On the 12th of April 2024, EUROAVIA President Leo Buchner attended the 58th Board of Trustees (BoT) Meeting of the Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS).
The meeting was hosted at the University of Padova in the prestigious Palazzo Bo. CEAS is made up of 11 national aerospace societies (trustees) and some corporate members. Among the corporate members there is: ESA, EASA and EUROCONTROL, but also EUROAVIA. Our association contributes to CEAS with attendance at their BoT meetings, but also in contributions to the CEAS bulletin. EUROAVIA gains valuable insight into the academic initiatives undertaken in the aerospace sector.
Among some statutory changes, the main purpose of this meeting was the alignment of the national societies on the various conferences that CEAS hosts. During this year, the European Rotorcraft Forum (ERF), the AIDAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference, EuroGNC, the International Conference on High-Speed Vehicle Science and Technology (HiSST) and IFASD are to be hosted and organised by CEAS or its members. The conferences are well underway in the organisation process and promise interesting papers to be published. For most conferences, the deadline for handing in abstracts is over, but we recommend checking out the websites of the conferences, in case EUROAVIA members finish their thesis and are interested in publishing their findings in a conference setting.
Valuable takeaways from EUROAVIA’s attendance at this CEAS BoT meeting are the vast efforts that are undertaken in the aerospace sector’s academic sphere. Increased participation at student paper conferences such as PEGASUS is recommended, given the strong connections EUROAVIA can build with universities through such contributions. Additionally, the national aerospace societies, with their strong bonds to universities in their respective countries are fruitful ground for EUROAVIA to expand to new locations in Europe. This CEAS meeting helped build relationships with the national societies of the Netherlands, Poland, the UK and Switzerland, where EUROAVIA either isn’t represented or with a small number of local groups. Our membership in CEAS showcases, that the EUROAVIA networks exceed even beyond the number of local groups we have.
The next Board of Trustee meeting is likely going to be hosted during the 2024 edition of ICAS in Florence between September 9th and 13th. It is aimed to repeat EUROAVIA’s physical presence also at this meeting.