The charm of international cooperation

On Moday, 13th May 2019, in Cankarjev dom, the official opening of the exhibition Charm of Wood took place. Among the invited speakers was Violeta Bulc, the European commissioner for transport, who firmly stated that the European Union strongly supports the RDI activities of the member states. She mentioned the well-established, internationally recognized and young and prosperous research institute, the InnoRenew CoE, as a good example.

Violeta Bulc at the opening ceremony of the Charm of Wood 2019. Image: Ana Slavec

The official opening of the exhibition was followed by a scientific conference on this particular topic, “Charm of cooperation: International collaboration for an innovative forest-based value chain”, organized by the InnoRenew CoE. The event began with the welcoming words of Dr Andreja Kutnar, the InnoRenew CoE director, who emphasized the importance of international collaborations in the science field. The Ministry of Education, Science and Sport Science Directorate Director-General, Dr Tomaž Boh, agreed with her and added that the ministry is happy and proud to see the success of Slovenian researchers in gaining new projects in the forestry field.

The conference proceeded with two round table discussions. The first was moderated by the project coordinator of ForestValue, Mr Mika Kallio from Finland. New projects funded through the ForestValue programme were presented.

“The overall objective of ForestValue is to promote increased innovation and competitiveness of the forest-based sector in Europe,” said Mr Kallio.

Slovenia is very successful in this; hence, 21 projects have been co-financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food since 2010 for a total value of over 4,5 million euros.

“This is a wonderful example of how, with a small national investment, you can have access to a great portfolio of international projects,” added Mr Kallio.

Among seven presented projects, two were the InnoRenew CoE collaborations – ClickDesign and DynaTTB.

Dr Jakub Sandak at the conference Chram of cooperation. Image: Lea Primožič

The second roundtable discussion focused on projects that have already been concluded and have continued in new forms and partnerships. The discussion was led by Martin Greimel, co-coordinator of ForestValue, from Austria. Representatives of nine projects shared with the audience their experiences. They all agreed how important it is that the project partners know each other very well and closely cooperate. All representatives had positive experiences with their projects, which, after financing, developed in new collaborations and new projects.