The Northern European Network for Wood Science and Engineering started in 2004. After 19 successful meetings in 10 different partner countries, WSE has become a well-established platform for researchers from various fields of wood science and engineering.
We look forward to welcoming you to Edinburgh for 20th meeting of the WSE in Autumn 2024!
Save the dates:
The training school: 22 October 2024
The meeting: 23 and 24 October 2024
Venue, Edinburgh Napier University’s Craiglockhart campus
To sign up to the network’s mailing list, go to this page.
The theme of the meeting will be “time”. This includes:
- Looking back on the previous 20 years of the network
- Time in relation to wood behaviour
- Looking forward to the next 20+ years
We will be looking forward to needs of future society – for wood and for forests
And the coming challenges: wood demand, climate change, pests and diseases, biodiversity collapse…
There will be a pre-conference doctoral training workshop on the subject of engagement – with the public, industry, policy makers and the media. This will not just be about communicating the results of research, but how to actively engage these groups in the planning and undertaking of research.
We will also have a focus on engaging with the youth, and their perspectives on the future of forests and wood. This year, expect to be asked to write an additional short abstract understandable to a 16 year old.
Key dates:
Active volcanic system at conference location: 350 million years in the past
Trees we recognise today evolve: 250 million years in the past
Human ancestors begin using wood: half a million years in the past
Last ice age ends and trees and humans return to conference location: 10 thousand years in the past
Registration deadline (expected to be in July 2024)
Deadline for submission of extended abstracts (expected to be in July 2024)
The training school: 22 October 2024
The meeting: 23 and 24 October 2024
This network is supported by SNS Nordic Forest Research funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The conference presentations will be held in the “Egg” (Lindsay Stewart Lecture Theatre) – a timber gridshell built the same year the WSE network started – 2004. This elliptical ovoid is a triangulated single-layer near geodesic grid with LVL ribs and titanium cladding onto OSB4, lined inside with birch plywood. You can see inside here.
For information about Edinburgh and what you can do here visit https://edinburgh.org/