The European Hardwoods Innovation Alliance (EHIA) is seeking views in what innovation and research is needed for hardwoods in Europe. The scope is broad, covering cover both forestry and technological-industrial topics. You can access the survey here, but it closes on 13th October.
Historically hardwoods were used in the construction sector, furniture, cladding, flooring etc but, today, the forest-based industries within Europe are predominately based on softwood use. Coniferous tree species account for 57% of the European growing stock in forests so the very large potential in the rich and diverse resource of broadleaves. This marks the beginning of a long term initiative to change that – and the survey is your opportunity to shape the research agenda.
EHIA aims to create a focused alliance dedicated to hardwood species as a complementary potential field for innovations – parallel to the already well developed value chains built on softwood species. The UK makes very little use of home grown hardwoods so this is an interesting development to keep an eye on.
The alliance runs under the umbrella of InnovaWood in close collaboration with the European Forest Institute (EFI).
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