TRANZFOR

Transferring Research between EU and Australia-New Zealand on Forestry and Climate Change”

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The proposal aims at strengthening research partnerships through staff exchanges and networking activities between 3 European research organisations from France, Portugal and United Kingdom, and 2 organisations from Australia and New Zealand. This proposal addresses scientific issues related to “forestry and climate change”. It is based on a 4 years coordinated joint programme of exchange of researchers for short periods (2 to 12 months), thus providing unique mobility possibilities to individual researchers and support to research organisations to establish and reinforce long-term research co-operation. The proposal has developed on the basis of active bilateral cooperation between individual countries and partners which has occurred in the past decade. The IRSES scheme provides a unique opportunity to integrate those past collaboration activities into a coherent programme addressing an issue of high priority on the political agenda of EU, New Zealand and Australia. The proposal is focused on forests, forestry and climate change interactions, including assessment of impacts of climate change on forest ecosystem functioning and development of adaptation and mitigation strategies for forest management. The range of common tree species of interest and of climatic conditions, as well as the strategic importance of planted forests in the 5 partner countries involved, will provide a coherent framework and socio-economic background for the different research activities that will be conducted. Five topics have been identified as most relevant for all partners involved in the joint programme: genomics and tree breeding strategies; forest models, environmental services, risk assessment and management, bioenergy.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Thanks to an EU-funded initiative, new knowledge and collaborative projects have been developed in the area of forestry and climate change as a result of scientific exchanges between EU, Australia and New Zealand. Young scientists have especially benefitted by gaining valuable work experience in different environments and have established new international networks.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Forests are now seen as playing a vital role in the fight against climate change by mitigating the effects of enhanced levels of carbon dioxide. Therefore, there is an urgent need to gain a clearer understanding of how forests and forestry sectors interact with their environment and with human societies as the climate alters.

Australia and New Zealand depend upon their forests for maintaining biodiversity, carbon storage, clean water and wood-based products. As such, the two countries have become major centres of forestry and climate change research.

The 'Transferring research between EU and Australia-New Zealand on forestry and climate change' (http://www.tranzfor.eu/ (TRANZFOR)) project aimed at strengthening links between Australian, European and New Zealand researchers. European partners were from France, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

TRANZFOR was based on a coordinated joint programme of exchanges of 74 researchers for periods of between 2 and 12 months. This provided a unique opportunity for both individuals and organisations to develop and strengthen long-term research cooperation.

The programme of scientific exchanges was focused on forests, forestry and climate change interactions, including assessment of impacts of climate change on forest ecosystem functioning and development of adaptation and mitigation strategies for forest management.

Common tree species of interest and climatic conditions, together with the strategic importance of managed and planted forests, provided the basis for a coherent framework for research activities. Five main topics were identified as being the most relevant for all the partners involved. They comprised genomics and tree breeding strategies, forest models, ecosystem services, risk assessment and management, and bioenergy.

Collaborative work conducted over a 53 month period (2009-2013) under the auspices of the TRANZFOR exchange programme helped to increase scientific knowledge in the area of forestry and climate change. This resulted in 16 joint publications in the international scientific literature. In addition, the involvement of young scientists setting out on their careers will provide a sound foundation for future collaborations.