Introduction

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Day 1, November 9, chairman Bo Borgström

Bo Borgström Chairman CEI-Bois:

Göran Persson, Prime minister of Sweden:

The Prime minister stated that the Lisbon Agenda (”to make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy by 2010”) is still the goal for the EU, and that the ”three pillars” (economy, environment and society) have equal importance.
- The European forest-based industry is a world leader, and in the EU it makes up for eight per cent of the total industrial added value. At the same time, the forest sector is a good example of an industry that can meet all three demands in the Lisbon Agenda. Göran Persson noted that the forest sector has grown in importance in the EU. When EU went from 12 to 15 members, the importance of the forest-based industry raised considerably. Sweden, Finland and Austria were all well developed in this sector.

Some of the new member states in EU 25 also have the forest sector as an important part of their economy. But the EU has not up till now quite realised the potential of this sector. Göran Persson said that forest-based industry has had problems to get the place it deserves in the EU R&D programmes, but that this could be changed.
- It is your task to do so, it is my responsibility to see to that it is carried out and we should do it together with the Commission. In the future, Europe must produce better products, not cheaper.

The Prime minister said that the EU, as always, would have to compete with USA, but more and more also with India and China.
- These countries are raising their resources into R&D enormously, said Göran Persson.

A key step for Europe could be to better combine the forest sector with IT and biotechnology. This could mean specialised raw materials for the different products of the forest-based industry.
- We also need to develop a toolbox by using other sciences. For example, nanotechnology can be used as a tool to combine different materials. Göran Persson also said that wood for building purposes and in exteriors could be further developed.
- We also have a bold goal for the energy sector, to lower the dependence on oil. This is really a bold goal, but hopefully possible to reach. The Swedish Prime minister stated that Sweden would continue to be a major player in the forest-based sector.
- This is a good market, in a world with growing populations. But the question is; can we produce raw materials for all sectors, including energy, as well as for building purposes and pulp and paper?

Bo Borgström commented that the support from the Swedish Prime minister could not have been any more solid.
- We need support, and I believe I heard a personal commitment in the Prime ministers speech, said Bo Borgström. Bo Borgström also expressed his gratitude towards the work of the FTP.
- I have enjoyed tremendously working with them. We owe them greatly. I want to thank the members of the High-Level Group for their work.

Björn Hägglund, Stora Enso, chairman FTP High Level Group:

How do we meet these challenges? By developing new products, for example by combining paper with new technologies and R&D findings from other areas. Björn Hägglund mentioned a few examples:
- Intelligent packaging. Medical packaging can tell the doctor if the patient took his medicine, and remind the patient to take it.
- Thermal wood. By heat treatment of wood, new features can be accomplished.
- New food-packaging concepts can be used instead of tin cans. Food can be heat treated in the paper packaging. (This invention got the Marcus Wallenberg prize in 2005.)
- Interactive paper, with features that resembles a computer screen.

Björn Hägglund also noted that genetic improvements could be used to enhance the growth of trees, a possibility especially for plantations in warmer areas. In cold climates you may have to be more careful, due to the long life cycles of trees.

Björn Hägglund stated that the forest-based sector has a bright future if it can enforce the technology level and thereby its competitiveness.
- We have to be creative. Another important contribution from the forest-based sector is mitigation of the greenhouse effect.

Bo Borgström asked Björn Hägglund what he thought of the speech from The Swedish Prime minister, where he talked about more EU money for R&D in the forest-based sector.
- Funding of the research within the FTP will be a very important issue, said Björn Hägglund. All parts of industry and society need to participate. There are no free rides in this. I sensed that the Swedish Prime minister was aware of this, and I believe that he will take responsibility. But everyone really needs to be a part of the development of the forest-based sector. We need support and knowledge from all relevant areas and stakeholders.

Question from the auditorium: It is important to get small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into the FTP project. How do we manage that? Björn Hägglund agreed that this is important, and said that the organisation for the FTP has been set up to make it possible to get participation from all kinds of businesses and organisations. “That’s why it is a rather large organisation.”

Björn Hägglund also said that his personal opinion was that the work within the FTP organisation has been very effective.

