The Midlands aerospace cluster is a significant contributor to the Midlands economy, and to the UK aerospace industry, responsible for more than 100,000 (\>2%) of all Midlands jobs and more than 20% of the UK aerospace industry's Gross Value Added. Aerospace and aviation are generally agreed to be responsible for about 8% of UK carbon emissions. Moreover, the industry is widely accepted to be a "hard-to-decarbonise" sector in the timescales now required, owing to its relatively slow technology development clockspeed and as yet unclear technological routes to decarbonise -- especially long-haul -- aviation. This DMAC project (Decarbonising the Midlands Aerospace Cluster) will create and develop the first -- as far as we are aware -- credible place-based industrial decarbonisation plan for an aerospace manufacturing cluster. It will do this by engaging directly with key players along aerospace supply chains in the Midlands region to identify the key manufacturing processes and operations that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and engage with local expertise to assist with the assessment of proposed solutions as appropriate. The project will consist of a series of structured and engaging activities that will establish: _1\. Current state:_ * Scalable emissions baseline for the Midlands aerospace cluster; * 'Do-nothing' fly-forward based on new aircraft production and in-service support predictions; * 'Current state' via a statistically valid sample for the local cluster's emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3); _2\. Potential solutions:_ * List of potential solutions to reduce emissions, assessed for technical and commercial challenge; * Quantification of the respective impacts of these potential solutions * Identification of potential offset options; _3\. Credible, strategic plan:_ * A phased strategy and potential emissions reduction plan out to 2050; * Research projects required to de-risk the strategic plan; * Near-term projects to initiate the decarbonisation of the local cluster; * A re-useable methodology to roll out the approach to other aerospace clusters and other industrial sectors. An ambitious project like this will potentially be a major step forward for the Midlands aerospace cluster and also have important lessons for other regions and for related, especially regulated manufacturing industries like automotive, nuclear, rail, oil and gas.

By enabling Additive Manufacturing (AM) parts in highly regulated sectors, DAEDALUS will help make the UK the place to manufacture the products that will drive the future of the world, addressing the UK Grand Challenges \[1\] (future electric aircraft for urban mobility and clean growth, and medical devices for ageing society).The adoption of AM in these sectors (e.g. aerospace, space, oil & gas and medical) is hindered by part quality issues, process repeatability and reliability, traceability, scalability and limited availability of AM standards. These challenges are inherently linked to the ability to generate (sampling); capture (in-process monitoring); process (signal processing); store (data architectures); structure (data schemas and standards); manage (traceability provision); analyse (data correlation and insights) and share (manual data, different platforms) highly complex data across the AM process chain (i.e. powder management, build process and post-processing) and the supply chain. Therefore, digital manufacturing is a key enabler and solution, which is the core objective of DAEDALUS.DAEDALUS is aiming at developing a novel solution, with a combination of IDTs (AM, IIoT/Connectivity, AI/analytics) to build the digital thread and analytics solutions to enable AM adoption and scale-up and accelerate qualification of AM parts in highly regulated sectors.**AM Digital Thread:** Development of single, traceable, digital thread and its flexible integration of facility/production management systems to streamline, standardise and digitalise best practices across the AM supply chain focusing on powder management, process and post-process optimisation.**AM Intelligence:** Development of AI-enabled solutions for material and process control and stability through the utilisation of materials, sensor and in-process monitoring data.This solution will be demonstrated for three steps of the AM process chain individually (powder management, build process, machining) in a combination of pre-production and industrial environments. The final demonstrator will be a digitally integrated AM supply chain: a secure collaborative, intelligent and independent platform whereby reliable AM raw material and product traceability data can be shared securely between AM supply chain partners.The final solution is intended to generate game-changing improvements in operational efficiency, including yield, material cost and lead-times. The solution will also make a radical improvement in qualification and certification times for the AM supply chain. As a result, significant improvements in time to market are also expected.DAEDALUS will influence the future of manufacturing, by anchoring light-weighting, electrification, customised medical implants and devices in the UK supply chain and help invigorating the associated digital tech ecosystem.