Strategies for Research and Innovation in European Aviation

The aviation industry is undergoing profound global transformations, shaped by the twin imperatives of decarbonisation and digitalisation, alongside the requirement to uphold the highest safety standards. To ensure the EU maintains a competitive position, in June 2025 a European Aviation Research & Innovation Strategy (ARIS) was published to shape a coherent and future-oriented approach to aviation’s R&I. This study complements and deepens ARIS in two ways: it provides a mapping of emerging technologies with a disruptive potential for aviation; and it presents a comparative analysis of targets and goals across several countries’ R&I aviation strategies, their technological priorities, and public and private R&I investment. The study combines insights from big data, desk research and consultation activities to generate three outputs: (i) three non-competitive, complementary policy scenarios (climate neutrality, industrial leadership, modernisation and security) that align with the EU policy agenda, each with its own strategic focus and portfolio of enabling technologies necessary to achieve the policy objectives; (ii) general and scenario-specific strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats/challenges for European aviation vis-à-vis global competitors; and (iii) scenario-specific technology roadmaps that build on and expand ARIS by detailing additional barriers and
enablers to R&I developments, given the EU’s comparative standing in aviation.