Forest biomass and bioenergy

The Institute will be launched on the 1st of July 2015 and it will be Norway’s largest interdisciplinary research institute in the agricultural and environmental sphere, and one of Norway’s largest research institutes. Alvhild Hedstein has been appointed Director General. Its headquarters will be located in Ås, with a branch in Oslo and regional offices.

Network funding supported by SNS and NKJ.

The aim of the joint call is to promote international cross-sectorial collaboration among researchers and stakeholders from forestry and agriculture by networking activities. The aim is to create a platform for communication in order to assess challenges, knowledge gaps and opportunities in the areas of biomass utilisation and land use.

More information and application here

COOL (COmpeting uses Of forest Land) is a European research project carried out between 2012 and 2014. The project is within the two ERA-Nets WoodWisdom-Net 2 and Bioenergy.

Its focus was on analyzing the trade-offs and synergies arising from the production and use of energy wood in five European countries (Finland, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Spain). 

Special wmphasis was put on the participation of the stakeholders and the inclusion of their perspectives by interviews, questionnaires and workshops.

Sustainable development objectives and discourse have dominated environmental and development policies and practice for the past three decades. During the last decade new narratives have emerged within these discourses with catchphrases like: “Green Economy”, “Inclusive Green Growth”, “Low Carbon Development”, “Climate-Smart Agriculture” and “Sustainable Intensification”. There is no universal consensus about the meaning of these concepts; instead they are interpreted in different ways by different actors and in various contexts. The myriad of understandings of e.g.

Nordic Energy Research has launched call for pre-proposals for Nordic Flagship Projects, with a deadline of February 19th 2015. Totalling 80 million NOK, the call is the largest and most important joint Nordic funding programme for energy research for the next four years.

Find out more about the call HERE

Last Tuesday, the 2nd of December, Sumforest held a foresight exercise workshop at KoWi (Kooperationsstelle EU der Wissenschaftsorganisationen) in Brussels. The goal of the workshop was interactions with and the identification of information needs from and for forest policy makers. The foresight workshop was organised with European forest policy makers, scientists and key stakeholders from the Stakeholder Advisory Group.

Find out more about the workshop HERE

SNS announces a call to apply for research funding with an emphasis on Bioeconomy and Biochemistry! 

The specific scope of this call is on bioeconomy in general and biochemistry within forestry and forest products in particular. The overall goal with the funded projects is to develop a forest value chain with new and a wider range of forest products that have a potential to be a sustainable alternative to fossil based products.

The total pool for this call is 500.000 SEK per year for a time frame of 3 years.

The importance of forest bioenergy in Europe has gained more focus than before because of the European Union’s renewable energy policy and its climate change mitigation objectives in particular. Moreover, energy security issues, rural policies as well as income and employment generation related to bioenergy production have all played important roles. 

This study presents possibilities and implications of woody bioenergy supply for the natural environment and climate for the EU by 2020 and 2030. 

The authors estimate the amount of forest-derived and woody biomass that could  be sustainably supplied for energy uses without compromising material uses of wood. Particular attention is given to biodiversity and GHG emissions implications of woody bioenergy supply.