These agreements, signed by Bob Lange, Head of Business Analysis and Market Forecast at Airbus, the ISA representatives – Marie-Hélène Baroux, ISAE-SUPAERO General Manager and Stéphanie Lavigne, TBS Education General Manager, represented by Samuel Fosso-Wamba – and Laurent Juillard from the ISAE-SUPAERO Foundation are a direct extension of the partnership agreement signed in February 2024 to support impactful research on the aviation sector’s sustainable transition.

Two research Projects for a More Sustainable Aviation
The two selected projects, both at the forefront of sustainability research, will focus on crucial aspects of aviation’s future:

Project 1: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) – ISA-ISAE-SUPAERO/AIRBUS (24 months)
– Led by Thomas Planès (ISAE-SUPAERO) with Airbus experts Philippe Mattei & Frédérique Rigal, and conducted by Félix Pollet,  an ISA postdoctoral researcher, recently returned from an academic stay at DTU Technical University of Denmark, where he worked with the Quantitative Sustainability Assessment section to further develop expertise in LCA research,
– Funded by Airbus via the ISAE-SUPAERO Foundation,
– Aims to refine and extend LCA methodologies for aviation, integrating future energy carriers (SAF, hydrogen) and addressing non-CO₂ emissions (NOx, NVPM, etc.),
– Develops a comprehensive open-source methodology, linking climate modeling and LCA impact assessments to ensure more accurate environmental evaluations.

Delft University of Technology, faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Aeronautics research Centre Niedersachsen and ISAE-SUPAERO signed, on Thursday 29 February, a cooperation agreement for an academic and scientific cooperation in the field of sustainable aviation. This seals a long-term partnership (5 years) for the deployment of several types of collaboration, such as:

• collaborative research,
• exchange of doctoral candidates,
• reciprocal exchange of staff,
• joint activities in the field of research dissemination and communication.

On Wednesday June 21 at the International Paris Air Show, Olivier Lesbre, Managing Director of ISAE-SUPAERO, and Xavier Pecquet, member of Sopra Steria’s Executive Committee, announced the launch of a skills sponsorship chair aimed at improving the usability, maintainability & scalability of the AeroMAPS open source tool.
This tool, developed by a team of ISAE-SUPAERO researchers and doctoral students – Thomas Planès, Scott Delbecq and Antoine Salgas – is a central component of the interdisciplinary research activities of the Institute for Sustainable Aviation. The ambition is to develop the Institute’s ability to represent the sociological, economic and regulatory aspects of aviation, beyond technological and environmental assessments, to become a sectoral Integrated Assessment Model.

The request for funding of the Institute of Sustainable Aviation has received the full attention of the Occitania region. Convinced of the quality of the ISA project, the Occitanie region has granted funding of €1,200,000 from 2022 to 2027 as part of the regional Green Aircraft plan. 

This funding is a first basis on which research programs are being launched. A target of 10 young researchers and 30 graduate students will benefit from this grant. 

We would like to thank the Occitanie Region, and its Department of Industry, Innovation, Research and Higher Education (DIIRES), for its support.