From strategy to action: EUFORE’s legacy gains momentum
Four years after EUFORE was launched with the ambition of strengthening research and innovation funding and governance for Europe’s forest-based sector, the project’s final EU-level stakeholder event brought its work full circle.
Held in Brussels on 29–30 September, Forest Momentum: From Strategy to Action connected EUFORE, MoniFun and the new FOREST Partnership. The two-day event explored how strategic priorities, research evidence, forest monitoring and long-term collaboration can support resilient, multifunctional forests and a sustainable forest-based sector.
The second day focused on EUFORE’s contribution to this transition: the evidence underpinning the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, the changing European research and funding landscape, and the mechanisms through which the FOREST Partnership will turn shared priorities into action.
Opening the day, EUFORE coordinator Alex Giurca (European Forest Institute) reflected on the project’s journey. When EUFORE started four years ago, its ambition was to improve how forest research and innovation are funded, coordinated and governed in Europe. Today, the project leaves behind a comprehensive Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, scientific insights from across its work packages, an engaged stakeholder community and a clear contribution to the FOREST Partnership.
Alex set three goals for the day: (1) to gain a clearer overview of the European research, funding and innovation landscape; (2) to learn about the research produced by EUFORE that underpinned the SRIA and continues to inform the FOREST Partnership; and (3) to help participants meet, connect and forge new partnerships.
Research and innovation as drivers of Europe’s forest ambitions
In her opening keynote, Orsolya Frizon Somogyi from the European Commission’s DG Agri placed EUFORE’s achievements within the wider European policy and funding context.
She emphasised that forests, forestry and the forest-based sector are central to EU policymaking, and that research and innovation are essential for achieving the objectives of the EU Forest Strategy for 2030. She also highlighted the role of the new AgRI 2040 framework in identifying future priorities, strengthening innovation ecosystems and accelerating the uptake of knowledge by foresters and rural communities.
The FOREST Partnership, officially launched in June 2026, will provide a ten-year framework for greater coordination. With an overall planned budget of around €235 million, it will bring together European and national resources through joint calls and other collaborative activities. Its first joint call, FORESTPathways, opened on 15 September, with 36 research funding organisations from 27 countries and indicative public funding of up to €40 million.
The message was clear: the SRIA developed through EUFORE is not an endpoint. It provides the strategic foundation from which the FOREST Partnership can align investment, research and innovation across Europe.
Putting the evidence behind the SRIA under review
The first panel, moderated by David Butler Manning from the German Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH), examined the evidence behind the SRIA. The discussion brought together four researchers who led key parts of EUFORE’s work and asked what their findings mean for the FOREST Partnership.
Niels Strange from the University of Copenhagen presented findings from EUFORE’s mapping of forest research and innovation and its analysis of societal perceptions and demands for forest ecosystem services (D1.1 and D2.1). The results showed a geographically uneven research landscape, with systematic reviews concentrated in countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy and Sweden, and much lower representation in Eastern-Central and South-Eastern Europe. They also revealed a strong focus on ecology and forest management, with more limited attention to forest products. These patterns point to a need to continue tracking evidence gaps and geographical representation, build research capacity and partnerships in underrepresented regions, and use targeted calls to stimulate work on topics receiving less attention.
Oliver Brendel from INRAE reflected on EUFORE’s analysis of the European research, development and innovation funding landscape (D1.3). He highlighted how forest-related objectives are spread across different policy arenas, including biodiversity, climate change and the bioeconomy. While this breadth creates opportunities, it also contributes to dispersed agenda-setting and reinforces the need for better coordination and stronger stakeholder integration. Oliver’s contribution drew attention to limited long-term funding, insufficient support for fundamental collaborative research, a lack of open calls addressing urgent topics and the importance of creating better opportunities for SMEs and smaller actors. The discussion also underlined the value of smaller projects addressing targeted issues alongside larger, long-term research efforts.
Michael Kull from the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) presented EUFORE’s participatory foresight work on alternative futures for European forests and the forest-based sector (D2.3). Rather than asking only what is likely to happen, the process considered what research and innovation will be needed to shape desirable futures up to 2050. Across pathways, persistent barriers included fragmented governance, policy incoherence, market inertia, uneven regional capacity and insufficient incentives for change.
