IN2WOOD · FOREST Clusters Development and Implementation Measures of a 6-Region Strategic Joint Action Plan for Knowledge-based Regional Innovation

IN2WOOD deals with the challenges of a sustainable European forest management and tackles crucial questions in the RTD environment of the forest-based sector. Wood shall be further established as one of the main renewable resources and the added value of forest in terms of economic and innovative value and quality of life shall be further improved. Aiming at the promotion of crosscutting research on these values, forest clusters of 6 European regions – Styria (Austria), North-Rhine Westfalia (Germany), South Tyrol (Italy), Banska Bystrica (Slovakia), Grisons (Switzerland), and Carpathia (Ukraine) - have joined forces to elaborate a Joint Action Plan for the future coordination and strengthening of their complementary RTD potentials. The project aims at 5 general objectives for forest sector development: (1) to enhance Wood Production, (2) to strengthen Technological Innovation Systems, (3) to develop Competence Awareness, (4) to optimize Logistics, (5) to build up Information Systems. The Joint Action Plan, delivered at mid-term of the 3-year project, collects sets of regionally adopted, coordinated strategies for future collaborative RTD-activities in these 5 thematic fields. Measures towards the implementation of the JAP will be taken in phase II in the form of “pilot concepts”, which define specific partnerships, plans and funding schemes for innovative follow-up projects. IN2WOOD builds upon existing bilateral cooperation between regions, sharpens their complementarities and promotes further synergies. Fostering stronger networking, knowledge exchange and cluster formation among stakeholders within and between the partner regions, the project's mentoring also reaches out to important forest regions in South Eastern Europe, where the consortium will strengthen existing links and initiate new partnerships. The project thus supports the further development and internationalisation of regional research-driven clusters in the European forest sector.