Claes-Göran Beckeman, SCA and Project director FTP:

Among the strategic objectives of the FTP, Claes-Göran Beckeman mentioned the need for an effective innovation system.
-We need better products, and products that the market asks for. We also need to improve communication within the forest-based sector and with society at large. The SRA is meant to be used by industry and the research community, as well as by society.
- This means a need to balance the document; the SRA needs to attract R&D people, forest owners, industry and many others. Claes-Göran Beckeman described how the SRA is organized. The SRA currently mentions 28 research priorities. These would all be discussed during the second day of the conference. Claes-Göran Beckeman also mentioned the five value chains dealt with in the FTP. These are Forest, Pulp&Paper, Wood products, Bioenergy, and Specialities and New businesses.
- The process we have used to produce the SRA started with a “bottom-up” collection of ideas, said Claes-Göran Beckeman. We have received a total of 700 proposals or ideas, which is more than I personally had expected. We have tried to process all of these equally thorough. A prioritising process has led to the draft SRA that will be discussed during this conference. Claes-Göran Beckeman concluded that this has been a very complex process.
- But we think this has been important and necessary to get the total picture, and to get a broad participation in the FTP. The SRA will be finalized in the High Level Group in the end of 2005. During 2006, the research priorities in the SRA will in the implementation phase be broken down to specific research projects and programmes. Claes-Göran Beckeman noted that The European Forest-based Sector Research Forum 2005 was the first step in the process ahead.
- This process is based on participation and commitment. Without this, nothing real is going to happen. Follow the process at the web site, www.forestplatform.org!

Question from the auditorium: How will we manage to meet the demands of people in the world, which use nearly no paper today? Claes-Göran Beckeman: We have to be process and customer oriented. We must bring needs and experiences from other parts of the world back to Europe. Comment from the auditorium: We have to show the world that the forest has a value. If not, it will be trashed. Answer from the auditorium: That is what we have to do at this conference! If we want to contribute to the forest-based sector in Europe, we will have to be innovative!

Pedro Ortún, European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry:

Pedro Ortún said that two key areas for the development of the forest-based sector was R&D and legislation.
- Improved impact assessment for legislation, and simplifying the existing legislation, would mean a lot for all the process-industry sectors. A so called European High Level Group on Competitiveness, Energy and Environment (not to be mistaken for the HLG working within the FTP), consisting of industrial leaders, R&D executives, EU politicians and others will start its work within a few months.

- It will be important to secure that Europe will have enough forest-based raw materials for both industry and energy demands, said Pedro Ortún. This also includes development of the markets for recycled paper and even higher energy efficiency. Pedro Ortún stated that the SRA is necessary as a base for the R&D programmes for the forest-based sector of the individual countries in Europe. Other important areas are to enhance the use of wood for building purposes and still better contacts with NGOs. Entrepreneurship must be encouraged.
- But most important of all: we have to do all of this in cooperation between industry and society.

Lennart Eriksson, STFI-Packforsk:

- The R&D systems in the EU, like EU Framework Programmes and COST, have turned things around for the European forest-based sector in the competition with USA, said Lennart Eriksson. They have also meant that we have now in Europe extensive research networks engaging universities and research institutes. Lennart Eriksson described and gave examples of the different EU-level financing structures for R&D. He pointed out that all these different mechanisms need to be used when implementing the SRA. There is a trend that companies more and more outsource the research and concentrate their own resources on development work. This means that research institutes and universities have to keep a high quality to stay in business but also that there is a business!

Kaj Rosén, Skogforsk:

Simon Bell, Edinburgh College of Art:

Catharina Ottestam, STFI-Packforsk:

José Vicente Oliver, the Wood, Furniture and Packaging Technology Institute, Spain (AIDIMA):

Kai Sipilä, VTT:

Christos Tokamanis, DG Research, EU Commission:

Discussion on how to improve the innovation system.

Alfred Heinzel, Heinzel Holdings GmbH, Austria, gave a rather dark picture of the industry in Europe of today.
- I see very few people from industry here today! As long as this is typical, we won’t get innovation in the forest-based industry, said Alfred Heinzel. We are in the sunset area, no innovation is taking place in the European forest-based industry. The R&D budgets are much higher in Asia and USA. And the money we do use for innovation- and this is still a lot of money- does it ever give any results in the industry? Alfred Heinzel claimed that the European industry is only interested in cutting costs.
- In Japan, industry makes more from less. In USA they make more at existing costs. One thing that prevents innovation in Europe is the fact that the division into nations gives us a complex system.
- One thing we need in Europe is political leadership that supports innovation. In Sweden this is a reality today, and we need this throughout Europe.

