The EUSOME Excellence Hub is a 4-year European project that aims to revolutionize the air mobility ecosystem in the Southeast Mediterranean region by addressing specific regional challenges, such as transporting goods, surveilling complex landscapes, tackling fire risks, and monitoring traffic congestion.
The emergence of large drone systems that can be integrated with intelligent coordination technology has enabled Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) concepts that are poised to revolutionize a broad range of domains including transport (also encompassing logistics), emergency response, and even climate adaptation. Nevertheless, despite commendable global initiatives, Southeast Europe is facing challenges and delays in adopting and implementing AAM.
The EUSOME Excellence Hub project will address these challenges and will play a leading role in establishing AAM as an integral part of the transportation landscape in Southeast Europe. This will be accomplished through the development of: (i) an open research and innovation infrastructure, (ii) mentoring and training programs, (iii) a masterplan to adopt EASA’s regulations on AAM, and (iv) services to assist entities in exploiting AAM.
A key novelty of the project is the establishment of the EUSOME Thematic Innovation Hub (TIH) which will explore open-access policies and market possibilities for project outputs. The EUSOME TIH will also develop a portfolio of consultancy services derived from soft skills cultivated in the project, offering valuable insights to entities entering the AAM market. Lastly, the EUSOME Hub will initiate an outreach program to promote public engagement and ensure widespread acceptance of the AAM technology.
The project’s results are expected to have significant scientific, economic, and societal impacts. From a scientific perspective, the project’s activities will boost human capacity by increasing the availability and quality of different workforce groups and raise excellence and multidisciplinary collaboration in science and technology. From an economic perspective, the project will create employment opportunities and will contribute to the growth of regional economies. Finally, from a societal perspective, the project will facilitate the advancement and adoption of AAM in the region, focusing on targeted use cases relevant to local realities.
The role of GRNET concerns the following tasks:
- Project Management
- EUSOME Digital Twin Infrastructure
- EUSOME Training and Mentoring for the AAM domain: Realize a training, mentoring & development programme on Air Advanced Mobility
- Autonomous Flight in the AAM context: Robust vehicle-to-infrastructure communications with predictive connectivity
- EUSOME Innovation Hub
- Dissemination and Communication
The EUSOME project brings together 16 partners, with diverse expertise across the AAM spectrum—from cutting-edge research institutions and aircraft manufacturers to civil aviation authorities, public agencies, innovation specialists, non-governmental organizations, and public representatives.
Participating Partners in the Project:
- KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence (KIOS CoE), University of Cyprus (Cyprus - Coordinator)
- Athena Research and Innovation Center (Greece)
- Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Works (Cyprus)
- Ministry of Digital Governance (Greece)
- Aviomania Aircraft (Cyprus)
- Hellenic Drones (Greece)
- National Infrastructures for Research and Technology (Greece)
- Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) (Cyprus)
- Adrestia R&D (Greece)
- CBK PAN (Poland)
- Hellenic U-Space Institute (HUSI) (Greece)
- TP Mediteranean Adventures LTD (Cyprus)
- SocialTech Lab (Cyprus)
- Institute “Mihailo Pupin” (IMP) (Serbia)
- Epirus Region (Greece)
- Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) (Greece)
The project is coordinated by the KIOS Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus.
The project budget comes from 100% funding from the European Commission.
