While the EU and Canada are deepening economic and strategic ties, such cooperation is already a reality within the field of aviation research and innovation.
Through Canada's association with Horizon Europe, Canadian organisations have been participating in SESAR research projects alongside European partners for several years. Now, this cooperation is entering a new phase, with Canadian organisations also able to – for the first time – join the SESAR Joint Undertaking (JU) as associate members.
This marks an important step in strengthening transatlantic cooperation in air traffic management, bringing together expertise from both sides of the Atlantic to help shape the future of aviation.
“Air traffic does not stop at a border, and neither should the research that improves it,” says Blake Cushnie, Director, TBO Airspace and European Programs at NAV CANADA, Canada’s private, not-for-profit air navigation service provider (ANSP), which in June 2026 became the first ANSP beyond Europe to be granted membership in the SESAR JU.
A history of transatlantic cooperation
While NAV CANADA may be the first Canadian organisation to be granted SESAR membership, it is by no means the first to partner with the JU.
Through Canada’s association with Horizon Europe, the EU's key funding programme for research and innovation, Canadian organisations have been participating in SESAR projects alongside European partners since 2024.
One of those companies is Turasanna, a Canadian aerospace consulting firm providing data analytics, safety compliance and quality management systems for the aviation industry. As part of the INGERA project, the company is helping to integrate lower-emission aircraft into everyday aviation operations.
“For a small specialist consultancy like ours, participating directly in a SESAR project provides access to a breadth of expertise and operational perspectives that would be difficult to bring together independently,” says Turasanna co-founder Dr. Ally Ferguson. “It also helps us develop a deeper understanding of European approaches to integrating new aircraft into the aviation system.”
Canadian research entities like Western University Canada have also benefited from participating in SESAR research. As part of the E-CONTRAIL 2 project, the Ontario-based university leads the work on contrail detection using ground-based cameras.
“Our software automatically finds contrails in camera images, links each one to the flight that produced it using aircraft tracking data, and follows the contrail from the moment it forms behind the aircraft until it disappears,” says Dr. Denis Vida, an adjunct research professor at Western University.
Dr. Vida says he plans to leverage the connections made during the project to establish a centre of excellence for contrail observation at Western University, including what he hopes will be the world's first dedicated contrail observatory. “We're currently talking with several project partners to make that happen,” he adds.
Other Canadian organisations participating in SESAR projects include aircraft manufacturer Bombardier (JARVIS-CONNECT project) and HUP Air Mobility (AGNES project), a company working in the fields of advanced air mobility and aviation navigation.
Opening the door to deeper cooperation
NAV CANADA too is no stranger to European ATM cooperation. In 2024, it became the first non-European ANSP to join the iTEC Collaboration, a partnership of European ANSPs working together to develop next-generation air traffic management systems. This collaboration now extends into SESAR research: alongside its membership, NAV Canada became a partner in four projects, ARTEMISA with iTEC partners, as well as GEESE 2, NATICA and NET-TBO 2.
While this project participation allows the organisation to engage with Europe’s ATM innovation ecosystem and help shape future solutions, Cushnie says membership opens the door to a plethora of new opportunities.
“Project participation gets you into the room for one initiative, membership gets you a seat at the table where the whole programme is designed,” he says.
As a member, NAV CANADA can now take part in the JU’s governance and planning. “We see the research agenda as it is being shaped rather than after the calls are published, and we can bring Canadian operational experience and expertise into the discussions that set priorities for years ahead,” adds Cushnie.
Membership also gives the organisation access to future collaboration opportunities and places NAV CANADA alongside Europe’s leading ANSPs, manufacturers, airlines, airports and research organisations on a standing basis.
Cooperation benefits both sides of the Atlantic
But cooperation is a two-way street, and Canadian organisations aren’t coming empty handed. They come with a range of unique experience and expertise.
“The more Canadian expertise that is in the room when the next generation of air traffic management systems and procedures are designed, the better that system will serve flights on both sides of the Atlantic,” says Cushnie.
For example, NAV CANADA brings operational experience from one of the most varied operating environments in the world: the North Atlantic, where major international routes converge, and vast northern and remote regions where sparse infrastructure and significant weather extremes are the norm. NAV CANADA also has a wealth of expertise in managing aircraft at major international airports located in very congested cross-border airspace.
Canada further serves as a live test bed for interoperability, where NAV CANADA can safely leverage some of the country’s vast airspace as a proving ground for technologies and procedures that may not be easily tested in congested European airspace.
“Every day, flights between Europe and North America are handed from European controllers to Canadian controllers and back,” notes Cushnie. “A solution that works across that boundary shows the potential for greater coordination, and non-EU members give SESAR a place to prove it.”
As Canada and Europe work to deepen economic and strategic ties, aviation research and innovation stands as a case study on how both sides of the Atlantic can benefit from such cooperation.
“Canada and Europe are deepening their partnership on many fronts; in aviation, that cooperation is already operational every day,” concludes Cushnie.
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