Squeezing more value from trees
- A solid forest resource base
- Pilot scale demonstration projects
- Bio-pathways Project Phase II
- Marketing wood's green attributes
- The power of better inventory tools
- Harnessing the collaborative power of academic R&D networks
Harnessing the collaborative power of academic R&D networks
Directed, collaborative research: the fast-track vehicle to innovation
If scientific research paves the path leading to an enhanced, value-enriched forest sector economy, then collaborative, directed research is the vehicle that hastens the journey.
Nowhere is this attitude more keenly embraced than in the Transformative Technologies Program (TTP). Funded by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and administered by FPInnovations, this program brings governments, industry and academia together on R&D projects that focus on finding answers to the forest sector’s priority questions.
Harnessing the collective research abilities of Canada’s top university scientists, engineers and other researchers creates a vehicle with the power to accelerate the innovation process in Canada’s forest sector.
The Forest Sector R&D Initiative
In 2008, the Forest Sector R&D Initiative was created expressly to develop R&D programs that: align academic research with the forest sector’s innovation agenda; ensure the programs have commercial relevance; and take advantage of the emerging bioeconomy. The partners behind this unique R&D vehicle are the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), NRCan and FPInnovations.
Currently, eight targeted research networks operate through linkages with the three partner organizations, industry and academia. The eight networks (seven funded through NSERC and one through a business-led Network Centre of Excellence) address key forest sector research areas within the five research themes of the FPInnovations Flagship Innovation Program (under the TTP):
- Integrated Value Maximization
- Next Generation Pulp and Papers
- Next Generation Building Solutions
- Energy and Chemicals from Forest Biomass
- Novel Bioproducts from Forest Biomass
A total of $34 million is being provided over five years for academic research projects that match these forest sector priority needs for knowledge and innovation.
Network partnerships offer a novel arrangement
With this unique university-industry-government partnership arrangement, all parties benefit from opportunities to achieve substantial efficiencies (why duplicate efforts?), accelerate product development and deployment, and meet multiple objectives (socio-economic, environmental and others).
In this way, linking academic research more closely to the vision and needs of industrial innovation is helping make the goals of forest sector transformation agenda a reality.
To enhance research collaboration within the forest sector innovation system, the eight research networks are aligned with the five research themes of the FPInnovations Flagship Innovation Program under the Transformative Technologies Program (TTP).
| TTP Research Theme | Strategic Research Network |
|---|---|
| Integrated Value Maximization |
|
| Next Generation Pulp and Papers |
|
| Next Generation Building Solutions |
|
|
Energy and Chemicals from Forest Biomass |
|
| Novel Bioproducts from Forest Biomass |
|
Examples of collaboration underway through NSERC’s Forest Sector R&D strategic networks:
- development of new business models to increase profitability for forest products companies – Through the NSERC Strategic Network on Value Chain Optimization, 14 industry, government and academic organizations are developing e-business as a means of speeding up and managing the flow of information and material between businesses.
- production of new high-value forest products – Within the NSERC Biomaterials and Chemicals Strategic Network, 15 research projects involving researchers from nine universities across Canada are working to produce a suite of technologies for developing value-added products made from lignin (the major component of wood after cellulose).
- development of new wood-fibre-based products to replace fossil-fuel based products – Within the NSERC Green Fibre Network, 20 professors and 24 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from six Canadian universities are working with scientists and engineers from FPInnovations and other industrial partners to create next-generation pulp and paper products. Examples include bioactive papers for agriculture and 3D moulded-fibre packaging with superior barrier properties to replace plastic and Styrofoam food containers.