HIVE LAB – Groningen Airport Eelde links aviation innovations to education

Developments within the transition to sustainable and smart aviation are rapidly following one another. To share and secure issues, knowledge and experience from practice and education, Groningen Airport Eelde (GAE) and Hive.Mobility, in collaboration with Noorderpoort and MBO College Airport, have taken the initiative to set up the learning community HIVE LAB – GAE.

In the learning community, various organisations from the aviation and engineering sector actively cooperate with education. Issues from the sector are shared within the community with the aim of exchanging knowledge and experience as well as finding smart solutions. Within the learning community HIVE LAB – GAE, in addition to the initiators, companies and educational institutions such as DroneHub Noord-Nederland, House of Aviation, Deltion College and Hanze University Groningen work together.

Education and research

With the participants, three content themes were identified to be focused on within the learning community:

1. Droning & air taxis for passenger transport
2. Electric flying (including flying on hydrogen)
3. Sustainable ground handling and infrastructure airport of the future

For education and research to be well aligned with rapid developments in the market, innovations from practice need to be translated into structural and scalable forms of education.

“At the same time, knowledge, skills and experiences from education and research can contribute greatly to accelerating the transition towards more sustainable and smart aviation. This cross-fertilisation can be facilitated in the collaborative form of a learning community. For this reason, we have taken the initiative to create HIVE LAB – GAE,” says Ilse Mensink, programme manager Hive.Mobility.

Jonas van Dorp, Groningen Airport Eelde:

“With research and knowledge sharing, this Learning Community can help not only us, but the entire aviation sector in the Netherlands to clarify issues about Aviation 2.0. We are pleased with this joint initiative which fits very well with our NXT Airport programme which focuses, among other things, on innovation and sustainability in aviation, and as an international regional airport we will actively contribute issues and invite others to do the same. We will also share the knowledge we gain with partners in various projects as much as possible with other airports and interested parties.”

Cross-pollination

Within the learning community, connections are also made between other partnerships, pilots and research. For instance, the ROC van Amsterdam, of which MBO College Airport is part, is also connected to the Bright Sky initiative, a partnership between a number of major players in the aviation sector. One of the current projects within this partnership is testing with hybrid/electric flights. The learning community intends to contribute to this with research and knowledge sharing. For instance, research has been conducted into the potential of electric flying for the Northern Netherlands and Limburg, which will be continued within the learning community.

Participate

Organisations that are actively engaged in aviation innovation and would like to share relevant knowledge or experiences and/or seek collaborations can contact us at marketing@gae.nl