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Single European Sky Awards – 2019 Edition – Rules for participation

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Single European Sky Awards – 2019 edition - Rules for participation

I. Objectives

  1. The Single European Sky Awards - 2019 edition (SES Awards) is a contest organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) to promote the implementation of the Single European Sky (SES). It aims to encourage, give visibility to and reward first movers, best-in-class initiatives and stakeholders that, through the implementation of the SES, achieve the highest levels of performance in providing air navigation or air traffic management services, thus contributing to the SES performance objectives.
  2. The SES Awards also aim to inspire further SES implementation initiatives and to contribute to raising a general public awareness on the SES, on air traffic management (ATM) and its impact on air transport.

II. The SES Awards

  1. A SES Award shall consist of a trophy. DG MOVE will also give visibility to the winners and their initiative through the web, press releases and social network or communication channels of DG MOVE.
  2. SES Awards will be conferred for the following categories of merit:
    1. Network performance improvement award
    2. Innovation award
    3. Sustainability award
    4. Cooperation award
    5. Single European Sky excellence award
  3. The jury may also give special mentions under the above mentioned categories from A to D to applicants who have not been selected for an award but who nevertheless have made significant efforts in contributing to the SES in a specific field.
  4. There is no monetary prize associated to any SES Award or special mention. An award or special mention does not give any right or privilege towards financial support from any European Union funding programme.

III. General conditions

  1. By submitting an application, applicants accept all the provisions of these rules for participation.
  2. DG MOVE may modify these rules for participation for each edition of the SES Awards.
  3. The Single European Sky Unit of DG MOVE manages the SES Awards contest.
  4. Applicants may submit an initiative under only one of the categories from A to D mentioned in section II.
  5. SES Awards may be conferred to an individual stakeholder or groupings of stakeholders.
  6. An individual stakeholder or a grouping of stakeholders may receive only one SES Award in a given year and only once for a specific initiative.
  7. The SES Awards cannot be assigned for specific commercial products.
  8. Applicants shall agree that information provided in their applications may be: published by the Commission or its services on their web portals and social network channels; presented at the SES Awards ceremony; mentioned in press releases or other means of communication for promoting the initiatives and the SES Awards contest.
  9. DG MOVE shall ensure that the integrity of the information provided in the applications is preserved and that the protection of personal data is ensured in accordance with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001.
  10. DG MOVE may decide to cancel the contest, in particular where the objectives of the contest are not achieved or where none of the applicants comply with the conditions for participation.
  11. Applicants are solely liable in case of claims relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest.
  12. Any dispute that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to the jurisdiction of the General Court or, on appeal, the Court of Justice of the European Union.
  13. Union law shall apply to the contest, complemented, where necessary, by Belgian law.

IV. Exclusion criteria

  1. Applicants and their initiatives must be in order with any obligations under the SES legal framework.
  2. Applicants who are found to have made false declarations or have committed irregularities or fraud will be excluded from the contest.
  3. DG MOVE may withdraw a SES Award from winners who are found to have made false declarations or committed irregularities or fraud.

V. Eligibility criteria

  1. Any individual or grouping of civil or military entities belonging to any of the following categories of stakeholders may participate in the contest:
    • Air navigation service providers;
    • Airborne & ground equipment manufacturers;
    • Airport operators;
    • Airspace users;
    • Meteorological services providers;
    • Scientific/research centres and academia;
    • Standardisation bodies;
    • Organisations contributing to the implementation of the SES.
  2. Individuals and/or organisations may also participate together (for example if they have worked on a common initiative).
  3. European Commission services or Union bodies and their staff are not eligible for the contest.
  4. Applicants must be based in one of the European Union or Eurocontrol Member States or in a State associated to the SES.
  5. Candidate initiatives must be either on-going or must have been concluded within twenty-four months prior to the submission of the applications.

VI. Award criteria

  1. SES Awards will be assigned to outstanding initiatives that provide the best examples of successful implementation of SES components in the categories mentioned under the General conditions.
  2. Applications will be evaluated on the basis of the following award criteria:

    Network performance improvement award

    Applicants must have most contributed, through their initiative, to the ATM network performance, especially from a cross/multi border perspective with tangible and measurable benefits in these areas:

    • Capacity, in particular short-term capacity improvements, tools to cope with staff shortages;
    • Safety;
    • Cost efficiency;
    • Benefits for passengers and citizens;
    • Defragmentation;
    • Enabling increased connectivity.

