The future challenges of air transport motivated in 2010 the leading worldwide aviation research institutions to found IFAR – the International Forum for Aviation Research – which is working on a voluntary, non-binding basis. The primary purpose of IFAR is to connect research organisations worldwide, to enable the information exchange on aviation research activities between members, to facilitate opportunities for networking and creating partnerships and to coordinate views and make recommendations for use by its members. Climate change is currently one of the most relevant topic and was the initial motivation to set up IFAR. However, the focus of IFAR is on all non-competitive research and development topics related to global technical challenges such as those pertaining to emission, noise, security, safety and efficient operations, and steps to reduce the impact of aviation on climate and the environment. Against this background, IFAR aims at developing a regularly updated IFAR Framework Document outlining global research objectives and technological opportunities for use by its members. The results will be updated regularly at the website www.ifar.aero From the beginning, the IFAR activities were supported by the IFAR secretariat which was established and financed by DLR. From mid 2011 the IFAR administration and the IFAR activities are also supported by the 3-year Support-Action-Project IFARs funded by the European Commission. After mid 2014 IFAR is expected and will be self organised without any further external support.