Last week (18–21 May), Prof. Arvind Gangoli Rao (Delft University of Technology) attended the Transport Research Arena (TRA) 2026 in Budapest, Europe’s flagship transport R&I conference.
He presented the #ClimAvTech cluster – a coalition of 13 #HorizonEurope projects working together to accelerate climate‑friendly #aviation technologies, strengthen scientific collaboration, and amplify dissemination of results.
One common goal – a shared direction:
reducing aviation’s climate footprint while ensuring competitiveness and deployability.
Different strategies, complementary pathways:
✈️ Lean & fuel‑flexible combustion and ultra‑low emissions concepts (NOx/PM)
✈️ Hydrogen propulsion architectures (incl. storage, power management, electrification)
✈️ Ultra‑efficient cores and propulsion–airframe integration approaches
✈️ Non‑CO₂ climate impacts, including contrail mitigation
Within this ecosystem, the HOPE Horizon Europe project contributes an integrated propulsion vision combining multi‑fuel UHBR turbofans, a fuel‑cell‑based auxiliary propulsion and power unit, and an aft BLI propulsor concept.
A big thanks to the TRA community for the inspiring exchanges—and to all ClimAvTech partners for building real synergies across projects.
The cluster effort is supported by CINEA – European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency and funded by the European Union.
Projects involved:
HOPE Horizon Europe project
FFLECS project
HESTIA Project
OVERLEAF
EXFAN
NIMPHEA
TRIATHLON project
MINIMAL Project
INDIGO EU Project
FlyECO Project
EFACA
MATISSE Project
MYTHOS – Horizon Europe
BeCoM



