Workshop on the 3SA-SDB initiative "Towards collaborative governance of the Digital Backbone for the Single European Sky"

The Single European Sky (SES) Digital Backbone or “SDB” aims to underpin the essential data exchange infrastructure by creating an overarching framework for its sustained operations and includes components deployed and used by a wide range of related SESAR deployment Implementation Projects.

SDB is proposed to be set up following the successful NewPENS approach as example for the governance, which is already an inspiration for other key technical projects such as ‘Data-Link Services’ (DLS), ‘System Wide Information Management (SWIM) Governance’ and’ Common PKI and Cybersecurity’; currently on-going under the SESAR Deployment framework.

The aspects covered by these projects, aim at collaboration, interoperability, and increasing performance; which are considered necessary for a successful end-to-end digitalisation of European ATM.

In this context, the needs of all operational stakeholder have to be addressed and assessed carefully and a workshop on the SES Digital Backbone is the opportunity to bring stakeholders together.

On 1 October, 2018, the A6 Alliance of ANSPs and Eurocontrol published a White Paper  on the 3SA-SDBinitiative. It proposes the creation of an SES Digital Backbone governance through an all-inclusive SES Shared Services Alliance (the “3SA”).

The 3SA-SDB proposal calls for further strategic alignment between operational stakeholders that are engaged in several SESAR deployment Implementation Projects that are managed by the SESAR Deployment Manager.

As a result, the SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM) will facilitate the next steps in execution of its mandate to synchronise deployment.

Therefore, the SDM would like to invite all interested operational stakeholders to elaborate the next steps together. To ensure synchronisation between the potentially affected SESAR Deployment Implementing Projects (IPs) and all other stakeholders not involved in the actual IPs, the SDM is organising a “Workshop on the 3SA-SDB initiative”.

The workshop opens the dialogue between operational stakeholders on how we collaboratively will tackle the challenges ahead in terms of shared digitalisation, based on the SDB proposal and its 3SA governance as starting point.