FOREST: a European research and innovation partnership for a sustainable transition of forests, forestry, and the forest-based sector

Adapting trees and forests to climate change, safeguarding biodiversity, and monitoring damage from storms, droughts, wildfires, pests and diseases are common concerns for many national governments. Coordinated by the Finnish Agriculture and Forestry Ministry, the FOREST partnership sets out to connect research and facilitate European collaboration. It will fund projects and actions that bring together transnational teams, allowing the comparison of data from different forests and the sharing of measurement techniques and methods, along with conservation and management practices and solutions. The first call for projects is open until 2 December 2026.

A programme based on shared goals and actions 

The Research and Innovation Agenda for the partnership was initially developed through the European EUFORE project, in a co-creation exercise that drew on the knowledge of more than 2000 researchers, forest managers and owners, industry stakeholders, and policymakers. It identifies priority areas for research on the functioning of forest ecosystems and their adaptation to climate change, taking into account forest management practices and the timber and wood value chain, as well as societal perceptions and demands for forest ecosystem services. 

Oliver Brendel, an ecophysiologist at INRAE’s Silva joint research unit in Nancy, is an expert on tree responses to environmental constraints. He coordinated the writing group for the EUFORE agenda’s forest ecology work package. ‘As part of EUFORE, we asked the different stakeholders whether they considered the appropriate scale of action for each agenda theme to be European or more regional. The picture that emerged was that almost all themes were of interest at the European level. Very few were viewed as being only regional in nature’, he reports. Oliver Brendel is also part of the team that will conduct the mid-point review of the partnership’s scientific agenda.

The reality is that Europe’s major forests extend across national boundaries. From the Mediterranean, across the continent’s mountain ranges, and into Northern Europe, many countries have a shared stake in tackling adaptation to a changing climate, forest management and the use of wood-based resources. 

Shared tools

Studying a forest involves measuring the same trees on the same plots over a period of years, comparing different tree species or management practices in experiments, and having access to specialist laboratories and databases – resources that few teams can provide on their own.

Studying forests involves repeated measurements of the same trees in the same stands  over many years, comparing experimentally the different tree species and management practices, and having access to  specialised laboratories and databases – resources that few teams can provide on their own.  An INRAE research director who specialises in forest tree genetics, Catherine Bastien, is leading the work for FOREST to catalogue these organisational resources in each country and facilitate access to them by European researchers. 

INRAE is already a partner in several major European research infrastructures. The Institute coordinates the IN-SYLVA infrastructure on forests which features in the European roadmap of major research infrastructures selected by ESFRI. It also coordinates the French contribution to the ICOS infrastructure, set up to measure greenhouse gas exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere. Last, together with the CNRS and the University of Grenoble, INRAE leads the French services offered through the AnaEE infrastructure, enabling experiments to be conducted that encompass several forest systems. 

From 2027, FOREST pilot projects involving 6-7 partners and lasting 18-24 months will make it possible to harmonise measurement protocols and data sharing. ‘Teams will be able, for example, to track biodiversity across the gradient of forests from southern Portugal to northern Finland, using a common approach. This opportunity was not open to us until now’, Catherine Bastien explains. 

FOREST also seeks to harmonise and adapt national forest inventories (NFIs). France’s NFI is produced by the IGN, and INRAE teams already collaborate on the monitoring methods used to track biodiversity indicators and the destruction wrought by storms or diseases. ‘Research can improve the monitoring system, making it possible for the data to then be used for decision-making in both the public and private sectors ’, Catherine Bastien adds. 

Working with other countries

FOREST will allow INRAE’s scientists to work with European colleagues on priorities that align with those of the Institute. ‘In our national programmes, European partners could not eceive funding to work with us on issues that nevertheless concern us all. FOREST will provide this additional funding. This sort of European research dynamic is often fruitful in producing joint publications with international visibility’, stresses Catherine Bastien. Projects that have already been awarded funding in France could thus be extended to include work in neighbouring European countries. Such joint projects can also provide a platform for the teams to prepare even more ambitious projects for the next European research framework programme (FP10).

The partnership also plans a Europe-wide network of living labs. Researchers and forest managers will be able to work together to test out new practices under real-life conditions and to ensure that the processes and methods developed by researchers meet actual needs on the ground. Several of the sites already included in the programme are run by INRAE teams, for example in the Chantilly Forest and the Landes de Gascogne Living Labs. 

¹FOREST: European Partnership for FOrests, forestry, and the forest-based sector: REsearch and innovation for a Sustainable Transition