On February 13, 2025, the second Open Innovation and Design Thinking Workshop took place as part of the SORA4UAM project. This event brought together experts from various fields to discuss the latest developments and insights into risk assessment for urban air mobility.

One of the key highlights of the workshop was a presentation by Raphaela Rainer (Austro Control), who provided an update on the status of SORA 2.5. She explained the most important modifications and their impact on future drone and urban air mobility (UAM) operations.

Dariia Strelnikova (SIENA) presented the project’s interim results. A major milestone has already been reached: the geodata catalog has been compiled as planned. Additionally, the algorithms for deriving risk information for UAM flights have been successfully adapted to the expected SORA update. At the same time, the framework documentation is currently in its final preparation phase.

An especially exciting part of the workshop was the presentation by Tom Bruchmann (AIRlabs), who introduced a concept study on vertiports. Using Graz as an example, he demonstrated how risk information can be leveraged to support the safe integration of vertiports into urban environments.

The final presentation of the day was given by Gernot Paulus (SIENA), who addressed the challenges of ground risk assessment, particularly concerning the quality and availability of population data. His talk sparked an engaging discussion on potential solutions.

To conclude the workshop, the project team outlined the remaining steps leading up to project completion. Additionally, initial ideas for a follow-up project were discussed to build on the achieved results and further advance innovative solutions for the UAM sector.