Wood Materials
and Products in the
Development of
Bioeconomy
2014–2018
Metla/Erkki Oksanen
Research, Development and
Innovation Programme, Metla
forest
•
knowledge
•
know-how
•
well-being
The new programme of Metla opens new opportunities for wood products
cluster in the bioeconomy society
The Research, Development and Innovation Programme “Wood
Materials and Products in the Development of Bioeconomy” – the
MAT Programme – studies and develops the value chains of the wood
products cluster from raw materials to business models and markets in
the changing society of bioeconomy.
The programme’s objectives are to
• create a foundation for knowledge and expertise on which Finnish bioeconomy can be built through the wood products cluster
• analyse new opportunities for the wood products cluster in a
bioeconomy society
• add to the competitive ability of the entire forest and wood products cluster by providing knowledge of the future’s wood-based
raw materials, product demand and customers’ needs to
- develop new products and service and
- generate novel and improved processes and business models.
The programme combines expertise from the disciplines of wood
science and technology, forest genetics and tree breeding, forest products and their marketing, forest policy and socio-economic research,
business economics and foresight research, and network research and
life-cycle research. The activities cover five thematic research areas.
The cross-section theme of the programme, “Wood products cluster
in bioeconomy”, yields new knowledge and foresight related the
operational environment of the future and utilisation of bioeconomy
thinking in the wood products cluster. The research in this theme
also brings together elements related to bioeconomy in the four other
themes (see the figure below).
In addition to the applied research and development and innovation
work pursued in collaboration with the customers of research, the
programme’s research scientists engage in studying the fundamentals
for strategic knowledge-based breakthroughs and developing novel
research expertise. They take an active role in the development of
policies and collaborative research that support development of the
bioeconomy society in Finland and through Europe.
www.metla.fi/ohjelma/mat/index-en.htm
The research supports the transformation of the forest and
wood products cluster, along with its full development process
The emphasis in industries using wood-based biomass as raw material
is moving toward the green economy, and new opportunities uses are
arising to versatile use of wood biomass and side streams. Finland
has three significant means of increasing the wood utilisation: a large
increase and specialization in pulping, advanced bioenergy generation
and biorefining based on tree biomass, and large-scale manufacture of
wood products.
New business and operation models, products and services combined with life-cycle thinking increase the competitive ability of wood
product industries. They contribute to efficient utilisation and control
of material streams and answer to the growing needs of building and
living products, logistics solutions, advanced biorefinery products,
and environmental performance.
Raw material basis and demand for products create opportunities
while also imposing limits for the strategic decision-making within
the wood products cluster. Forest genetics and tree breeding offer new
opportunities to match wood quality to the prospective products. Developments in measurement and grading, along with the management
and utilization of data, support the actualisation of the new opportunities in the raw material and product markets.
More information:
Programme director, professor Erkki Verkasalo, phone +358 29 532 3020
Finnish Forest Research Institute, Joensuu, Finland
Wood products sector in bioeconomy:
Riitta Hänninen, senior researcher, phone +358 29 532 2232
Wood utilization, products and services:
Henrik Heräjärvi, senior researcher, phone +358 29 532 3037
Raw materials and side streams:
Erkki Verkasalo, professor, phone +358 29 532 3020
Measurements of raw materials and wood products:
Jari Lindblad, senior researcher, phone +358 29 3072
Forest and plant genetics for wood quality and utilisation:
Katri Kärkkäinen, professor, phone +358 29 532 3767
E-mail: firstname.lastname@metla.fi
The wood products cluster is positioning itself for the bioeconomy society
In the bioeconomy, the goal is a carbon-neutral and resource-efficient society composed of industries, citizens and the public sector.This should provide new opportunities to promote
the wood products cluster and enhance its competitive ability, growth and employing ability. Low-carbon operations, recyclability, and sustainable procurement and utilisation of raw
materials and products are at the focus of resource-efficiency efforts. In these areas, wood products and materials present obvious advantages over most other options.
Research of fundamentals: knowledge
innovations, development of expertise
Development projects, problem solving,
customer service: applications, added value
Wood utilisation
•Product properties and their
improvement
•New products and uses
•Building and living with wood
•Demand and markets
•Profitability and competition
ability
•Resource-efficiency, material
flows, recycling
Wood-based raw materials
Wood measurement
Genetics and wood quality
• Future’s raw material basis and
cultivation forestry
• Side streams of wood product
industries and their utilisation
• Markets for raw materials,
added value, growing for
quality
• Wood-based vs. alternative raw
materials
•Novel measurement, grading
and sorting methods of woodbased raw materials
•Novel measurement methods
of product properties
•Versatile implementation of
measurements and efficient
utilisation of resulting
information
•Basis of genetic variability and
potential of genomic breeding of
wood properties
•Measurement and utilisation of
genetic variability of wood
properties
•Relationship of genetic origin
and silviculture with wood
quality
•Economic effects of tree
breeding towards wood quality
Wood product cluster in bioeconomy
Foresight – Business innovations – Environmental competence – Life-cycle analysis – Promotion of wood product cluster
www.metla.fi/
Metla/EPur 2014