Main objectives:
- Creation of an overview of the main obstacles and barriers hindering the development of local biomass regions in Europe
- Generation of at least 10 innovative cooperate project ideas tackling the technical barriers (e.g. harvesting, drying technologies)
- Identification of financial resources for the development of innovative products and services in this sector
- Reaching a maximum number of stakeholders by effective dissemination activities
Scientific & Technological objective
- Identify gaps of research (selection and development of technologies) for promoting environmental industries’ competitiveness; focusing on technologies (planting, harvesting) for markets with high growth potential
- Reinforce and better design the regional policies, analysing current RTD policy issues supporting wooden biomass from SRCs, maintaining in the same time the dynamics and the potentiality of this sector
- Identify barriers and success factors of regional research-driven clusters through a SWOT analysis resulted from the evaluation of their state of play
- Identifying related European and international initiatives and project around wooden biomass from SRCs to offer and request know-how and knowledge
- Identifying research fields for promoting a resource-efficient Europe; development of a cross-regional JAP, setting priorities for research in the field of environmental-innovation (wooden biomass production and sustainable use)
- Initiating project ideas for improved harvesting technologies and systems (for over aged/large stems and small field plantations), planting technologies (planting should be possible with common planting machinery) and for new or improved biomass drying technology for wood chips (minimization of losses on drying)
- Improve the technical and non- technical framework conditions for the logistic chain for transportation and storage of lignocellulosic biomass in SRPs in Europe>
- Improvements in breeding to enhance the existing problems like less frost resistance and capacity of resistance to snow and to achieve a longer life span of the rootstock and a higher increase in yield
- Disseminate the existing knowledge, experience and know-how on parent tree nurseries
- Development of strategies to tackle vermin (like mise), rust (fungus), Chrysomela populi, damages caused by game animals especially on small plantations, under storey vegetation
- Disseminate the existing knowledge, experience and know-how on accretion improvement
- Provide access to valuable information on irrigation in early stag
- Supporting strategic collaboration of innovative environmental industry clusters in Europe, by developing new cluster initiatives in other EU regions and developing a internationalization strategy
- Exchange of best practices and complementary staff exchanges between actors in different regional research driven clusters. Particular effort will be developed in order to obtain solutions to address competitiveness through innovation in rural areas
- Support for SMEs in research and technology transfer; strengthen the expertise and use of SMEs, the largest group in environmental clusters, in R&D benefits. To improve international connections with similar companies and research institutes, the project promotes cross-regional cooperation in order to exchange and boost specialist skills and knowledge
- Develop a web-based information-platform to improve the communication, effectiveness and performance of the tasks, to find individual logistic solutions and to ensure a long-term information flow during and after the project duration
- Transfer the practical oriented information derived from the research projects, to end users especially landowners, power plant engineers and municipal energy suppliers. This strategy will initiate or strengthen national plans and will increase the number of initiatives regarding the use of SRCs
- Further disseminate the results of related projects, reaching new targeted groups in third countries
Innovation objectives
- Create business opportunities between SMEs, SME Associations and RTDs, enhanced via public authorities support through adequate policy formulations;
- Open up new markets for renewable energy sources (especially energy wood) as well as to ensure a free market development in the selected bioenergy regions by having access to the knowledge about adapted logistic concepts for optimized mobilization of energy wood
- Provide access to valuable information on using wood chips as a source of energy to related stakeholders and decision makers in order to motivate them and to transfer knowledge about the potential of optimized mobilization of energy wood and sustainable local value chains
- Support and enable the broad establishment of SRP based biomass regions in Europe by lower the barriers for technical and non-technical innovations in the SRPs sector and improving the framework conditions for the logistic chain of lignocellulosic biomass in SRPs in Europe