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Networking and Integration of National Programmes in the Area of Wood Material Science and Engineering in the Forest-based Value Chains

Final Report Summary - WOODWISDOM-NET 2 (Networking and Integration of National Programmes in the Area of Wood Material Science and Engineering in the Forest-based Value Chains)

Executive Summary:
The overall objective of the ERA-NET WoodWisdom-Net 2 was to promote the transformation of the European F-BI from a resource-intensive to a value-added knowledge-intensive, innovative and globally competitive industry based on the sustainable use of renewable raw materials. The goal was to further develop the WoodWisdom-Net Research Programme by launching two joint calls for projects in 2009 (Joint Call 2) and 2010 (Joint Call 3). Both calls were successfully implemented as planned.

The 2nd joint call for proposals "Sustainable, competitive processing and end-use concepts for forest-based industries" was launched in autumn 2009. The call was focused on applied research and development projects, and the themes and topics for the call were defined by the national funding organisations together with industry, based on strategies described in the SRA and NRAs of the forest-based sector. The focused call topics were aimed at activating industry partners to participate more in the WW-Net Research Programme and to create closer interaction between the research community and applied product development.

This resulted in 38 proposals, involving partners from 17 different countries and additional associated countries such as Belgium and Brazil. After evaluation by an international Expert Panel, nine projects were funded and these started with a kick-off session at the WW-Net Programme seminar in Paris in February 2011. The total volume of the projects is over 13 M€: public WW-Net funding 68 % (9 M€), industrial funding of the company projects 8 % (1 M€), industrial funding of research projects 12 % (1,5 M€), and research centres' own funding 12 % (1,5 M€).

The 3rd call of WW-Net was arranged together with the ERA-NET Bioenergy. This Joint Call 2010 for "Sustainable forest management and optimised use of ligno-cellulosic resources - Bridging gaps between research disciplines, producers, consumers and society" was launched on September 15, 2010. In this call the ERA-NETs WoodWisdom-Net 2 and ERA-NET Bioenergy aim to step up the cooperation and coordination of research activities carried out at national and regional level by joining forces to promote innovative research and cooperation to help optimise the use of trees and forests. The public funding is jointly provided by 19 national funding organisations from Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom between 2011 and 2014.

During this 2-step call there were 81 pre-proposals submitted and out of these 40 proposals were invited to the second step. The full proposals were peer-reviewed by an international Expert Panel and based on the ranking list collected by the Expert Panel the Call Committee then recommended 13 projects to be funded within the framework of the available national budgets.The total value of these 13 projects is close to 21 M€, the share of public WW-Net funding being 13.7 M€ and the rest (ca. 7 M€) coming from other co-funding sources (industrial co-funding etc.). As well as the main participants, some of the projects have partners from Austria, Brazil and Chile.

Thanks to all the active efforts during WW-Net 2 in December 2011 the partners came to an agreement on a draft plan of an ERA-NET+ for the forest-based sector and as a result the enlarged ERA-NET Plus consortium was able to submit a proposal in February 2012. The proposed ERA-NET+ action would continue improving implementation of joint activities and has an ambitious goal for funding trans-national research and offering access to resources of other countries.
Project Context and Objectives:
See Annex 1 - Final publishable summary report WW-Net 2
Project Results:
See Annex 1 - Final publishable summary report WW-Net 2
Potential Impact:
See Annex 1 - Final publishable summary report WW-Net 2
List of Websites:
See Annex 1 - Final publishable summary report WW-Net 2