Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LignoSilva (Centre of Excellence of Forest-based Industry)
Teaser
ISSUE ADDRESSED:EU 2020 Strategy put emphasis on closer alignment of science and research with business. The reason is a lack of ability to transfer results of science and research into practice in the majority of economic sectors, including production, processing and use of...
Summary
ISSUE ADDRESSED:
EU 2020 Strategy put emphasis on closer alignment of science and research with business. The reason is a lack of ability to transfer results of science and research into practice in the majority of economic sectors, including production, processing and use of wood, compared to developed non-European countries. Within the EU, the problem is most pronounced in the less developed countries including Slovakia.
Vision 2030 for forestry-wood sector indicates that this area will play an important role in the society based on biotechnology (bio-based society). Growth predictions in the renewable energy use for 2020, 2030 and 2050 in the EU countries consider biomass to be the most important renewable source.
The intention of establishing the Centre of Excellence of Forest based indutry reflects a growing need for scientific – research innovations and their implementation in practice in production, processing and use of wood in less developed countries and also in well developed countries of the EU facilitated through prolific long-term cooperation. Faster sustainable development of production, processing and use of wood in Slovakia requires solutions for the following major issue areas:
Timber production:
Due to climate change, increase in acreage of protected areas and only limited ability of forest-managing bodies to response to fast changing of natural and economic conditions, the production potential of forests is being exploited to a limited level both in terms of volume and quality of felled timber. Gradual changes in tree species composition worsen the possibility of satisfying the needs of timber processors and timber supplies which reduces economic viability of the forest sector. The aforementioned trend will negatively impact both the stability of production and fulfilment of non-productive forest functions with economic and social consequences, even at a medium-term time scale.
Significant growth in timber production can be achieved by using long-term abandoned agricultural land in a total area of 0.5 mil hectares for growing forest, especially forest plantations producing timber for energy and chemical processing.
Timber processing:
Due to economic and ownership rights transformation in the 1990s many wood processing companies collapsed and the wood-processing industry got fragmented. This fact particularly badly affected mechanical wood processing. As a result, technological infrastructure of processors is underdeveloped, finalisation of production and proportion of value added products is low and thus economic stability of the whole sector is very limited. Problems still persist on the domestic timber market and thus there is a growing need for exporting of unprocessed timber (export varies between 2.5 - 4 mil.m3 at 9. mil.m3 annual logging). At the same time, a disproportion between the volume, tree species composition and quality of felled timber, and domestic processing capacities is growing. Traditional wood production chain, which usually ends with the final wood based products, can be extended by re-appreciation of old wooden products once they have been used. Competitiveness of such products is influenced by continuity, sustainability and balance of supply of used wood, technical and organizational quality of the system of separate collection, its sorting, analysis of chemical loads and organization of technological processes associated with recovery of old wood based products and their transformation into new materials and products. In the pulp and paper-making industry there is significant potential for innovations in the introduction of new production programmes, improvements in the efficiency of existing production lines and the rate of wood utilization.
In recent years, a significant demand for energy wood for electricity and heat production has been recorded. Energy producers prefer fuel for the lowest possible price, chiefly because of lower effectiveness of energy production due to
Work performed
Overview of main activities, events and deliverables and their exploitation and dissemination:
D1.1 Minutes from kick-off, progress and final meeting
Status: fulfilled.
Kick-off meeting organized on 8-10th June 2015 in Banská Štiavnica (SK).
Progress meeting organized on 23-27th November 2015 in Joensuu (Fi). Study Tour: November 25, 2016, Joensuu.
Experts´ group meeting and project meeting on 23-25th February 2016 in Bratislava.
Final meeting organized on 12-13th May 2016 in Bratislava (SK). Meeting minutes
uploaded to Participant portal with the annexes (scanned participant lists).
D1.2 Administration and financial report for the Commission
Status: fulfilled.
Report submitted to participant portal.
D1.3 Project dissemination products leaflets and brochures elaborated and
disseminated
Status: fulfilled.
