The International Centre of Forestry and Forest Industries (ICFFI) was founded in 1994 by the St. Petersburg Forest Technical Academy which established seven working and planning groups for the ICFFI:
Forestry and landscape gardening, Forest exploitation, Chemical technology of wood and other forest products, Mechanical technology of wood and wooden furniture production, Machines and equipment for the forest complex, Economy and management in forest complex, information systems in forestry.
The groups prepared preliminary lists of relevant research and potential research projects, which were then distributed, to the contractors in this INTAS project for comment. The contractors also informed other organisations in their own and neighbouring countries about the proposed network, the planning groups and the potential joint research projects. After comments the groups have prepared a final list which contains 59 projects and will be published as the result of this project. Another result is the list of European scientific organisations, institutes and universities (57 in 21 countries) at which scientists have expressed an interest in collaborating with the ICFFI and the Academy in joint research projects. It will be published together with the project list.