ForestValue - Innovating forest-based bioeconomy

ForestValue - Innovating forest-based bioeconomy

The overall objective of the proposed Cofund action “ForestValue - Innovating the forest-based bioeconomy” is to promote increased innovation and competitiveness of the forest-based sector in Europe and support its transformation from a resource-intensive to a knowledge-intensive, productive, resource-efficient and resilient sector. Sustainability and modernisation of forestry systems and downstream value chains including innovative business concepts and production technologies will be needed to develop the forestry sector and the European bioeconomy, of which forestry accounts for a large share. The aim of ForestValue is to comprise the joint implementation of a trans-national call for proposals for research, development and innovation in the forest-based sector with a clear financial commitment from the participating national (or regional) research programmes and the EU. The topics of the planned ForestValue joint call will contribute to transforming the global economy from a dependence on fossil and non-renewable raw materials to a sustainable “bio-based economy”. The primary purpose is to allow the partners in the consortium to successfully implement and fund a co-funded joint call in the field of forestry and the wood sector. ForestValue builds on the success of three forest-based ERA-NETs: WoodWisdom-Net (running since 2004, the present phase running under the FP7 ERA-NET Plus Scheme 2012-2017), SUMFOREST (Tackling the challenges in sustainable and multifunctional forestry through enhanced research coordination for policy decisions, 2014-2017) and FORESTERRA (Enhancing forest research in the Mediterranean through improved coordination and integration, 2012-2015). The consortium consists of 31 partners representing different programmes in the bioeconomy funding sector, coming from different regions and countries inside/outside Europe.