The DLR department “Controller Assistance” is a leader in the field of speech understanding in aviation and has already completed a technology transfer to the industry. However, there are often hurdles for further transfers in the areas of maintenance, customization, and data protection. The new SELF-MADE-ATC project is therefore developing an automatic maintenance and customisation process for speech recognition and understanding (ASRU) in air traffic control. For the first time, the DLR-Institute will train its own speech recogniser to transform a speech signal into a word sequence and thus become more independent of university partners. The process to be developed ensures that a consistently high recognition quality – both at word level and at command level – is achieved even in dynamic environments, e.g., with monthly airspace adjustments or new airspaces. Sensitive personal voice data does not have to leave the air traffic control centres. Manual efforts, which amount to three to seven times the licence costs for data preparation, are eliminated. As a result, the project reduces the effort and economic risk for providers and users when using ASRU. The two-years-project is funded by DLR-Transfermanagement. A dozen industry partners from the air traffic management domain already stated their interest in the project and its outcomes with a letter of intent before the official project kickoff.