France innovates in aviation with EU support

The EU supports scientists, researchers and innovators in pushing the boundaries of knowledge. It has invested close to €23 billion across around 78,000 research and industry organisations in France. Meet Yannael, who is testing new solutions at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport to make aviation more sustainable, and discover some of the groundbreaking work in sectors such as astrophysics and seismology.

Transforming airports with sustainable innovations

Supported by the EU, airports across Europe are turning into living labs where engineers, researchers and companies test new ideas, from cleaner materials to smarter energy systems, to make airport operations and travel more sustainable.

At Paris-Charles de Gaulle and three more European airports, teams are installing solar panels on boarding bridges, developing low-carbon materials for runways and buildings, and studying how terminals respond to temperature changes to improve energy efficiency. They are also converting support vehicles to electric power, promoting the use of sustainable aviation fuel for flights and protecting airport biodiversity, a crucial effort at a time when one in eight species on Earth is at risk of disappearing.

This initiative is redefining what airports can be, transforming them into smarter, cleaner and more sustainable centres of mobility across Europe.

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Innovators in Action - Meet Yannael in France

EU-funded innovators test solutions for sustainable airports

With support from the European Union, a team at Paris-Charles de Gaulle is leading a group of European airports in exploring ways to make airports more environmentally friendly.

Starting in 2021, together with the airports at Milan Malpensa, Zagreb, and Cluj-Napoca, the group became ‘living labs’ to test out the various ways of reducing the environmental impact of airports.

One of the major issues airports currently face is their high level of fossil-fuel consumption. The team has been looking at alternative power sources used in airport operations. ‘Any action we can take collectively to reduce our dependency towards fossil energy is certainly most welcome’, says Yannael Billard, sustainable development director at Groupe ADP.

So far, actions to reduce the airport’s carbon footprint include installing photovoltaic panels to power boarding bridges. The ground vehicles used to transport luggage and push the aircraft into taxiing position have also been retrofitted to run on battery power.

The team is also studying the ways temperature is affected in terminal buildings. This information will help ensure that airport buildings of the future will be able to minimise their energy consumption.

Even ways to make the concrete used for runways more sustainable are being tested.

We are in the process of creating and designing low-carbon-content equipment, materials and infrastructure to reduce the CO₂ content of everything you see in an airport.
- Yannael Billard, Director of sustainable development, Groupe ADP

Another area being examined is biodiversity. Yannael points out that airports usually occupy a large area of land and that protecting biodiversity benefits both the environment and airport users.

‘When it gets warmer in summer, certainly you would appreciate some shade, some grass and so on, to make the environment you are working in or travelling through kinder for you’, Yannael explains.

He notes that finding ways to ensure that the local flora and fauna are not disrupted by the presence of the airport is also a way to collaborate with local communities. This is important to make sure that flora, fauna, and water are free to move between the airport land and the wider local environment.

The project is due to finish in 2026, and Yannael believes that the methods tested by the group can be shared as models for building new airports or refurbishing existing ones in the future. As he explains, ‘Even when the project is officially finished, there will be an implementation phase, and replication and dissemination, and so on. So, it is a long-term story’.

For over 40 years, the EU has championed a spirit of ambition and curiosity. It has supported research, nurturing innovation and collaboration across the globe. From breakthroughs in neuroscience and architecture to Earth monitoring and clean aviation, the EU’s efforts reach far beyond the lab, shaping a better future for everyone.

EU R&I action on industry

Other project examples

Unveiling secrets in the stars using neural networks

Many mysteries remain about the origins of stars, despite significant progress in space research in recent years. Among the challenges has been seeing how mass is distributed within clusters of stars during their formation. In the EU-supported Unraveling the origin of the Initial Mass Function initiative, a team of researchers gained insights by training a neural network to aid identification by singling out objects in images. Apart from finding further clues on star formation, one of their most exciting discoveries was around 70 to 170 free-floating planets unbound to any star.
Apart from finding further clues on star formation, one of their most exciting discoveries was around 70 to 170 free-floating planets unbound to any star.

Seismic learnings provide insight into earthquakes

Geophysicists have sought for many decades to predict earthquakes, but success in this endeavour has largely proved elusive. To gain a better understanding of the related physical processes deep within the earth, a team of researchers in the EU-supported Seismic Functional Imaging of the Brittle Crust project used AI to analyse a huge set of data from high-quality seismic observations saved in large data banks. Apart from improving learning on the evolution of faults and processes taking place underground, the project developed a technique to help detect and locate small earthquakes.
Apart from improving learning on the evolution of faults and processes taking place underground, the project developed a technique to help detect and locate small earthquakes.