Treating wood wisely
The European forest-based industry is becoming more sustainable overall and providing a variety of eco-friendly solutions to environmentally conscious consumers. However, to ensure that the sector's sustainability flourishes, it is vital to strengthen relevant business models or value chains by ensuring that the smartest industry projects are properly funded. The EU-funded project Woodwisdom-NET2) set out to realise this objective. Primarily, the project helped steer the European forest-based industry from a resource-intensive one to a competitive, innovative, value added and knowledge driven one based on using renewable raw materials. It launched two calls for EU-funded project proposals that propelled the industry to new heights. Under the banner of 'Sustainable, competitive processing and end-use concepts for forest-based industries', the first call encouraged projects on applied research and development that brought the research community closer to product development. This resulted in funding of 9 projects with a total worth of EUR 13 million. The second equally important call was titled 'Sustainable forest management and optimised use of ligno-cellulosic resources - Bridging gaps between research disciplines, producers, consumers and society'. It aimed to improve the use of trees and forests through innovative research and cooperation, and selected 13 projects for funding with a total of EUR 21 million. Beyond these key initiatives, which funded the best and most promising projects in the industry, the project team upgraded the EU strategy for the forest-based sector on a global scale. It achieved this through the EU mechanism for strengthening non-EU entities to work with EU-led projects under the European Research Area's ERA-NET+ scheme. This is likely to positively affect the forestry sector and wood-related industries around the globe, fostering sustainable practices and encouraging foreign countries to adopt environmentally friendly practices.
