The 25th edition of the Integrated Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance (ICNS) Conference has concluded, marking a remarkable milestone—25 years of advancing CNS technology and innovation. For the first time, this flagship event was held in Europe, hosted by EUROCONTROL, the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU), and the SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM).
Over the course of three days, ICNS 2025 welcomed more than 350 in-person participants from over 40 countries, including leaders from government, industry, and academia, as well as technical and operational experts. Additionally, more than 5,000 viewers have already viewed the plenary sessions via EUROCONTROL’s channels.
Set against the backdrop of the EUROCONTROL Conference Centre in Brussels, the event explored the latest advancements in CNS and examined critical policy issues shaping the future of communications, navigation, surveillance, and air traffic management (ATM).
Highlights Included:
- Four plenary keynote sessions featuring outstanding speakers:
- EASA’s Florian Guillermet
- European Commission’s Flor Diaz Pulido
- ESA’s Lead Astronaut, Luca Parmitano
- ICAO’s Pascal Luciani
- Six plenary panel sessions with 34 speakers
- A packed technical program with 8 parallel streams featuring more than 140 papers from over 400 contributing authors, with 38 sessions across 6 content tracks
- Numerous networking opportunities during breaks and two well-attended evening receptions
- Recognition of excellence through multiple paper awards, including:
- 42 Best of Session awards
- Six Best of Track awards in the student category
- Six Best of Track awards in the professional category
Notably, two student papers won Best of Track awards in both the student and professional categories, reflecting the high quality and relevance of the student contributions.
The Best of Conference Award was presented to Dr. Giuseppe Sirigu, John Dolan, and Dr. Michael Garcia from Aireon for their paper, “Independent Estimation of Aircraft Positions Using Space-Based ADS-B Data for GNSS Anomaly Identification and Investigation.”
The prestigious ICNS Champion Award for 2025 was awarded to Paul Bosman, Head of ATM Infrastructure at EUROCONTROL, in recognition of his exemplary contributions to aviation technology and infrastructure, and his enduring support of the ICNS Conference.
Key Takeaways
- Collaboration among states, industry, regulators, and operational users is essential for implementable CNS strategies.
- Global harmonization: aligning efforts worldwide ensures safe, efficient, and interoperable CNS.
- Human-centric approach: integrate automation and new technologies taking into account the operational user needs.
- Proactive preparedness: anticipate challenges and threats to ensure system resilience.
- Link technologies to services and benefits: CNS is a key enabler for new concepts delivering operational benefits.
- Fit-for-purpose standards: develop adaptable, forward-looking standards.
- Consistent vision: a clear and lasting strategic vision is crucial for CNS evolution.
You can rewatch or catch up on the keynote addresses and the plenary sessions through the recordings, presentations and photos available at EUROCONTROL’s ICNS 2025 event page.
We are particularly grateful for all the support from our financial sponsors: our platinum sponsor NASA, gold sponsor Airbus, silver sponsors Frequentis, Aireon, Viasat and Indra, exhibitors Startical, Sunhillo and Honeywell, supporters ESSP and L3Harris and media sponsor EUROCAE. Huge thanks to our hosts, EUROCONTROL, SDM, and SJU, for supporting this milestone event.
We are particularly thankful to our keynote speakers, plenary facilitators and panelists, authors, track and session chairs, reviewers, and hosts’ supporting staff for their invaluable contributions to the conference’s success and all of you that joined us in person and through your contributions, discussions, and engagement made ICNS 2025 the leading event for CNS advancements.
Block your calendars for the next edition planned for 14-16 April 2026, returning to Herndon, Virginia, USA. Be sure to subscribe to ICNS emails for the latest updates.
Nikos and Brent for the ICNS 2025 organizing committee