Interview of the President of the European Aeronautics Science Network

Citation

Pantelakis, S. (2010), "Interview of the President of the European Aeronautics Science Network", International Journal of Structural Integrity, Vol. 1 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijsi.2010.43601aab.002

Interview of the President of the European Aeronautics Science Network

Article Type: Interviews From: International Journal of Structural Integrity, Volume 1, Issue 1Spiros Pantelakis

About the author

Spiros Pantelakis was born in 1953 in Piraeus, Greece. He studied and also performed his PhD thesis at the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Technical University of Aachen. Since 1989, he is a Professor at the Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics Department of the University of Patras and since 2007 Director of the Laboratory of Technology and Strength of Materials. He has been elected twice as Vice-Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics and presently he is the Chairman of the Department. His research activities fall mainly in the area of aeronautical materials and structures with emphasis on mechanical behaviour of materials, structural integrity and damage mechanics. He has participated so far in more than 50 European Aeronautics-related research projects and is the author of about 150 scientific papers in peer-review journals and conferences. He is a Co-founder of the Institute of Structures and Advanced Materials and since 1991 member of the International Scientific Board of the Institute. He was Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Greek Metallurgical Society from 2004 to 2007 and since 2007, he is the Chairman of the Society. He is a Scientific Coordinator in Greece of the European Network AeroPortal for the support of the research activities of the small and medium enterprises in aeronautics and Member of the Coordinating Committee of the Network (1999-today).

From 2002 to 2006, he was the Scientific Coordinator of the European Aeronautics Science Network (EASN) and responsible for the region of Southern Europe (Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Malta, Israel, Turkey, Bulgaria and Rumania). During 2006-2008, he was the Coordinator of EASN. He is elected as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the EASN Association (Established 2008). Since 2005, he is the Chairman of the Working Group on Human Resources in Aeronautics established by the Advisory Council for Aeronautical Research in Europe (ACARE). He participates in ACARE’s Plenary as representative of the European Aeronautics academia (2006-today).

Interview

Q. Professor Pantelakis what is the role of EASN?

A. The large fragmentation of the aeronautics stakeholders in Europe makes it practically impossible to coordinate their research activities with respect to the European goals. Up until 2002, when EASN emerged as an European Union (EU) funded project, universities were the only Aeronautics “players” without an entity to express a unique academic voice. EASN has been established and recognized in Europe as the Academia representative in the Aeronautics research chain. In order to express unified Academia positions, EASN has structured its members according to their fields of expertise thus facilitating networking between European universities and other academic establishments and acting as an incubating mechanism for new knowledge and upstream research ideas.

Q. Professor Pantelakis, a quick search in the web reveals that there is a large number of European networks or associations promoting aeronautical research. On the other side of the Atlantic, the USA is trying to minimise research fragmentation in order to minimise spending. What is the opinion of EASN on that?

A. In Europe, there are several scientific organizations but there exist only two academic associations, namely PEGASUS, which includes a limited number of European universities and focuses on academic issues, and EASN which is a collective organ open to all academics and focuses on aeronautics research. EASN is the unique Academic Association represented in a number of European committees as well as in ACARE as the academic counterpart. As for the policies of the USA, there are a number of differences between the structure of the EU and the USA which do not allow for a direct comparison. Indeed, minimizing research fragmentation may minimize spending, but do YOU know where the next radical idea will come from?

Q. Since 6 May 2008, the network operates as an association. Do you want to comment on such an upgrade?

A. The EASN Association is not a matter of upgrading or downgrading. Surely, there are several differences in the structure of EASN and its administration but the statute of the association has been based on the same principles and has the same global goals as the EASN project. One main difference which I would notice is that the EASN Association is now run by a Board of Directors which is elected every three years by the General Assembly and not by an appointed consortium. Of course, the main disadvantage of not being under the “protection” of the EU is that we now need to figure out ways to financially support the Association. This is exactly where we need the support of our members.

Q. So far the research projects supported by the EASN are funded by the Framework Programme. Is this part of the policy of the association?

A. The Framework Programme of the European Commission sets the common European research priorities towards the goals which ACARE seeks and aims towards the common good of the United Europe. This is why research is funded by European funds. If, however, such successful mechanisms would develop which would set international research priorities between two or more countries willing to fund research from their national funds, EASN would have no problem to support such research initiatives.

Q. At this stage the association is classified in terms of interest groups. They represent a wealth of topics starting from flight physics to air traffic management. Do you believe that such broad range of topics is useful and manageable?

A. The interest groups have been created of the basis of a taxonomy set by the ASTERA project which was launched to support the ACARE activities. The number of ten topics covers the entire field of aeronautics and thus, the establishment of interest groups in all these areas is a necessity in order to have a global coverage of all possible research areas.

Q. Lately, countries outside the EU of 27 can participate in the Framework Programme. What is the policy of EASN on that?

A. Our experience has shown us that there is a lot of untapped potential within several European countries outside the 27. This potential should be tapped in favor of the EU in order to achieve global leadership in aeronautics. Of course, as the Framework Programme funds are European tax-payers money, a careful selection of such partners should always be made.

Q. The European Councils of Lisbon (3/2000) and Göteborg have set the objectives for the research activities: “to help the Union to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”. The European Council of Barcelona (3/2002) has confirmed the importance of research and innovation policies and the importance to develop a true European research area and has set as objective to increase the RTD effort towards 3 per cent of the GNP in 2010. Since Framework Programme 6 the EU promotes more vision, more strategic and global approaches, a shift from project-thinking towards “initiative” thinking. Yet, experience has shown that the area of aeronautics is characterised by conservatism. Where do you see EASN standing on that?

A. I do not share the view that the area of aeronautics is characterized by conservatism. On the contrary, there is permanent introduction of breakthrough technologies and innovative ideas. The ACARE vision for 2050 is expected to be announced soon, which will be based on high degree of innovation in order to achieve ambitious goals with respect to the environmental friendly aircraft in conjunction with a safe and passenger-friendly means of uniting people worldwide.

Q. In your own opinion, as an academic and a person of significant experience in framework research programmes, what European universities should do in order to address future needs?

A. Universities should focus on promoting innovative, out of the box thinking through their syllabuses. This, however, should be accompanied by a solid education and in-depth understanding of fundamental engineering knowledge.