Ivana Zivojinovic from BOKU University examined how a more open innovation ecosystem could broaden participation in forest research and innovation (D1.2). She stressed that open innovation needs to begin before the research question has been fixed. Forest owners, practitioners, companies, SMEs, researchers, policymakers, advisers and civil society should be involved in defining needs and priorities, developing solutions and testing them in practice. Her analysis of 614 EU-funded forest innovation projects showed that 73% reported activities at the development stage, compared with 27% at the implementation stage. This illustrates the continuing challenge of moving ideas from concepts and prototypes towards diffusion, adoption and scaling.
The panel concluded by asking each researcher what the FOREST Partnership must get right in its first years. The exchange connected four central challenges: addressing geographical and thematic gaps, improving funding structures, preparing for alternative futures, and creating conditions in which diverse actors can participate in and use research and innovation.
Connecting research priorities with funding decisions
Laura Liepina from the European Commission’s AG Agri then outlined the policy pathway ahead. She presented the range of instruments supporting forest-related research and innovation, including Horizon Europe Cluster 6, Mission Soil, the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking and the FOREST Partnership. Laura’s presentation highlighted the importance of long-term, interdisciplinary and practice-oriented research that supports multifunctional and resilient forests. It also drew attention to a key implementation gap: Europe has promising forest innovations, but further effort is needed to move them from demonstration towards wider deployment. This means supporting the whole innovation journey by connecting research with testing, business development, while translating knowledge more quickly into operational practice.
Mika Kallio from Finland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Tony Quinn from Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine explained how the FOREST Partnership will put the SRIA into use.
They described the SRIA as a shared strategic compass: a starting framework that will guide coordinated decisions while continuing to evolve as new evidence, pressures and opportunities emerge. Seven co-funded calls are planned over the Partnership’s ten-year programme from 2026 to 2036. The first of these, FORESTPathways, already provides a practical outlet for priorities identified through EUFORE. The Partnership will extend beyond calls for proposals. Planned activities include a European network of forest and forestry living labs, work to better align monitoring with policy priorities, improved access to shared research and technology infrastructures, thematic programming linking nationally funded projects, and support for emerging researchers through a PhD Forum and summer schools. Tony Quinn also explained how open consultation and the EUFORE stakeholder network informed the scoping of the first call. Future priority-setting will combine near-term call scoping with horizon scanning, foresight, portfolio analysis and continued engagement. Over time, this evidence will support an updated edition of the SRIA, helping it remain a living strategic document rather than a snapshot of priorities at the end of EUFORE.
Keeping the SRIA relevant and responsive
The second panel, moderated by Jasmina Jusic from Fraunhofer Italia and EFI’s Young Leadership Programme, brought together Laura Liepina, Mika Kallio and Tony Quinn to examine what must happen next.
The discussion addressed how coordination can be strengthened across European and national funding instruments, how future calls can respond to identified knowledge gaps, and how the SRIA can shape the Partnership’s priorities without becoming static. The panellists also considered how the Partnership can maintain continuous dialogue with researchers, practitioners, Member States and the wider forest sector, rather than seeking input only when a new call is being prepared.
A central message emerging from the session was that developing a strong research agenda is only the beginning. The greater challenge is to build structures that translate shared priorities into funding decisions, collaborative research, practical experimentation and uptake.
EUFORE ends, but its legacy continues
The day concluded with Forest Partnering: Meet & Connect, a matchmaking session designed to help researchers, funders, policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders identify shared interests and develop new connections around future calls and collaborations.
This was a fitting conclusion to EUFORE’s final event. The project may be coming to an end, but the work it initiated will continue. Its scientific evidence has helped identify the strengths and gaps in European forest research and innovation. Its co-created SRIA provides a common strategic direction. Its stakeholder network offers a foundation for continued exchange. Most importantly, the FOREST Partnership now provides a long-term structure through which these results can inform calls, projects, foresight, living labs and wider cooperation.
The transition from EUFORE to FOREST is therefore not simply a handover from one initiative to another. It marks the beginning of an ongoing cycle in which calls fund research, collaborative activities connect and test knowledge, and new evidence reshapes future priorities.