ROSEWOOD4.0 Final Event lays the foundation for a Europe-wide collaboration on forest innovation

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How to ensure the sustainability of H2020 thematic networks after the end of a project? And the exploitation of the legacy after completion? Are there viable success stories that have maintained their activity after European funding? These were the questions that were addressed and focused the debate at the ROSEWOOD4.0 Final Event dedicated to innovation as a driver for the sustainable transformation of the forestry sector.

The ROSEWOOD4.0 project is known for building a pan-European network of macro-regions (regional hubs) formed by different countries sharing the same challenges and needs in the forestry sector. The aim of the project has been for 2 years and a half to establish a community of knowledge transfer, best practices, experiences and innovation in the field of wood mobilization and forestry in order to modernise and digitise the forestry sector at all levels.

The final ROSEWOD4.0 event was held in a hybrid form in Barcelona, Spain, where 60 people attended in person and up to 175 spectators followed us online via YouTube Live Streaming. The event was structured in three sessions: the introductory session held on first day, focused exclusively on the presentation of the results and main outcomes of ROSEWOOD4.0, aimed to provide a lasting and long-term boost to connect multiple actors along the forest value chain to strengthen the sustainability of wood mobilisation across Europe.

During the second session, the discussion focused on answering the questions posed above. In an attempt to answer them, four services supporting follow up activities for European projects were presented and debated: FoRISK – the pan-European forest risk knowledge mechanism (from Forest Europe), the Bioregions Facility (from EFI), the EU FarmBook (from the EUREKA project), and the Horizon Results Platform & Horizon Results Booster (from the European Commission). In addition, the business models and lessons learnt from five projects that succeeded to maintain their activities were showcased during the event: Singular Wood (EAFRD), MicoCyl (LIFE), the Mediterranean Model Forest Network (Interreg), EvolTree (FP6: NoE), and Organic Farm Knowledge (H2020: CSA).

The following day, in the third session, nine hybrid working groups were formed to explore synergies and collaborations on topics proposed by the attendees prior to the event. Of these nine groups, four groups explored possible proposals for Horizon Europe calls in areas such as digitisation of the forestry sector, agroforestry, forest bioeconomy, where ROSEWOOD4.0 consortium members could continue to play an important role in the future.

In the afternoon, the last meeting of the consortium under Horizon2020 and the first meeting of the newly created post-project ROSEWOOD 4.0 Network took place, with the aim to continue the exploitation of the project results. The main impact for the sustainability of the ROSEWOOD4.0 results will be the curation and management of the Knowledge platform for regional forest innovation by the EFI Bioregions Facility.

The European Commission’s ROSEWOOD4.0 project officer attended the event in person and congratulated the consortium for all the successful results, the continuity of the main project initiatives and the excellent organisation of the final event.

For those who missed the event, you can catch the recording of the first day sessions on the ROSEWOOD4.0 YouTube channel.