News & Events

The fifth and last co-creation workshop, held in Madrid and hosted by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), was tailored, and organized to spotlight the theme of "The role of Universities in the innovation ecosystem". The workshop consisted of a set of visits, so that the delegation of the five collaborating regions in the AD-ASTRA project (Emilia-Romagna, Madrid, Apulia, Occitania, and South Holland) could have a direct contact with the local aerospace ecosystem, followed by a co-creation event, where the partners could interact with local actors, discussing on the selected topic for the workshop.

On February 6th the consortium visited:

• The business incubator of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid: it is the result of the initiative and innovative and investigative spirit of the university community. The purpose of the Centre is to promote collaboration with the industrial environment and the partnerships of public and private entities that choose to be strategic partners of UPM in research and innovation.
• OCCAM Space: is a space company focused on the design, development and production of reliable mechanisms and mechanical systems for the Small Satellite Market for flight and ground purposes. During the visit, the consortium was given a demonstration of the OCCAM’s KISS product family (Keep It Simple Separation-system), the modular Clamp-Band for all standard Smallsat interfaces on the Market.
• Centro Espacial de INTA Torrejón - Spanish National Aerospace Center, particularly the ANSER mission: it is responsible for performing scientific research activities and prototypes in its field of knowledge, as well as for providing technological services to companies in the industry, universities and other institutions. INTA specialises dually in technological research and development in Aeronautics, Aerospace, Hydrodynamics, Security and Defence technologies.
• European Space Agency - ESA - ESAC (European Astronomical Center): is one of the sites of the European Space Agency, and it is the ‘home’ of ESA’s space-telescope and planetary missions, the place from where science operations are conducted, and where all of the scientific data produced are archived and made accessible to the world.
• INSTER - Grupo Oesía: a company belonging to the OESIA Group, a Spanish multinational engineering company dedicated to technological innovation. INSTER design, develop and manufacture innovative products and solutions for the Defense, Security and Telecommunications sectors. The core of its technology is communications, both satellite and terrestrial, for mobility applications in the military and railway environment, as well as high-capacity fixed point-to-multipoint wireless access for telecommunications operators.
• IDAERO: the company provides powerful tools for post-processing and custom-made engineering software solutions. For instance, NaxTo, a very fast post-processing environment with which simulation engineers can concentrate on their most valuable tasks, not just on moving data around or repeating time-consuming jobs.

On February 7th, the co-creation workshop took place at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid's ESTIAE, School of Aerospace Engineering. A number of local stakeholders attended and engaged in conversation with the project partners regarding the challenges faced by universities in keeping students enrolled in PhD programs, post-doctoral employment, and university careers.

On January 10^th, Toulouse Métropole organized the fourth AD-ASTRA Co-creation workshop at the B612 building, the aerospace innovation center that belongs to the city of Toulouse. The event brought together the AD-ASTRA team (Distretto Tecnologico Aerospaziale - DTA, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - UPM, Innovation Quarter - IQ and ART-ER) alongside 20 local stakeholders from companies and universities such as Veso Concept, Nobrak, Alpha Recyclage, Pangea Aerospace, and ISAE Supaero. The focal point of discussion was the Circular Economy principles into the aerospace sector.

The workshop ended with inspiring speeches from two Vice Presidents of Toulouse Metropole expressing gratitude to the partners and participants.

On January 11th, the AD-ASTRA delegation, accompanied by representatives from Toulouse Metropole had a series of site visits across the Occitania region:

• AIRBUS COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT: the delegation received a brief presentation on the eco-circular measures implemented by Airbus, followed by an insightful visit to the A350 Final Assembly Line.
• VESO CONCEPT: A visit to the facilities of this bio-sourced composites company, Veso Concept, provided an opportunity to explore their innovative workshop and products, with many applications in the aeronautical sector.
• TARMAC AEROSAVE: A prominent player in plane storage, maintenance, and recycling, Tarmac Aerosave showcased its operations at the Francazal Base near Toulouse, with a presentation of the company's activities across its three locations, emphasizing their commitment to aircraft full recycling, a hard mission born out of the PAMELA Life project.

The tour concluded with a visit to the Francazal former army base, a property of the Toulouse metropole. This site, soon to be the epicenter for the Mobility of the Future, already hosts transportation start-ups focused on autonomous shuttles and green planes. Moreover, plans are underway for the establishment of the Hydrogen Technocampus, generously funded by the Occitanie Region, solidifying Francazal's status as a hub for cutting-edge innovation in transportation.

The workshop was organized on 25th October by Michele Giannuzzi from DTA Distretto Tecnologico Aerospaziale scarlduring the event "Drones Beyond 2023".

On this occasion, the AD-ASTRA team (Céline Bizieau, Jose Miguel Alvarez Romero, Gustavo Alonso, Michele Giannuzzi, Niels Krol, Jan Terlingen, Lorenzo Calabri and Alina Bisag), AD-ASTRA Project Officer, Stefano Guagnano and Dietmar Lander had a very fruitful discussion about Test Bed infrastructures that are present in the five regions.

On the day before (October 24th) the AD-ASTRA delegation has been accompanied by Michele Giannuzzi to a set of site visits in the Apulia region to:

- Planetek Italia, focusing on earth observation services with a view to smart cities and        territorial control.

- Grottaglie Airport Test Bed, for presenting the Leonardo/Telespazio Laboratory and describing the new infrastructural plant to be settled in the year on the front.

-Leonardo Aerostructures Grottaglie plant, with a visit to the One Piece Barrel plant.

-Novotech Aerospace Advanced Technology Srl, for the presentation of AFP technologies and related projects.

It’s already the time of the second co-creation workshop of the Horizon Europe project Aerospace Districts, AD-ASTRA. This has been held at #R2B2023, the fair in Bologna dedicated to innovation and research to business, with the theme, this year, of Skills and Talents.

The workshop has been organized on June 8th by ART-ER S. cons. p. a.(Lorenzo Calabri, Alina Bisag and Leda Bologni) during the event “Aerospace Innovative Ecosystem”, the first day of #R2B2023. During the workshop we had a very fruitful discussion with the partners of AD-ASTRA (Céline Bizieau, Jose Miguel Alvarez Romero, Gustavo Alonso, Michele Giannuzzi, Niels Krol, Jan Terlingen) and about 30 other stakeholders, coming from Emilia-Romagna regional ecosystem.

During the meeting, introduced by Adriano Gilli (Regione Emilia-Romagna), all the 5 regional ecosystems of the AD-ASTRA project have been presented, and a talk on the Space Skills have been also held by Clust-ER Meccatronica e Motoristica, Service Innovation Clust-ER and Tecnopolo di Forlì-Cesena, while an inspiring talk on the next regional steps on the space economy has been held by Vincenzo Colla, the Councillor for Economic Development, Green economy, Employment and Continuing Education at Regione Emilia-Romagna.

On the day before (June 7th) the AD-ASTRA delegation has been accompanied by ART-ER to a set of site visits in the Emilia-Romagna region to CIRI AEROSPACE, ENAV, CURTI S.p.A. Costruzioni Meccaniche, NPC SPACEMIND, and ANDALO' GIANNI srl: Research centers and companies on the forefront of the aerospace sectors, representing some brilliant examples of the regional aerospace ecosystem.

As part of the AD-ASTRA project (http://aerospacedistrcts.eu/) of Horizon Europe, coordinated by ART-ER, the first visit to one of the 5 aerospace ecosystems involved in the project (South Holland) was organized on 22 and 23 May.

In particular, the first co-creation workshop was organized on the 22nd, which was held at NEXT Delft (https://nextdelft.com/) at the TU Delft university campus (https://www.tudelft.nl/). The workshop was organized by Innovation Quarter (https://www.innovationquarter.nl/) during the presentation day of "Aerospace delta Agenda 2030". During the meeting, which involved all AD-ASTRA partners (Madrid, Occitania, Apulia, South Holland and Emilia-Romagna) and representatives of TU Delft, Unmanned Valley (https://unmannedvalley.nl/en/ ), Technology Park Ypenburg (https://www.technologyparkypenburg.nl/) and Province of South Holland (https://www.zuid-holland.nl/), the emerging megatrends that will contribute to the development of the aerospace sector have been analyzed.

On the second day (May 23) the AD-ASTRA delegation was accompanied by Innovation Quarter in a series of site visits to companies and subjects of primary importance in the aerospace field: Technology Park Ypenburg, Airborne (https://www.airborne. com/), GTM Advanced Structures (https://gtm-as.com/), Unmanned Valley and ESA-ESTEC (https://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESTEC).

Next visit will be “Research to Business” on June 8^th-9^th (Bologa, Italy).

There were about 600 participants on the two days (17-18 November 2022) of "Drones Beyond," the event held in Bari at the Fiera del Levante. Several European municipalities, Italian and European space and control agencies and large companies engaged in aerospace activities took part in the event, which addressed the issue of urban air mobility in Italy and Europe.

The mayor of Bari, Antonio Decaro, recalled the great work done in recent years to strengthen the use of innovative technologies in city government. "It was an extraordinary journey that also allowed the city to become attractive for many young people who are no longer forced to emigrate," he said. The deputy mayor Eugenio di Sciascio, delegate for innovation, illustrated the work carried out with the Aerospace Technological District in the "Bari Open Innovation Hub" project developed to test activities through which to control - using aerospace technologies - the territory and offer innovative services to citizens.

The president of the Aerospace Technology District, Giuseppe Acierno, underlined that "Drones Beyond. 2022 highlights how the issues surrounding the future of our cities and the role of new technologies are not only for insiders but are widely shared and of interest to citizens. In addition, the activities and potential of the Grottaglie Airport Testbed and the Bari Drone Range have been illustrated.

In the afternoon, in the Fiera del Levante area, flight demonstrations were carried out for land control, monitoring activities, and transporting goods with drones. The evening was lit up with hundreds of drones in flight at Fiera del Levante.

Over 600 visitors from Italy and abroad populated the various areas for conferences, exhibitions, shows and competitions. It is a message that motivates the DTA to proceed with determination in creating skills, competencies and values for citizens and businesses.

https://www.dtascarl.org/en/drones-beyond-2/