Proposals under this topic should:

• Develop or upgrade non-invasive solutions for forest health monitoring and wood quality control (including remote and automated operations), taking into account the European and regional variety of forests. The developed solutions should support sustainable forest management via better understanding of forest ecosystem characteristics (including multi-species’ interactions in forest ecosystems), and of the relation between growth conditions of the trees/forest ecosystems (presence of parasites or pests, biodiversity, climate change stress) and the resulting woody biomass quality.
• Apply data gathering and monitoring across the whole value chain from forest operations to transport, storage and processing of wood. Use this knowledge for decision support and prediction throughout forest-based operations to optimise the value chain in scope. Decision support is needed for instance to identify the best moment for harvesting/conservation/treatment options. Data gathering and monitoring of tree growth will assist in anticipating and projecting resulting wood quality and forest ecosystem health.
• Identify early intervention actions to restore and enhance forest health, (e.g. new or better adapted varieties with higher resistance to pathogens, pests, water scarcity adaptation etc) in particular to mitigate and adapt to effects of climate change and to enhance the natural biodiversity potential and forest resilience (‘learning from nature’ approaches). A feedback loop should be created with the forest management and the ecosystem research sectors to reach this goal.
• Identify the most suitable application(s) for different grades of woody feedstock (which may include wood rot, insect damaged and storm damaged wood, but also local varieties and wood whose characteristics are affected by climate change stress) and apply innovative solutions for their valorisation. When applicable, the activity can include additional sources of primary biomass such as bark, stumps, leaves, nuts etc. aiming at full valorisation of forest biomass. Higher quality of wood means it is increasingly used for high value and durable applications (e.g. construction sector), increasing its carbon storage potential.
• Optionally, proposals can include downstream processing of the selected feedstock for the identified applications, to assess the impact of the innovations introduced by the project in relation to the benchmark.

Proposals should build on past or ongoing research projects and collaborate with relevant initiatives, including the Forest Information System for Europe (FISE).