"The main objective of the AEROMUCO project is to develop and evaluate a number of alternative – and highly innovative – active and passive multi-functional surface protection systems for future generation of aircraft, leading to a significant improvement in fuel efficiency and a reduction in CO2 and NOx emissions. Two technological routes to achieve this goal will be explored:• The reduction of the energy consumption for inflight de-icing through the development of coatings that exploit the use of a new generation of low-energy consuming active de-icing systems.• The development of durable and effective active and passive surface protection systems that will facilitate and maintain laminar boundary layers on aerodynamic surfaces. These coatings will reduce insect adhesion through novel, low-surface-energy concepts and remove insect residue through photoactive/enzymatic activity on nanotextured coatings.The high-speed airflow over aircraft can contain sand, water droplets, insects, ice crystals and other particles, and there thus exists a significant challenge to produce protective coatings for this varied and demanding environment. AEROMUCO will develop multifunctional coatings with both anti-contamination and anti-icing properties that will also protect the aircraft’s skin from erosion. These novel coatings will be customized to the requirements of the location on the wing (e.g. leading edge contamination avoidance, upper surface runback ice prevention).The multi-disciplinary approach will yield technological improvements beyond the state of the art through a structured, but innovative, research strategy. A comprehensive set of unique tests will be performed, including ice build-up tests (microscopic and full-scale icing wind tunnel tests), comparative rain erosion tests, abrasion tests, and an assessment of kinetic of enzyme processes."