About Us
What We Do
ECATS International Association started in 2005 as a Network of Excellence on Aviation and Environment of more than 100 researchers within the European Framework Research Programme. It was later transformed into the ECATS International Association (see Our Story).
The objective of ECATS – as laid down in its [Statutes] – is to promote and support its Members’ joint activities and interests in the field of aviation & environmental impact. Its higher-level aim is to help making aviation sustainable.
The overall business topic concerns fundamental and applied research and science in the field of aviation & environmental impact, with a focus on aviation emissions, its environmental impact and interdependencies. The latter involves interdependencies between global and local emissions and impact, and interdependencies with other relevant areas like aircraft and community noise, third party risk and economic impact.
ECATS will provide its customers with scientific knowledge and advice and practical solutions (or intermediate research analysis results) in order to help them to make future aviation sustainable. Moreover, ECATS will participate in topical scientific assessments; in this framework it will contribute or prepare scientific assessment reports or provide any other relevant scientific publication.
A Network of Experts
The high-level aim of ECATS is to help making aviation sustainable and thus foster the European Union’s overall environmental goals for aeronautics. With initial funding from the European Commission, ECATS’ role has been from the beginning to create and coordinate the work of a closely-knit network of experts across the continent. The Association has impressive resources at its disposal for research into aviation and the environment. As a scientifically sound and internationally competitive research structure, it is ideally qualified to achieve its objective.
Themed Learning
ECATS provides a well-developed education and training programme focused on filling gaps in knowledge on the environmental effects of air transport. We have experience in organising student schools on important aspect of aviation and the environment. Topics have included Airport Air Quality, Global Aviation Impact and Green Flight, and more recently alternative fuels. Specific focus is given to present scientific and technological context of cross-cutting aspects. ECATS student schools are well received by around 20 students from across Europe.
A Competitive Structure
ECATS has a broad and fundamental expertise as well as impressive resources for research on the environmental impact of air transport. As a scientifically sound and internationally competitive European research structure, ECATS combines all necessary scientific approaches and integrates competences across Europe, improving the competitiveness of the European aeronautics industry. As an important part of the scientific community, ECATS will be able to give stakeholders advice on the best way forward.
SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
ECATS shares its scientific output openly with the community, peer-reviewed papers, reports and assessments from across the network, gathered in one place so the field can build on what we’ve learned. With JECATS launching its first issue in 2026, ECATS now has its own open-access journal dedicated to sustainable aviation research, giving our members a dedicated home to publish and discuss their findings with the wider field. We welcome submissions for our next call for papers.
Our Impact
The European projects that turn environmentally compatible air transport from ambition into measurable progress
The conferences and schools where Europe’s aviation-environment community meets, argues and moves the science forward
The open-access journal that gives sustainable aviation research a home built by the scientists who do the work
Fifteen research institutions and universities whose combined expertise no single European laboratory could match
Two decades of peer-reviewed research that shaped how Europe measures aviation’s environmental impact
Be part of the impact
Add your expertise to Europe's
network for environmentally
compatible air transport.