AEROPORTI DI PUGLIA SOCIETA PER AZIONI

Their core work

Aeroporti di Puglia is the regional airport authority operating airports in the Puglia region of southern Italy (Bari, Brindisi, Foggia, Taranto). In EU research projects, they do not contribute as a technology developer — they contribute as a real-world operational environment and end-user validator. Their value to consortia is access to live airport infrastructure where satellite navigation, IoT systems, and AI-driven security tools can be tested under genuine operational conditions. As a critical infrastructure operator, they bring domain knowledge in aviation safety requirements, regulatory constraints, and operational complexity that laboratory partners cannot replicate.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their first project (e-Airport, 2015–2017) focused narrowly on satellite navigation as a tool for improving airport-specific operations — a tightly scoped, aviation-domain application. By 2020, their participation in InSecTT reflected a broader shift toward general IoT security, AI trustworthiness, and interoperability across critical infrastructure domains, where airports are just one of several use-case environments. This suggests they moved from being a sector-specific aviation partner to a more broadly relevant critical infrastructure end-user, valued for their operational complexity rather than any single technology.

They are evolving from a narrowly aviation-focused end-user toward a critical infrastructure validation partner for AI and IoT security projects, making them relevant to any consortium needing a regulated, high-stakes operational environment for technology demonstration.

How they like to work

Aeroporti di Puglia has participated exclusively as a consortium member — never as a coordinator — across both projects. Despite having only two projects, they engaged in large consortia: a combined 66 unique partners across 14 countries, suggesting they were embedded in well-resourced, multi-stakeholder Innovation Actions. This profile is typical of an industrial end-user that joins projects to validate technology rather than to drive research agendas. Working with them means gaining access to operational airport infrastructure in exchange for adapting your technology to their domain requirements.

Despite only two projects, Aeroporti di Puglia has accumulated 66 unique consortium partners spanning 14 countries — unusually broad exposure for an organization of this size and project count. This reflects their participation in large, cross-European Innovation Actions rather than small bilateral partnerships.

What sets them apart

Aeroporti di Puglia offers something most research and technology organizations cannot: a live, regulated, multi-airport operational environment in southern Italy where technology can be tested under real aviation conditions, with real regulatory constraints and real safety stakes. For consortia working on digital infrastructure, IoT security, or AI deployment in critical systems, this is a credible and rare end-user role. Their position as a public-service infrastructure operator in an underrepresented region of the EU also strengthens proposals needing geographic diversity or societal impact validation in southern Europe.

Highlights from their portfolio

• InSecTT
  Their largest project by funding (€209,875) and thematically most ambitious — addressing explainable AI, trustable IoT, and cross-domain security in a large Innovation Action that runs through 2023, reflecting the frontier of digital infrastructure research.
• e-Airport
  Their earliest H2020 engagement, using European GNSS to improve airport safety and capacity — a concrete aviation-domain use case that established their track record as an operational end-user in satellite navigation projects.