Innovation and Resilience in Aviation
The ICAO 2022 Innovation Competition is open to university students enrolled in a final year of a Bachelor's programme or in a Master’s programme. It is designed to spark innovative ideas and concepts for new solutions or services supporting the five ICAO Strategic Objectives.
The jury of this competition will feature the ICAO Secretary General, the President of the Council and high-level representatives from the aviation sector.
Over the past decades, international civil aviation has overcome important challenges and demonstrated its ability to withstand major shocks and disruptions. This was made possible thanks to the commitment of aviation professionals across the globe, who have developed and implemented processes and technical solutions to enhance the resilience of the sector. However, in the context of an ever-growing traffic forecast, the intrinsic capacity of the aviation system is stretched, making any disruption to operations a system-wide challenge. In addition, any measure to build and strengthen resilience in aviation has to further support the ICAO Strategic Objectives of Safety, Air Navigation Capacity and Efficiency, Security & Facilitation, Economic Development of Air Transport and Environmental Protection.
In addition, the magnitude, duration, and global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected air transport operations and the future of such operations, putting people at the center of the response: travellers and aviation professionals alike. A global consensus has emerged on the pivotal role of aviation workers in finding and implementing solutions for the conduct of aviation operations, at all levels and across the aviation value chain.
With this in mind, the resilient future of international civil aviation cannot materialize without a workforce aware of the challenges faced by the sector and ready to commit to imagining the aviation it wants. By resilience, we mean the ability of the sector to ensure the continuity of air mobility while progressing the five ICAO Strategic Objectives and contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As part of this global competition, we invite students to propose innovative solutions with the aim:
-to create a more resilient aviation ecosystem for 2050;-to contribute to the emergence of innovative concepts, tools and approaches for new solutions or services supporting some or all of the five ICAO Strategic Objectives, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in particular SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”; -to share their expectations and visions for the future, focussing on the emergence of disruptive ideas for the benefits of the overall aviation community.