Press release, related articles, social media:
http://naszvolen.sme.sk/c/7638593/ziskali-grant-na-projekt-trvalo-udrzatelnej-obnovy-dreva.html
http://www.teraz.sk/ekonomika/narodne-lesnicke-centrum-grant-eu/119667-clanok.html
http://drevmag.com/index.php/sk/informacny-servis/4136-lignosilva-prepoji-retazec-produkcie-spracovania-a-vyuzitia-dreva
http://www.efi.int/portal/news___events/news/?bid=2072
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=897538960299706&id=146786162041660
https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-418565643.html
http://science.dennikn.sk/clanky-a-rozhovory/vedna-politika-2/5536-slovenske-projekty-su-v-prvom-kole-boja-o-velke-peniaze
http://www.forestplatform.org/files/FTP_Newsletter_Issue_19_May-June_2015_.pdf
Web page created: http://lignosilva.nlcsk.org/
Leaflets and brochures elaborated and disseminated:
http://lignosilva.nlcsk.org/files/EFI_Lignosilva-esite_A5_16_05_04_B_net.pdf
http://lignosilva.nlcsk.org/files/LignoSilva_brochure.pdf
D1.4 Science business summit
Status: fulfilled.
Summit organized on May 11th 2016 in Bratislava (SK).
Proceedings of presentation published.
D2.1 Analyse of Forest-based sector
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
D2.2 Proposal of innovation priorities of LignoSilva
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
D3.1 Analysis of the current situation of the project partners
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
D3.2 Identification of needs of investments and capacity building to facilitate the
development of a business plan
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
D3.3 Proposal of professional, technical and personal structure development of CE
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
D4.1 System of management and organizational structure of CE
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
D4.2 Proposal of the Partnership agreement
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
D5.1 Infrastructure development plan (location, construction, procurement, sharing)
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
D5.2 Marketing strategy
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
D5.3 Financial analysis and Risk management
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
D5.4 Business plan
Status: fulfilled.
Uploaded to Participant portal.
Project Proposal - 2nd stage
Status: submitted to Participant portal
Final results
EXPECTED IMPACT
The realisation of the business plan during the long-term (CSA) action closely follows the Teaming call topic and expected impacts. It will especially help to overcome significant disparities between high and low-performing member states in the term of research, innovation and technology performance by:
- Concentrating sufficient critical mass of science and technology experts into 5 Priority Areas, 11 Innovation Priorities and related Research Programmes. The applied approach makes it possible to react flexibly to new challenges, prepare competitive projects and thus ensure long-term sustainability of the centre.
- Reinforcing the infrastructure of science and research. The applied approach for completing and sharing of laboratories at NFC Zvolen and PPRI Bratislava prefers the building of research infrastructure in its significance and uniqueness. The most important investment is an upgrade of an own unique paper pilot line which will be made available through open access to research institutions throughout Europe. Furthermore, the building of the CE infrastructure is supported as part of the production lines of industrial project partners with a direct impact on the production sector and with the aim to strengthen the commercial transfer of the acquired R & T know-how.
- Ensuring the coordinated transboundary utilisation of scientific infrastructure of the CE based on cooperation with domestic and foreign universities. In particular, the CE will support research (non-commercial) use of infrastructure within PhD theses, dissertations, and joint projects. Sharing of infrastructure is supported by online access to selected infrastructure and through Open Access and Open Research Data management.
- A properly functioning service-oriented CE administration that is able to provide the human resources needed to absorb the research and innovation potential of the new CE LignoSilva. This will be achieved through establishment of the Non-profit organisation act as LignoSilva Competence, Consultancy, Training and Mentoring centre for SMEs (COSME).
- Implementation of Demonstration cases (DC) as a core element for innovation and technology transfer. Demonstration cases are planned toward regional partner institutions, which will benefit through direct involvement in DC realisation and through knowledge exchange in workshops and conferences, and they will also contribute to capacity building by dissemination of knowledge. During LIGNOSILVA lifetime the following 12 demonstration cases will be implemented:
1. Support for sustainability of forest soils
2. Supporting forest adaptation to climate change in commercial forests
3. Forest protection service (FPS) - risk management, early warning and information web system.
4. Improving production capabilities of silvicultural systems for the purposes of wood demand satisfying for wood
5. Implementation of intelligent technologies into wood assortment and wood processing
6. Increasing the efficiency of logging and production technologies in the forest sector
7. Establishment of Central Europe Forestry Decision Support Platform
8. Improvement of the technical-economic and environmental parameters of fuel dendromass production and energy production at the enterprise level in Central Europe
9. Non-destructive online testing development for a paper production quality control
10. Increasing the rate of cascade use of wood and energy at regional level in Central European conditions
11. Models of wasted wooden mass recovery in the value chain
12. Implementation of decision support tool (ToSIA) for optimisation of innovative processes of Forest-based sector in Central-Eastern Europe region
The potential impact of the new Centre of Excellence in terms of sustained excellence is projected according the following performance and output related indicators:
– Increase of economic efficiency/profitability of forest management
– Increase of wood mobilization (regarding legal co
Website & more info
More info: http://lignosilva.nlcsk.org/.