ImAFUSA Research Named Best Technical Paper at 2025 ITS Congress

The recent 2025 ITS Congress in Seville concluded with a major triumph for ImAFUSA, as research produced by the SESAR JU-funded project was commended with the Best Technical Paper Award.

Authors Anna Palaiologk, Eleftheria Georganti, and Kyriaki Daskaloudi of Future Needs are leading ImAFUSA’s research on the spatial impact of UAM, and picked up the title for their paper Advancing the Sustainable Urban Air Mobility Indicators Framework: Proposing New Non-Core Indicators.

The ITS Congress (ITS standing for Intelligent Transport Systems) is one of the leading events in the sector globally, with the 2025 edition in Seville attracting over 3,000 participants from 71 countries according to the organisers. These included industry leaders, policymakers, innovators, and researchers who attended to explore the theme “Clean, Resilient, and Connected Mobility.”

During the prize-giving ceremony, Joost Vantomme CEO of ERTICO - ITS Europe commented on the importance and broad utility of the awarded ImAFUSA research, stating:

“The paper describes how a city can prepare for managing potentially disruptive mobility services, and they use what for most cities will be new technologies and regulatory frameworks”

He added:

“So the approach is transferable to other locations - it’s an interoperable paper.”

The Future Needs team produced the paper in the context of research into the potential impacts of innovative forms of aerial mobility in cities, which forms a key part of the ImAFUSA project. Author Kyriaki Daskaloudi presented the work at the ITS Congress during a technical paper session.

Kyriaki Daskaloudi of Future Needs presenting the award winning technical paper "Advancing the Sustainable Urban Air Mobility Indicators Framework: Proposing New Non-Core Indicators" during the 2025 ITS Congress in Seville .

The paper builds on the Sustainable Urban Air Mobility Indicators (SUAMI) framework (Palaiologk & Arvanitidis, 2025), also developed in the context of the ImAFUSA project and presented at the Towards Sustainable Aviation Summit in Toulouse earlier this year.

The latest paper extends the SUAMI framework by incorporating additional metrics that reflect the complex realities of integrating Urban Air Mobility (UAM) into city transport systems.

Drawing on the established Sustainable Urban Mobility Indicators (SUMI) developed primarily for ground-based transport, the authors adapt relevant non-core indicators for a UAM context. In addition, they identify key gaps and propose new indicators covering aspects such as environmental impact, operational performance, societal acceptance, and infrastructure needs.

Lead author of the paper Anna Palaiologk explained:

“New forms of Urban Air Mobility hold great promise for cities to address challenges such as congestion, emissions and noise. However for this potential to be realised, stakeholders and policymakers need tools to properly assess likely future impacts from UAM technologies. Our research contributes to the development of these tools which can be applied in a wide variety of contexts.”

ImAFUSA extends its sincere thanks to the ITS Congress for this recognition amid such a high standard of research, and for hosting an exceptional event.

References

Palaiologk, A., Georganti, E., Daskaloudi, K. (2025, May 19–21). Advancing the Sustainable Urban Air Mobility Indicators Framework: Proposing new non-core indicators. Paper presented at the 16th ITS European Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Seville, Spain.

Palaiologk, A., Arvanitidis, A. (2025). Integrating Urban Air Mobility into Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans: A Framework and Occupational Profiles for Smart Cities. Future Needs Management Consulting Ltd. https://doi.org/10.60711/TSAS25.20250226.9027645031133717