Forest sector innovations in the focus of upcoming Rosewood4.0 events

When the Coronavirus pandemic started in 2020, the activities of Lapland University of Applied Sciences (Lapland UAS) projects were moved online. This was also the case for the ROSEWOOD4.0 study visits, where different forestry practices and innovations were presented during the COVID-19 wave in webinars organised by partners.

With the advent of spring 2022, the project partners and stakeholders will finally have the opportunity to learn face-to-face about practices in different regions and to network with forest sector actors and other stakeholders in the regions. The cooperation between partners and stakeholders, the transfer of different practices and best practices should contribute to the diversified and sustainable use of wood in Europe and create new business opportunities.

The most interesting highlights of the ROSEWOOD4.0 Knowledge Platform 

The ROSEWOOD4.0 network has collected a wide range of forestry practices during the project in the Knowledge Platform, a website open to all and free of charge.

With 21 partners from 18 countries, the network offers a wide range of solutions, most of them digital. The portal currently hosts more than 300 different practices and innovations. Practices of interest to other partners will be presented during study visits to Austria, Sweden and Finland in spring 2022. These countries have a lot of know-how to share with partners in Southern and Eastern Europe.

Study trip to Rovaniemi

In May, partners from Austria, Poland, Spain and Ukraine will come to Rovaniemi to visit Pilke House, which is of interest both as an architectural site and as an office building. In the same building, forestry operators and the Science Centre for Sustainable Use of Forests will be located. One partner is planning to build an experiential and interactive forest and climate centre in their region, so it is important for them to benchmark Pilke House. Pilke House itself is a masterpiece of Finnish timber construction and it will be very interesting to visit for that reason.

The guests will also be taken to Europe’s largest forest machine simulation learning environment at the Lapland Education Centre REDU. The learning environment includes the latest technology and interest in simulators is high. Visitors will be able to try out the virtual world for themselves and learn about machine learning in forest machine training.

The study tour will also include presentations on the Virtual Forest 2.0 application developed for visualising forest resource data and the Metsään.fi information service for forest owners and forestry operators. These digital practices are of interest to other partners, so the two-day visit to Rovaniemi will be informative and rewarding.

Study trip to Austria

Our Austrian partners have organised study trips to the “Green Heart of Austria” region of Styria, where representatives of the University of Applied Sciences Lapland and the Natural Resources Institute of Finland will travel in mid-May. Among the destinations to be visited is Mayar-Melnhof Holz, one of Europe’s leading wood processing companies and a promoter of cross-laminated timber (CLT). It could provide new ideas for the CLT Access Matting project led by the University of Applied Sciences of Lapland, which originated from the preceding ROSEWOOD project. Could the trip give rise to some ideas for a follow-up project to use the boards?

The Wood Innovation Centre will also be presented to name but a few, as well as the already exciting WoodC.A.R. project, which is developing wood-based materials for the automotive industry, among other things.

Looking to the future

The ROSEWOOD4.0 project will consider the way forward at a final seminar in Barcelona, Spain, in mid-June. The continuity of the network is important and representatives of the European Conference of Forest Ministers Forest Europe, the EU FarmBook project, and the EFI Bioregions Facility have been invited to the seminar to explain what is needed to maintain the networks and what tools could be used. Anyone can participate in the hybrid event by registering here.

Although the ROSEWOOD4.0 project will officially end at the end of June 2022, the web portal will remain in operation and will be expanded with new practices and innovations through the post-project network. The aim is to maintain and expand a European network where best forestry practices and various new innovations are effectively transferred from one region to another. Let’s see what new things emerge from this network and what kind of cooperation we can expect in the future!

Project information

The ROSEWOOD4.0 project harnesses the expertise available in different regions of Europe to promote the sustainable mobility of wood. The project will transfer knowledge on best forestry practices and new innovations to other regions and develop cooperation between actors. The project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The Finnish partners are Lapland University of Applied Sciences and the Natural Resources Institute of Finland.

For more information, please contact Anne Saloniemi (ROSEWOOD4.0 project): anne.saloniemi(at)lapinamk.fi 

This article was originally published in Finnish by Anne Saloniemi, member of the ROSEWOOD4.0 consortium and expert in the Future Bioeconomy Competence Group at Lapland University of Applied Sciences in Finland. Read the article in its original language here.