Karin Markides, Vinnova, said she was pleased, after Alfred Heinzels speech, to talk about how a state agency can make a difference.
- We try to promote re-thinking. How do we do that? By pointing at the good examples, often existing in other countries. Vinnova is also supporting innovation by economic contributions to R&D.
- We don’t see this as “handing out money”, we see it as investments on a ten-year basis. Karin Markides said that a problem for Sweden is development of entrepreneurship. This works much better in USA. Another problem is the different values in the academic world and in industry. But we have advantages in Europe as well.
- Europe has people with very strong and diverse demands on the products they use. This can be used by the European industry as a driver for innovation. One task for Vinnova is to help researchers to get in better contact with industry.
- Many small enterprises are formed by researchers. Vinnova can help them grow, and this is something we simply must succeed in doing.
- I have big hopes for the FTP platform, and that Vinnova can help it to succeed.
- There are good innovation systems and programs in some European countries, but not in all of them. We need a way to benchmark, to be able to spread the good examples. There is a web based system called InnovaNET, a way for European innovation agencies to learn from each other. We then try to transform programs to fit different countries, said Karin Markides.

Ewald Rametsteiner, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, said that forestry needs innovations to meet the new and growing demands on forests. But there is too little contact between forestry and other sectors. And there is “defensive lock-in”, it is too difficult to get a chance to test new methods. But I am still optimistic for the future.

Voices from the auditorium:

• In Europe there is a lot of good ideas and knowledge. But today we are not encouraged to become entrepreneurs.
• There is too little risk taking. We (researchers) have to apply for funds, and we only get money if we more or less can guarantee success. This is difficult to do for scientists!
• Scientists are not very good at making results available and understandable to industry. And they are generally not paid to do so.
• Scientists and industry lack a common language.
• We must remember that Europe is still in the beginning of its integration. This will take some time. The next generation will get there. But we need positive (political) support. Not only from one minister, but from all of them.
• Alumni can be a good instrument to get better contact between universities and industry. They may know both languages.

The day ended with a video message from EU Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potocnik.

Bo Borgström ended the first day by quoting Winston Churchill: “This is not the end. I t is not even the beginning of the end. But it is - perhaps - the end of the beginning.”

Day 2, November 10, Chairman Lisa Sennerby Forsse

Christian Patermann, European Commission, DG Research:

- Don’t underestimate the importance of the FTP, said Christian Patermann. If this platform had been a reality four years ago, the forest-based sector would have had a lot more money in the Framework Programme 6. There is also a higher activity in clustering in the forest-based sector, something we are observing closely. Christian Patermann encouraged a clustering between the FTP and other platforms.
- Also, seek cooperation with the European parliament and with the member states. And don’t forget the global players. Take your time, but don’t lose sight of this.

Yves Birot, Chairman of the FTP Scientific Council:

Remy Petit, French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), Bordeaux:

Tommy Iversen, STFI-Packforsk:

Peter Gärdenfors, Lund University:

Andrea Tilche, European Commission, DG Research:

Maria Fernandez, European Commission, DG Research:

The development of the FTP Strategic Research Agenda

The SRA presentations in plenary were followed by separate workshops one for each value chain. The outcome of these workshops will be reflected in the further development of the SRA. In the concluding session of the forum, one rapporteur from each workshop was asked to present in a couple of minutes the main outcomes of the workshops. This was presented as follows:

Wood products We should aim higher! More focus on furniture. Renovating and rebuilding more visible. More on IT and biotechnology. Bioenergy Higher profile on green energy/bioenergy. Off-site bioenergy generation, new item (?). Don’t prioritize just “non-industrial biomass” from forests (?) Forestry More basic research. Specific ecosystems research. (Molecule-landscape.) Balance between focused and general R&D. More focus on emerging technologies.

Specialities and New businesses Better focus on industrial aspects. Focus on cooperation with other platforms. Pulp and paper Cooperation with other areas vital. Specify short term - long term. More focus on customer needs. More on hygiene products. Feasibility of goals More stress on energy. Capital efficiency.

Claes-Göran Beckeman: What happens now with FTP?

Johannes Schima, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, Austria:

Lisa Sennerby Forsse, The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas):