Experimental Centre Revises Strategy
The Experimental Centre faces
many challenges in the year ahead, challenges that are shared with the whole of
the Agency and with the ATM community in general. They stem largely from important strategic initiatives that took
place during 2002. These include the widely adopted Strategic Research Agenda of the Advisory Council
for Aerospace Research in Europe (ACARE), the European
Association of Aerospace Industries’ (AECMA) STAR21 report, the Boeing
initiative, the formation of the ATM Alliance (initially comprising
Airbus, EADS and Thales Aerospace), the progress of the European Commission’s Single European Sky proposals and the accession of the European Community to EUROCONTROL.
To take account of these
initiatives, and to develop a longer-term strategy in line with them, a
stepwise approach has been initiated.
· EEC re-orientation document:
This phase started in July 2002, with the creation of an internal Task Force to develop a first draft of an EEC Strategy document. The mandate of this Task Force was to base its proposals on the ACARE Strategic Research Agenda, and to think free of any constraints in terms of organisation or existing Work Programme. As requested, the Task Force delivered a first draft of the document at the end of September. Consultation within the Agency was thus initiated and is continuing.
Based on the comments received during this internal consultation and in accordance with guidelines given by the Director General, a second version of the document was produced. This consultation will culminate at the time of the first 2003 Experimental Centre Consultation Group (ECCG), which is planned to take place on 1st April 2003.
The final version will be issued in June 2003, incorporating the results of the consultation process.
· European R&D Master Plan Development:
The different initiatives referred to in the introduction are pushing for the development of a European R&D Master Plan that will steer all R&D activities in Europe. This has already started with the definition by industry within ACARE of the Strategic Research Agenda. This agenda is at a very high level but is fully consistent with the ATM 2000+ strategy. It is now necessary to refine it into an R&D Master Plan to be defined jointly by industry, Eurocontrol and the European Commission.
· Core Business reorganisation:
To implement this strategic reorientation, the EEC Core Business has to be reorganised accordingly. It has been decided to keep the current principle of the matrix organisation, which is now implemented and accepted by staff. The reorganisation has therefore focussed on the redefinition of the Business Areas, the objective being to re-orient the EEC Work Programme in accordance with the new strategy.
· Business plan development:
Once the new organisation is in place, the next version (5.0) of the Business Plan will be developed in order to implement the revised strategy of the EEC. A first draft for internal consultation (involving the staff committee) will be delivered in June 2003. A new version will then be issued and presented at the second 2003 ECCG (October 2003), and subsequently submitted for approval by the Eurocontrol Director General at the November 2003 EEC Management Board.
The following chart summarises the main milestones of this fourfold approach:
The second version of the EEC re-orientation document has now been released and is articulated along three main axes:
1. An alignment of the EEC Work Programme along five themes directly derived from the ACARE Strategic Research Agenda and coherent with ATM 2000+:
· Sector Safety and Productivity
· Network Capacity and Demand management
· Airport Throughput
· Society, Expectations and Economics.
· Strengthening of the Innovative research programme.
2. Confirmation and consolidation of key elements of methodology will have to be incorporated in all R&D programmes to guarantee the validity of R&D results:
· Safety, where a particular emphasis will be maintained on the systematic inclusion of Safety assessment methods at the very beginning of all new concept validation projects.
This confirms the EEC’s commitment to make Safety the first objective of all R&D projects. Many of the studies already identified in the Safety R&D plan in 2002, will be addressed in the various R&D themes.
· Validation methodology, where the current effort to define a scientific and rigorous methodology, in line with the European Commission 6th Framework Programme requirements, will be reinforced.
3. A review of the current enablers such as the simulation facilities, to support the new orientation of the Work Programme.
Links
Matrix Organisation at the EEC