Vrom 7 to 9 May 2025, leading minds in European aviation research and innovation came together in Warsaw for Aerodays 2025 - the central European forum for the strategic development of aviation. Hamburg Aviation was also actively represented and provided important impetus in the dialogue on the future of the industry.
Thursday, 8 May - Focus on European research cooperation
One focus of the second day of the event was the AREANA stakeholder workshop, in which representatives from politics and research discussed how national research and innovation programmes in aviation can be better coordinated. The focus was on the recently adopted AREANA Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) - a clear commitment to stronger European cooperation.
Hamburg Aviation strongly supports this endeavour and congratulates the countries that have already signed. From the cluster's point of view, Germany should also join in the near future in order to further strengthen networking within Europe.
Our colleague Maybrit Brooksnieder from the International Affairs team was on site and contributed her perspective from the ECARE project, which has already developed successful approaches to dovetailing regional and European funding programmes:
"The Aerodays were a great opportunity to share our experiences from the ECARE project with the AREANA partners. We remain involved and represent the perspective of the regions, which also plays an important role in European cooperation."
Friday, 9 May - Securing skilled labour & innovation
At the end of the Aerodays - on Europe Day - Niklas Schilling, Coordinator of the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership (EACP) at Hamburg Aviation, discussed ‘How to build a solid aviation research and innovation ecosystem?’ with representatives from Rolls-Royce, EASN, ISAE-SUPAERO and the PEGASUS university network on the high-calibre panel.
At the centre of the debate: How can innovative strength and skilled workers be secured for European aviation in the long term?
Discussions included strategies to get young people interested in aviation at an early stage and the need for better data on the mobility of skilled labour within Europe. Networks such as the EACP can play an important role here as mediators and bridge builders.
Hamburg Aviation was able to contribute practical impulses from the cluster work in Hamburg - and illustrate how the regional perspective contributes to the overall European strategy.
Niklas Schilling emphasised:
‘To secure Europe's innovation leadership in sustainable aviation, we need strong regions, courage and clever minds - we can only succeed if we manage to overcome national egoisms and rethink our industry in a pan-European way!’
Background to the AREANA project
AREANA aims to better coordinate, create synergies and strategically bundle national aeronautics research programmes in Europe. The project also includes the organisation of Aerodays 2025 as part of the Polish EU Council Presidency and support for the AZEA initiative with a focus on hydrogen technologies. AREANA brings together 15 partners from 14 countries and runs from January 2024 to December 2025.