PEGASUS is a European initiative assessing Societal Readiness and reducing barriers to the integration of Innovative Air Mobility technologies in urban and peri-urban environments. Through tests, demonstrations, infrastructure development, and stakeholder engagement, PEGASUS will deliver a roadmap for the safe, sustainable, and acceptable deployment of IAM.
Context
PEGASUS (Piloting European Green Air Mobility and Services for Urban Societal Readiness) is a Horizon Europe research and innovation project that aims to enable the safe, sustainable, and socially accepted deployment of Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) services across Europe.
Bringing together leading universities, industry, public authorities and technology providers from across Europe, the project will develop and validate a Societal Readiness Score (SRS) that measures how technical, environmental, regulatory and social factors influence the successful integration of drones and eVTOL aircraft into urban and peri-urban environments.
Through large-scale demonstrations, stakeholder engagement and evidence-based policy development, PEGASUS will provide practical tools and guidance to support future IAM deployment by cities, regulators and industry.
Aim
PEGASUS aims to accelerate the safe, sustainable and socially accepted deployment of Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) services across Europe by developing and validating a Societal Readiness framework.
Through large-scale demonstrations, stakeholder engagement and evidence-based evaluation, the project will deliver the tools, guidance and operational evidence needed to support the integration of drones and eVTOL aircraft into future urban and peri-urban transport systems.
Key objectives:
- Develop and validate a Societal Readiness Score (SRS) for Innovative Air Mobility.
- Demonstrate low-impact IAM operations in real-world urban environments across Europe.
- Evaluate and reduce environmental, operational and societal barriers to IAM deployment.
- Develop infrastructure, regulatory and policy guidance to support future IAM integration.
- Deliver an evidence-based roadmap and evaluation platform for cities, regulators and industry to enable scalable and socially accepted IAM services.
Key Figures
Project Funding: € 4,834,037.50
EU Contribution: €4,834,037.50
Project Duration: 48 months
Additional information
Links, deliverables, and further information will be shared here as the project progresses.
Participating Partners
• Trinity College Dublin (TCD) (Coordinator)
• Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI)
• Universidade Nova de Lisboa
• Università degli Studi Roma Tre
• Avtrain
• Manna Air Delivery
• Dronamics
• Head Acoustics
• Universidad de Alcalá
• ERINN Innovation
• Dronea
• European Aviation Academy (EAVA)
• Connect Robotics
• Techno Sky
• Joint European Drone Associations (JEDA)
• MADAN
• Limerick City & County Council
• Cork City Council
• Câmara Municipal de Almada
• Association of Municipalities of Tartu County (AMTC)
Funding
Programme: Horizon Europe
Cluster: Cluster 5 – Climate, Energy and Mobility
Call: HORIZON-CL5-2025-04
Topic: HORIZON-CL5-2025-04-D6-11 – Innovative air mobility and services for sustainable and smart urban, peri-urban transport – Societal Readiness Pilot
Thematic Pillars
• Urban Air Mobility (UAM)
• Aerial Logistics & Last-Mile Delivery
• Sustainability in Aerial Mobility
• Testing & Simulation
• Policy & Regulatory Frameworks