The first 18 months of Forest 4.0 has been devoted mostly to the preparation of establishment of Forest 4.0 CoE, communication with partners, developing CoE governance strategy, cooperation with Ministry of Science, Education and Sports to participate in a call for co-funding project development. September 8th,2023 the Co-funding project has started. In parallel, we have started to design the collaboration with the practitioners, Ministry representatives, Lithuanian State Forestry, businesses and other stakeholders. According to the project plan - 12 deliverables were provided and 11 milestones.
In WP1,within the18 months of the project implementation, a new legal entity was established. The name of this public entity is “VšĮ Forest 4.0”. The only shareholder of this entity is Vytautas Magnus University. The Governing board was established, which consist of 9 members, representatives of the shareholder of public entity, as well as main stakeholders and project partners.
In WP2, the fundamental task was to design the human resource strategy and policies. Plan and manage the recruitment of the CoE’s staff.
In WP3, the team focused on the infrastructure and equipment acquisition and management and the operational processes. The procedures of obtaining equipment have started, public procurement procedures performed. The new infrastructure obtained to allow it to properly achieve its objectives. This infrastructure is funded by the national complementary funding brough to the project. Infrastructure and equipment policy deliverable was prepared.
In WP4,during this period so far, the team has developed a number of deliverables in relation to the project goals (Report on development of smart forestry open data infrastructure; Implementation of methodological framework for research projects). Researchers have set the grounds for the open research infrastructure as well as in a coproduction way developed a methodological framework for starting new cross-disciplinary projects. The so far work shows promising results and now we will start implementing some activities related to strengthening the research culture within CoE Forest 4.0.
In WP5, the team was developing Innovation support service programme and Overall Design of the Acceleration Programme and Planning.The survey conducted within the consortium and associated parties, identified the need to provide innovative tools for real-time forest monitoring, predictive analytics, and automation of critical tasks, such as forest health assessment, growth modelling, carbon sequestration, resource allocation, etc. Innovative technologies should target stakeholders such as forest managers to for example, help make data-informed decisions that enhance sustainability, improve operational efficiency, and mitigate environmental risks. Through its innovation support services, the CoE plans to assist future “clients”, offering consultancy, training, and development of technology applications.
In WP6, the foundation for future communication, dissemination, and exploitation of results has been successfully established. The project's visual identity, templates, and communication materials have been created.
In WP7,project management structures and procedures were established to ensure effective project governance and implementation, administrative, financial and research coordination within the consortium.
