Industry News Policies
Implementation of a new synergy model for the wood and forest sectors

This new operational synergy is based, among other things, on the complementary efforts of research forces and the sharing of infrastructures and laboratories, in order to maximize the impacts of research investments to the benefit of the competitiveness of the forest sector. This sector is therefore, becoming one of the first ones to align its innovation efforts to meet the challenges it is facing.

“These growth-generating agreements, which include optimizing equipment fleets and supporting the next generation through scholarships, pave the way for a very promising new collaborative model based on complementary knowledge that should lead to major achievements for the future of the forest industry,” said Stéphane Renou, president and chief executive officer, FPInnovations.

“With the new fund, the faculty of forestry, geography and geomatics will be able to support more student projects, such as participation in science education activities, research projects with FPInnovations and internships,” said Sophie D’Amours, rector, Université Laval. “The faculty will also be able to recruit new world-class research leaders and attract top student talent from all over the world.”

Agreement with the LFC
For the LFC, the new operational dynamic is mainly based on sharing expertise in forest genomics research — until now absent from FPInnovation’s portfolio of expertise — and includes, among other things, the allocation of office and laboratory space. This co-location of research teams and infrastructure-sharing will make it possible to broaden FPInnovations’ scope of expertise and maximize the impacts of research investments for the LFC.

Agreement with Université Laval
As for FPInnovations and Université Laval, they will pool their expertise notably in the areas of building, wood processing, forestry operations, Indigenous forestry, smart manufacturing, and climate change. This collaboration is being achieved through a master agreement totalling $2.5 million over a 10-year period, in addition to optimizing equipment assets which, by pooling the assets of each partner, allows researchers to benefit from a state-of-the-art research environment.

FPInnovations fund
FPInnovations is also taking the opportunity today to announce the creation of the FPInnovations Training and Research Support Fund at Université Laval’s faculty of forestry, geography and geomatics, worth half a million dollars. Annual instalments of $50,000 will be paid annually to this fund over a 10-year period. This amount will be used to financially support the faculty’s student projects and to encourage the development of innovative and promising research projects in the fields of wood and forest sciences or any other related field that can stimulate multidisciplinary projects.