On Thursday, February 1 2024, Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI) welcomed Minister Simon Coveney, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The visit granted a unique opportunity for FMCI to showcase the ecosystem that it supports, spanning automotive innovation, Smart Cities, and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).
The discussions between Minister Coveney and FMCI’s leadership revolved around the pivotal role that FMCI plays in shaping the landscape of future mobility. During the visit, FMCI had the privilege to outline its vision, detailing the innovative projects and initiatives that are driving progress in the Automotive, Smart City, and Advanced Air Mobility sectors.
"Our commitment and vision are backed by the support we receive from Enterprise Ireland and our founding partners. We see FMCI as a national asset for Ireland that demonstrates public-private collaboration in driving innovation and economic growth."
During his visit, the Minister met with the Provizio team as an example of one of the companies supported by FMCI. The Minister took a tour in one of FMCI’s demo vehicles retrofitted with Provizio’s 5D Perception Radar. The discussion with Provizio demonstrated the value that FMCI brings to indigenous startups, helping them accelerate their product development and availing of FMCI’s active innovation ecosystem.
Dr. Wassim Derguech, COO of FMCI, presented FMCI’s Advanced Air Mobility initiatives. As project coordinator for ÉALÚ-AER, he showcased the project’s ambition to shape Shannon into a safe demonstrator for U-space services. In turn, CEO Russell Vickers shared FMCI’s vision to leverage the project outcomes to extend its capability and enable Air Taxi R&D capabilities in the region by showing a preview of our next phase of development, to develop a full scale Vertiport at FMCI.
About ÉALÚ-AER
ÉALÚ-AER is one of the first European Digital Sky Demonstrators to focus on U-space and Urban Air Mobility as part of the European ATM Master Plan designed by the SESAR Joint Undertaking (JU). SESAR JU aims at accelerating through research and innovation the delivery of an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Digital European Sky.
Digital Sky Demonstrators, such as ÉALÚ-AER, are high-level Technology Readiness Level (TRL 7-8) projects that are funded in collaboration with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) under the Connected Europe Facility (CEF) funding instrument.
ÉALÚ-AER partners include: FMCI (coordinator), Collins Aerospace, The Shannon Airport Group, Avtrain, DeepBlue, Manna, AirNav Ireland and Spright.
The ÉALÚ-AER Project is co-funded by the European Union under the Connecting Europe Facility programme, managed by CINEA, and supported by the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking.
For more details about the project, please follow this link: http://ealu-aer.eu/
