA, a Python-based software designed for the easy integration of Eurocontrol's BADA aircraft performance model in trajectory simulation, prediction and optimisation applications. The ICARUS group also carries out projects in partnership with industry, either offering consultancy services or providing them with technology transfer. The main companies and institutions that have trusted the group’s services are (listed alphabetically): Aeroports de Catalunya, Advanced Logistics Group (ALG), Arinc, Boeing, CRIDA, Eurocontrol, Grup Airmed, Indra, Inypsa, NASA and Pildo Labs.