Instead of leading the way with bold bets on revolutionary aircraft, Europe is resting on its laurels, claims Spiros Pantelakis, engineering professor at Greece’s Patras University and chairman of the European Aeronautics Science Network.
There is a Europe-wide erosion in basic research funding in the field. “The problem is well recognised in our community. We’re in a new political environment where politicians are looking to finance something which will immediately turn into jobs,” Pantelakis told Science|Business. “Long-term research is a second priority.”
Most of the aviation research money from Horizon 2020, flows into the 'Clean Sky' initiative, a consortium of companies and research institutes focusing on the development of cleaner, quieter aircraft, made of lighter and greener materials.
Clean Sky is the largest programme of its kind in Europe with a budget of nearly €4 billion. It started in 2008 and will run to 2020.
It is fair to say that Clean Sky’s business-led research is viewed by the scientific community with a mix of gratitude and trepidation.
Research involving private enterprise and universities can often be a difficult marriage. On the business side, the understandable preference is to protect commercially sensitive corporate research, which often necessitates non-disclosure agreements. This can tweak the noses of academics more naturally inclined to open their knowledge to anyone, Pantelakis says.
It is not that the money flowing to universities from Clean Sky is too low – although Pantelakis claims “there was definitely more money for discovery research in Europe before Clean Sky.”
Rather, it is the accompanying instructions on how the cash should be spent that bothers researchers.
“Project calls are so specific – all deliverables and expected impacts are set in advance – meaning you don’t have space for creativity, for innovation. It’s too prescriptive,” Pantelakis said.
“I feel universities have been downgraded to a sort of human resources provider. It’s not the university’s first priority to do industry-run research – but to create new knowledge.”
Pantelakis is meeting with Clean Sky managers in the coming week to discuss some of these issues.
Universities are essentialThe project’s executive director, Eric Dautriat, said that the 110 different universities involved in Clean Sky are “essential” to its success.
“There are often simplistic images about Clean Sky content: while it is clearly industry-led, it doesn’t mean that it is only about so-called ‘downstream’ research,” he said.
One consideration for the project at the moment is to issue calls next year which are “less prescriptive, with more room for bottom-up, fresh innovative ideas,” said Dautriat. “I’m sure that through this, we [would] draw the attention of academia even more.”
While Pantelakis would like to see more money shifted to basic research, he does not dispute that Clean Sky is a successful project. “It’s producing very useful technology,” he said.
But a political climate focused on fast, marketable results means, “The conditions aren’t there for Clean Sky leaders to think of long-term research – the next 15, 20 years. The ‘blue-sky’ people in the consortium are not defining the frame of the research, if you like. We’re not in the majority.”
As a result the chance to lead in the next generation of aviation technology breakthroughs is at stake.
Pantelakis fears the next job-creating discoveries are going to happen in China, which produced its first airplane last year.
Although the plane is not an immediate threat to European or US dominance in aviation, for Pantelakis it symbolises a huge step forward, built on a foundation of massive investment in fundamental science.
“Clothes, shoes and next up we’ll see airplane manufacturing moving to China,” he predicts.
Wider recognition
Pantelakis is not alone in expressing concern about the way research is being practiced in Europe.
This week The League of European Research Universities (LERU), an association of 21 top universities, argued that Horizon 2020 is skewed towards industry-led research, saying the situation needs to be “urgently reviewed”.
“Funding opportunities for discovery research are at risk, squeezed out by policymakers’ focus on fast innovation,” LERU says in a note. “It is obvious that [projects with lower technology readiness levels] are significantly under-represented.”
New defence fund
Despite Pantelakis’ fears, opportunities for basic aviation research may be looking up. A pilot EU defence fund, to be created using money from next year’s research budget, is promised by officials.
Firm details remain scarce. Pantelakis said he, “would not be very enthusiastic if the fund’s research focus would be on applications that limit peoples’ freedoms.”
The concern is that European countries overreact to the terrorist threat. “We need clear rules on how far we go, what has to be protected and what has to be known to the public,” Pantelakis said.
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