Project acronym: EUFAR
Project full title: EUropean Fleet for Airborne Research
Contract no.: RII3-CT-2003-506514
Integrating Activity
1.
Project summary
EUFAR is an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative that brings together 22 leading European institutions and
companies involved in airborne research, operating 23 instrumented aircraft.
EUFAR, being a user-driven project, aims at:
 co-ordinating the network for exchanging knowledge, sharing developments, and building the unified
structure that is required for improving access to the infrastructures;
 providing users with Transnational Access (TA) to the infrastructures;
 extending TA to national funding sources;
 promoting airborne research in the academic community;
 developing research activities in airborne instrumentation.
Networking activities:
 The ESF Scientific Advisory Committee (N1ESF-SAC), constituted of independent eminent scientists,
supervises the activities of the EUFAR I3.
 The Transnational Access Coordination (N2TAC) provides a unified management structure for all EUFAR
TA activities.
 Future of the Fleet (N3FF): aims at providing technical solutions for extending TA beyond EU support, and
elaborating on possible enhancements of the fleet.
 Expert Working Groups (N4EWG) are supported for exchanging knowledge and promoting best practice
and investments in airborne instrumentation.
 Education & Training (N5ET): aims at promoting airborne research in the academic community.
 E-Communication (N6EC): elaborates efficient solutions for the dissemination of the information and the
evaluations of TA applications.
Transnational Access Activities:
Access is offered to 23 instrumented aircraft, including scientific and engineering support for integration of
instruments, planning of field campaigns, and data analysis.
Joint Research Activities:
The objective of the EUFAR JRA1 "Airborne Aerosol Reference Pod" is to design and construct an Aerosol
Reference Pod that can be flown on several aircraft and will serve as a true basis for intercalibration of airborne
aerosol instrumentation.
2.
Project website address: http://www.eufar.net
3.
Start date: 1 October 2004
Duration: 48 months
4.
Access Modalities:
Within EUFAR, access is offered to 23 instrumented aircraft ranging from an ultra-light aircraft carrying few
kilograms at a low speed (ENDURO), to a 4 turbo-jets aircraft carrying several tonnes of instrumentation payload
(BAe-146). Applicants can find in the EUFAR website the information on aircraft and instruments available for ECfunded Transnational Access. All applications must be submitted online at http://www.eufar.net.
There are 2 levels for applying:

Master and PhD students can apply through the Education and Training activity

Experienced researchers must apply through the “regular” Transnational Access activity
Applicants must come from a different country than the one where the requested research infrastructure is located.
Priority will be given to new users.
5.
Project Achievements:
The long term structuring effect of the EUFAR I3, involving most of the European research aircraft operators, will be
first measurable by the evolution of the culture of cooperation between European aircraft operators
The User Group Selection Panel will further contribute to the European integration. On a longer term, multi-lateral
agreements between European countries will definitely consolidate the network of research aircraft by actively
integrating countries, which do not presently operate instrumented aircraft. With the ESF-SAC, EUFAR has
constituted the necessary link between the network of operators and the NRFIs (National Research Funding
Institutions), for providing them with guidance on the feasibility of such agreements.
The “Airborne Aerosol Reference Pod” JRA, leading to the development of shared measurement or calibration
systems, will reinforce the culture of cooperation among operators and instrument developers at the European level.
Perspective for long term sustainability of these achievements also relies on the development of efficient and
common management tools, mainly based on E-Communication, that are among the priorities of the Networking
Activities in EUFAR. Within N6EC, solutions will be explored regarding the difficulties for operators to update the
planning of occupation of the EUFAR fleet with information related to their national activities. Solutions will be
proposed to interface each specific operator’s management application with the common EUFAR workflow.
It is expected that roughly 30% of the new users of research aircraft will remain in close contact with the operator
and/or their nationally funded science groups.
The expected effect of widening the customer base and the topic areas for the research aircraft will bring about a
greater integration of the operators and produce a larger, more active, user community. The European scientific
community will thus benefit from a better characterised and understood instrument base, yielding better quality data
more effectively. In the longer term, the confidence gained through this process will enable national interests and
biases to be put to aside and for the fleet of aircraft to be developed in response to the European needs.
6.
List of participants of the I3
Participant
number
Organisation
Participant
(name, city, country)
short name
1
Météo-France, Toulouse, France
Météo-France
2
Fondation Européenne de la Science, Strasbourg,
France
ESF
3
Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece
DUTH
4
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.,
Köln, Germany
DLR
5
Stichting Nationaal Lucht- en
Ruimtevaartlaboratorium, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands
NLR
6
enviscope GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Enviscope
Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers
7
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris,
France
INSU-CNRS
8
Met Office, Exeter, United Kingdom
MetOffice
9
Natural Environment Research Council, Swindon,
United Kingdom
NERC (ARSF/BGS)
10
Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Madrid,
Spain
INTA
11
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
TAU
12
Geologian tutkimuskeskus (Geological Survey of
Finland), Espoo, Finland
GTK
13
Institute of Flight Guidance and Control, Technical
University Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
TU-BS
14
Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin; Germany
FUB
15
MetAir AG – airborne measurements and consulting,
Hausen am Albis, Switzerland
METAIR
16
CNR – Istituto Sistemi Agricoli e Forestali
Mediterranei, Ercolano, Italy
CNR-ISAFoM
17
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH, Karlsruhe,
Germany
FZK
18
Stockholms Universitet, Stockholm, Sweden
MISU
19
Max-Planck-Society for the advancement of the
science represented by Max-Planck-Institute for
Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
MPI-C
20
National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
NUIG
21
University of Manchester Institute of Science and
Technology, Manchester, United Kingdom
UMIST
22
Leibniz-Institut für Troposphärenforschung, Leipzig,
Germany
IFT