    Innovation award

    Applicants must have achieved outstanding results in:

    • the full development of SESAR Solutions; their early deployment; and timely entry into operations, namely in the field of: interoperability, airspace defragmentation, change management, human dimension, digitalisation and automation;
    • implementing new business/operational models moving towards a competitive market for ATM services;
    • addressing solutions for new entrants into the airspace, such as drones.

    Sustainability award

    Applicants must have achieved outstanding results in environmental protection, namely in reducing aviation emissions.

    Cooperation award

    Applicants must have promoted cooperation amongst different stakeholders to work towards a common, agreed and shared vision, including through industrial partnerships, civil-military cooperation, cooperation with non-EU countries and cross-border operations (en route and lower airspace).

  3. Applicants must demonstrate that their initiatives comply with at least five of the above-mentioned criteria and provide the relevant supporting evidence.
  4. For the Single European Sky excellence award, the nominated stakeholders/initiatives shall have a long-standing commitment to SES and demonstrated outstanding performance in one or more areas of the SES or have contributed to exporting SESAR solutions to third countries.

VII. Applying for a SES Award

  1. Applications must be submitted through the on-line application forms and must include:
    • the complete details of the applicants;
    • a clear and concise description of the initiative highlighting the main characteristics, strengths and achievements;
    • an explanation on how the initiative complies with the award criteria.
  2. The jury will only evaluate the information and the material submitted through the on-line applications.
  3. Applicants are responsible for informing the DG MOVE of any sensitive information they do not wish to be published.
  4. Applicants shall also provide any relevant supporting material in the form of PDFs, photos, infographics, videos, presentations or other type of material that will be used to present their initiative to the jury and that may be published on the SES Awards web portal and may be presented at the awards ceremony.
  5. Applicants must submit their applications by 31 January 2019 (midnight) through the on-line application form accessible through the SES Awards web page (see below). Applications submitted after this deadline shall not be accepted.
  6. Applicants may not apply for the Single European Sky excellence award. This specific award shall be conferred to individual or groupings of stakeholders selected by the jury based on duly motivated nominations by organisations involved in SES. For this purpose, DG MOVE may invite organisations or entities such as Eurocontrol, SESAR Joint Undertaking, the SESAR Deployment Manager, the Network Manager, the European Defence Agency, the European Aviation Safety Agency, the Performance Review Body, the Industry Consultation Body, National Supervisory Authorities and the Expert Group on the Human Dimension of the SES to nominate one candidate each for the Single European Sky excellence award. The nominees must comply with the exclusion, eligibility and award criteria in sections IV, V and VI above.

VIII. The SES Awards jury

  1. The SES Awards jury shall consist of:
    • An experts panel composed of staff of the European Commission, of other Union bodies and external experts.
    • An awarding panel composed of senior officials of the Commission and may include representatives of other European Institutions or Union bodies.
  2. The Experts panel will evaluate the initiatives based on the above-mentioned exclusion, eligibility and award criteria and shall make a recommendation to the Awarding panel.
  3. The Awarding panel shall assign the awards, based on the Expert panel's recommendations.
  4. The Director-General of DG MOVE shall chair the Awarding panel.
  5. The members of the jury must not be in a situation of conflict of interests with respect to any of the applications or with respect to nominees for a Single European Sky excellence award.
  6. All the members of the jury will have the same weight in scoring the applications. In case the Awarding panel members cannot come to a consensus, the Chairperson shall take the final decision.

IX. Awards ceremony

  1. The winners and the special mentions will be announced at the award ceremony. However, for organisational purposes, the DG MOVE reserves the right to inform the winners before the ceremony.
  2. The 2019 SES Awards ceremony will be held at the 2019 World ATM Congress, in Madrid, on 12 March 2019. The exact time and location will be notified in due time on SES Awards web portal.
  3. The SES Awards will be conferred by a Member or by Senior Staff of the Commission and/or representatives of other European Institutions.
  4. Applicants are requested to be present or to be represented at the awards ceremony.

X. Communications

  1. Any updates or modifications of the present rules or on the organisation of the contest or the awards ceremony will be published on the SES Awards web portal:

    https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/air/ses/ses-award-2019_en

  2. Any communication or request for information can be sent to DG MOVE.E3 – Single European Sky Unit:

    MOVE-E3-SINGLE-SKY-UNITatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (MOVE-E3-SINGLE-SKY-UNIT[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)