Nordic Drone Initiative

The Nordic countries join hands to investigate the efficient usage of air space and to accelerate the introduction of drone-based solutions for future mobility. Coordinated by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, the project Nordic Drone Initiative (NDI) aims to form an open collaborative innovation platform to bring relevant stakeholders for jointly enabling sustainable, secure, energy-efficient and decarbonized mobility.

The Nordic countries are leading the way towards sustainable air mobility and connectivity. The on-going project NEA - Nordic Electric Aviation represents one of the joint innovation efforts on future mobility. While electric aviation is the focus of NEA, drones, on the other hand, hold the key for efficient utilization of the lower altitude air space. U-space transport, e.g., electric drones for passenger and goods transport represents one of the emerging and promising solutions for a cleaner, more efficient and flexible transport mode. By integrating with the ground transport and flight transport, drone-based transport fills the utilization gap and helps to maximize the utilization of air spaces.

The NDI focuses on key areas for drone-based mobility solutions intending to

• identify the most relevant use cases in the Nordic context that maximize the benefits of sustainability and business potential
• map the application needs, technology maturity, business potential, and complementary competences
• bring together the relevant stakeholders for collaborative innovation on technologies, policies and standards that enables cross-border goods delivery and passenger transport with drones and
• create a knowledge base and digital platform that integrate the Nordic competences for accelerating the introduction of drone-based mobility services.

The project is a led by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and consists of 16 partners from four Nordic countries including RISE, Katla Aero, Flypulse, Kista Science City, Mainbase, LFV, and Östergötland Region from Sweden; VTT, Bell Rock Advisors, Robots Expert, Business Tampere from Finland; NORCE, Nordic Edge, Drone Nord, and UAS Norway from Norway; and Gate21 from Denmark. The project also has Avinor from Norway and ANS from Finland in the reference group.

The project serves as an open platform and always welcomes new partners onboard for joint innovation. It has now the involvement of Innovation Center Iceland from the fifth Nordic country Iceland.