Research

ENAC research activities are conducted by research faculty and postdoctoral students working in a total of nine ENAC research laboratories. These activities are relatively recent and growing steadily. 
In 2010, ENAC researchers supervised a total of 39 thesis projects (including 15 conducted by non-French students). These thesis projects were funded by various public and private organizations and co-supervised by seven doctoral schools in Toulouse (EDAA, EDCLESCO, EDDSP, EDGEET, EDMITT, EDSYS and TSE) and several foreign universities.

In 2009, ENAC research activities consisted of 16 partnership projects with external funding amounting to 933,000 €. At present, they consist of 27 national and international research projects amounting to 1,400,000 €.At the regional level, eight ENAC projects are currently certified as Aerospace Valley competitiveness cluster projects, which is indicative of the impact of ENAC research activities on the development of the aeronautical industry in the Midi-Pyrénées and Aquitaine regions.

ENAC research and development projects are also conducted within the framework of national and European programmes such as CleanSky and SESAR, the EU's Sixth and Seventh Framework Research and Development Programmes, and various ANR, DGCIS and DGAC research programmes.

ENAC's main industrial partners are Airbus, Thales, Steria, CGX, Intespace, Nextops, the US Air Force and OKTAL. ENAC teams also collaborate with a large number of public research centres (CNRS-LAAS, ONERA, CNES), institutional partners (Météo France) and academic partners (LCPC, ISAE, Polytechnic Institute of Turin, Bundeswehr University in Munich, Mario Boella Institute in Turin, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Polytechnic Institute of Catalonia, Higher Technical Institute in Lisbon, São Jose dos Campos Aeronautics Institute in Sao Paulo, Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, IIUM in Kuala-Lumpur).

Given the recent implementation of ENAC research activities, it is worth noting that 6 patents have already been filed (one in 1989 and five others between 2004 and 2009).

Research projects are also conducted in collaboration with ENAC teams specialized in training and assessment (e.g. aeronautical and airport operations, air traffic management, aeronautical safety and security, communication systems, navigation and monitoring systems, human and organizational factors). These collaborations between assessment and research specialists have led to the preparation of three multidisciplinary theses (one on legal issues and two on safety issues).