Last Thursday, at the invitation of the FNR, around 30 experts from the fields of politics & administration, business, research as well as civil society came together in an online workshop to discuss what they see as the most important future research and innovation topics in the fields of forests and wood.
The participants represented a number of relevant institutions from Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany. In addition to representatives from universities and forestry research institutions, representatives from ministries at regional and national level, associations of the forestry and timber industry, but also civil society institutions such as NGOs or associations of forest owners participated in the workshop.
The FNR colleagues opened the workshop with an explanation of the background of the EUFORE project and the wider framework in which the workshop took place. Subsequently, the workshop participants named the research and innovation focal points relevant from their perspective along the four thematic areas "Forest ecology", "Forest management", "Forest and wood products" and "Social aspects and policy".
The topics identified were very diverse and covered broad areas, such as the symbiosis of fungi and trees and the associated positive or negative development of trees, the use of soil-friendly timber harvesting technology, the development of wood-based chemicals, the more efficient use of calamity wood, or the implementation of social campaigns for more forest- and climate-friendly consumer behaviour. Across all four themes, climate change, the bio-economy, and the ecosystem services provided by the forest were repeatedly named as important focal points.
The results of the workshop will now be summarized and grouped into clusters. In the coming months, 5 more workshops will be held in other regions of Europe. In their entirety, representatives from all countries of the EU will thus participate. The results of the workshops will form the basis for the further process of developing a European strategic research and innovation agenda. The development of this research and innovation agenda is one of the focal points of the EU-funded project "EUFORE" (European Forest Research and Innovation Ecosystem), in which perspectives for joint European research and innovation activities in the areas of forests and wood are being developed.
The Horizon Europe project "EUFORE" is implemented by FNR together with 14 partner organizations. The FNR organizes the participation processes to involve stakeholders in the development of the research and innovation agenda.
Duration of the project: 11/2022 – 10/2026
EUFORE is funded under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under project no. 101081788.
FNR contact person: Jan Schmidt
