AZERO Project: One Year Down, A Sustainable Future Takes Flight

LMD 3 Sep 2025

Figure 1: Drawing summarizing the steps of the AZERO project (designed by Luis Martín-Domingo)

Just over a year ago, on 1 st September 2024, the AZERO (Aviation Zero Emissions 2050) project officially launched, but its origins trace back to a pivotal moment in June 2022. It all began when a tweet from Professor Marina Efthymiou, a sustainable aviation expert at DCU Business School, caught the eye of researcher Luis. This spark of inspiration set in motion a journey that would lead to a ground-breaking international research initiative that assesses airline emissions reduction commitments to achieve net-zero carbon by 2050.

The path to securing funding was a testament to perseverance. With the crucial guidance of Professor Efthymiou, DCU’s Research and Innovation Support, a second supervisor, simulation expert Associate Professor Miguel Mújica Mota from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Dr Eamonn McConnon, Senior Research Development Lead at DCU, Luis prepared a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship proposal. Despite an initial setback, the team refined the application and their persistence paid off when the
proposal was awarded in February 2024 with a remarkable score of 98 out of 100, making Luis the first-ever MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow in Aviation at DCU Business School.

The project’s first year has been marked by significant achievement, most notably the publication of its first research paper – Extracting airline emission KPIs from sustainability reports using large language models (LLMs). This work showcases the project's innovative, data-driven approach. The paper, fully available to the public, was the result of a close collaboration with the DCU Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics, co-authored by researchers from the centre.

As AZERO moves into its second year, the focus will shift towards applying advanced simulation techniques. Luis will undertake a five-month secondment in Amsterdam, working directly with Prof. Mújica Mota to model the pathways for airlines to achieve their climate
targets. This phase is critical for testing the feasibility of the industry’s net-zero ambitions and providing a data-backed reality check.

From a single tweet to a funded, multi-disciplinary European project, AZERO has had a remarkable start. By blending deep industry knowledge with cutting-edge data science and simulation, the project is not just tracking the journey to sustainable aviation, it's helping to navigate it. As the project continues, its findings will be invaluable for shaping a greener future for air travel.