The newly launched community aims to establish a Pan-European collaborative platform to facilitate knowledge sharing across UAM projects and initiatives in Europe.

On 30 March 2022, Vassilis Agouridas, Head of UIC2 of the EU’s Smart Cities Marketplace and Head of EU Public Co-Creation & Ecosystem Outreach at Airbus, hosted a panel at Amsterdam Drone Week to discuss the topic ‘Integrating the EU Funded Projects on Urban Air Mobility (UAM)’, and to announce the launch of the EU UAM Projects & Initiatives Community – a platform that aims to facilitate the development of an integrated European UAM ecosystem.

Joining him were Miguel Martí Vidal, Aviation Project Manager at CINEA (European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency), and representatives of the other initiating parties of the newly established community: Arthur Dallau, Impact Coordinator at FF2020, Timo Lind of AiRMOUR, Sandra Melo of ASSURED-UAM and Silvio Semanjski of AURORA.

The primary purpose of the EU UAM Projects & Initiatives Community is to support the European Commission by bringing together local, national and EU-funded projects, along with initiatives and regulatory bodies focusing on Urban Air Mobility, to cross-share knowledge and lessons learnt. Additionally, the community seeks to involve local authorities from cities and regions, organisations from the public and private sector, knowledge institutions and research and development entities from all over Europe.

To embrace and accelerate these developments, Horizon 2020 projects managed by CINEA, namely, AiRMOUR, ASSURED-UAM, AURORA and FF2020, together with the UIC2 of the EU’s Smart Cities Marketplace, launched the EU UAM Projects & Initiatives Community and gathered support from projects under H2020, SESAR Joint Undertaking and the CIVITAS umbrella.

By leading an ecosystem of cross-sectoral stakeholders, the EU UAM Projects & Initiatives Community aims to foster the advancement of European urban aviation, mobility and digital infrastructure in support of the EU’s Green Deal and Digital Agenda. These are two outstanding examples of policies and objectives that illustrate the benefits and impact of Urban Air Mobility – creating a sustainable and responsible, digital Europe with, at its core, European values and providing the best possible service to and for all citizens.

The EU UAM Projects & Initiatives Community calls for interested projects and initiatives at European, national and local levels to become part of the UAM ecosystem and to participate in the first community webinar on 20 April 2022, where they will have the opportunity to discuss new possible areas of collaboration and their vision for the future UAM ecosystem, as well as the type of institutional leadership and support that is necessary to make this European community a success.

Click here to view the statement and the supporting projects on the Amsterdam Drone Week website.

To join the community and for further details, please contact:

Head of UIC2 Vassilis Agouridas, vassilis.agouridas(at)airbus.com

Arthur Dallau and Lisa van der Heijden, the FF2020 project: lisa(at)digie.expert


“I am very pleased to be in the AiRMOUR External Advisory Board in my role as Leader of the UAM Initiative Cities Community (UIC2) of the EU’s Smart Cities Marketplace. With the prospective increased use of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) worldwide, whether through drone services, or future deployment of so-called ‘air-taxis’ (eVTOLs) for passengers and cargo transportation, the low-level airspace above cities becomes subject to a new kind of airborne traffic.

To ensure a sustainable and responsible approach to the development of UAM services, it is important that cities and regions are informed and actively involved to ensure the integrated and sustainable planning for mobility, and wider urban development, for the benefits of their citizens. For example, critical time savings related to urgent medical deliveries and emergency services. Studies have shown that UAM medical services such as medical deliveries (e.g. blood deliveries by drone) and emergency services (e.g. eVTOL air ambulances) are most widely accepted by citizens and will therefore likely be the first permanent UAM services. The aforementioned prospects need focused research and cooperation between local authorities, the medical sector and the UAM (drone/eVTOLs) industry: that is exactly what the AiRMOUR project is doing through its 3-year duration (2021-2023).

The European Commission provides significant funding to bring Urban Air Mobility forward, from various different angles. AiRMOUR is one of the main projects focusing on medical services, public acceptance, safety aspects as well as the role of cities and tools to help them with this new form of mobility. The learning curve is steep and progress is fast, but challenges remain.

The UIC2 (UAM Initiative Cities Community) has an important role in shaping the future of airborne mobility above our cities and regions. The Amsterdam Drone Week is coming up in March 2022: topics related to urban air mobility in cities and regions are high on the agenda there, too. Let’s continue to build this important ecosystem together. Stay tuned for interesting outputs from AiRMOUR and hopefully see you in Amsterdam.”

Dr Vassilis Agouridas is Leader of the UAM Initiative Cities Community (UIC2) of the EU’s Smart Cities Marketplace, Head of EU Public Co-Creation & Ecosystem Outreach at Airbus Urban Mobility, and Chairman of the UAM Committee of ASD Europe.