It was announced from Montréal on 9 November that ICAO and the International Forum for Aviation Research (IFAR) had formalised a new agreement aimed at accelerating and improving the effective assessment of new aviation technologies and innovations.

The agreement establishes two new ICAO-IFAR Expert Groups which will review latest innovations in the areas of urban air mobility and AI in aviation. After their first year, each group will report back to ICAO and IFAR and the two organizations will use the findings to optimize and formalize IFAR’s future contributions to ICAO and international aviation.

ICAO Secretary General Dr Fang Liu commented: ‘This new collaboration will see IFAR’s community supporting ICAO’s activities by sharing its consensus view on current areas of technical challenge and opportunity, and in turn, ICAO will augment its ability to engage with and benefit from IFAR’s processes and expectations.’