European forests, pivotal in the bioeconomy and provision of ecosystem services, face growing challenges from climate threats, impacting their multifunctional roles from carbon sequestration to biodiversity and recreation. "SingleTree" seeks to transform forest management, aligning with the EU’s Bioeconomy Strategy, Rural Vision, Biodiversity Strategy, and the European Green Deal. SingleTree leverages cutting-edge data capture and AI technologies to monitor individual tree attributes, health, and biodiversity ensuring a holistic approach to multifunctional forest management. By developing solutions for forest health monitoring and wood quality control, the project aims to enhance sustainable forest management, considering the diverse European and regional forest varieties. Data acquisition across the value chain, from forest operations to wood processing, will be optimized, aiding decision-making processes, from harvesting timings to treatment options. Using a co-creation approach with Living Lab value chains, the project quickly develops solutions addressing real-world challenges. It focuses on boosting forest resilience, preventing biodiversity loss due to climate change, and maximizing the use of different wood grades. SingleTree prioritizes the full utilization of forest biomass, highlighting the carbon retention of premium wood. Furthermore, SingleTree will assess the environmental and social impacts of its innovations, focusing on biodiversity enhancement, resource efficiency, and the implications for stakeholders. The project encourages regional and local entities, particularly SMEs, to adopt innovative business models emphasizing sustainability, circularity, and tiered biomass use. This strategy enhances material utilization and highlights the balance of trade-offs, synergies, and community involvement, ensuring beneficial outcomes for the environment, society, and economy in regional and rural areas.

Our vision is to develop a flexible and cost-effective gasification-based process for the production of pipeline-quality biomethane, high-value biochar and renewable heat from a wide variety of low-quality biomass residues and biogenic waste feedstocks. The combination of gasification process development and feedstock supply chain optimization will lead to significant cost reductions that allow lowering biomethane production costs by more than 30% compared to state-of-the-art biomass-to-SNG technologies. The target is at medium-scale conversion plants, which allows the use of local biomass residues and biogenic wastes without heavy transport logistics. The key innovative technology of FlexSNG is the flexible gasification process that can switch between two operation modes according to price signals and market demand: 1) co-production of biomethane, biochar and heat, and 2) maximised production of biomethane and heat. The produced biomethane can be readily injected into the existing gas infrastructure for distribution in the transport sector, heat/power production, industries and households. The co-produced biochar can be used to displace fossil fuels in energy production and industry or in material applications. The FlexSNG concept is based on the European partners’ advanced technologies in the field of oxygen production, gasification and gas clean-up and methanation. The innovative key enabling technologies will be developed and validated to TRL5. The Canadian partners bring their expertise in feedstock supply chain management, modelling and optimization of integrated biorefinery concepts, and the Canadian perspective into the project. FlexSNG will demonstrate the targeted 30% cost reduction in concrete case studies representing both European and Canadian conditions. The proposed activities are well in line with the goals set in the work programme for international cooperation with Canada to develop new sustainable solutions for biofuels/bioenergy production.

Forestry is a potential pathway to strengthening European competitiveness, reducing dependence on non-renewable, unsustainable resources, enhancing the circular bioeconomy, and understanding the bioeconomy’s ecological boundaries. Europe’s forests and their value chains, however, face diverse challenges, including increasing global wood demand, biodiversity loss, and increasing biotic and abiotic threats to forest health and economic revenue caused by climate change. OptiForValue’s ultimate goal is to foster transition to more sustainable and resilient forest-based value chains, by using a unique, interconnected modelling framework involving strong participative engagement and novel scientific approaches, including early warning indicators of biotic and abiotic risks, adaptive forest management strategies, remote sensing and artificial intelligence for agile forest operations, and integrated value-chain optimisation and life cycle assessments. The expected outcomes include increased value addition, competitiveness, sustainability, and resilience of European forest-based value chains, particularly in regions already or forecast to be impacted by climate change over the coming decades. OptiForValue will accelerate this transition by enhancing the sustainability, resilience, and profitability of regional value chains in Central European, Mediterranean and boreal, via case studies in Austria, Spain, Sweden, Finland. Significant long-term impacts are expected to be achieved, including a 10% reduction in wood damage, with a subsequent increase in wood harvesting (€240 M annually), 3% value addition from better quality control (€350 M annually), 5% increase in the forestry workforce in areas affected by climate change, and 5–10% reduction in fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The consortium’s research institutes, universities and companies are well equipped to advance the state of the art, validate solutions through case studies, and upscale results.

EFFORTE draws a red line through critical, cost/benefit driving processes, and environmentally concerns of today´s forestry. Starting with efficient fulfilment of various customer demands the red line goes along efficient utilization of Big Data sources, present knowledge and critical new knowledge foreseen as outcomes from this project. Technical development and mechanization has been a winning concept for high productivity now emphasizing more gentle methods and just in time deliveries to different industry customers. This is possible to reach if new knowledge, improved methods and technical development are combined with better transfer of information and data from different sources (e.g processes, geo data from LiDAR scanning, other conditions such as weather data etc).These Big Data sources have been available for some years, but it is not until recently that hardware, data communication and merging possibilities enable full potential for a revolution of new applications. In the EFFORTE proposal we have identified three main subjects that have specific importance for efficiency, productivity and environmental concern in forest practice. Two of these implies to increasing crucial knowledge and the third, Big Data applications, combines the new knowledge with high resolution information sources into practice increasing efficiency in forest management and the connected value chains. The main objectives of EFFORTE are: i) To develop scientifically firm and techno-economically feasible methodology to predict trafficability prior to forest operations. ii) To increase forest growth and productivity of tree planting and young stand management iii) To develop, customize and pilot modern ‘Big data’ solutions that will increase productivity and decrease negative environmental impact (e.g. soil, water and reduced fuel consumption). By EFFORTE we expect to make difference in efficiency, productivity and sustainability for a growing Bio-based economy in Europe.