Foresight within ERA-NETs: Experiences from the Preparation of an International Research Programme

1. Second International Seville Seminar on Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA): Impacts on policy and decision making28th- 29th September 2006 Foresight within ERA-NETs: Experiences from the Preparation of an International Research Programme Ville Brummer*, Totti Könnölä** and Ahti Salo* *Helsinki University of Technology ** Technical Research Centre of Finland

2. Foresight within ERA-NETs ERA-NETs ERA-NET Scheme • An innovation policy tool in the EU • Funding from FP6 (budget approx. 160 M€ in 2002 - 2006) • Coordination and cooperation among national and regional research programmes • New innovations, efficient use of resources, risk spreading • Focus on selected sciences and/or technologies • Approx. 75 ERA-NETs to-date • Transportation, climate change, hydrogen, cancer, etc. • Diverse practices • From 10 to 50 partners • Budgets from 100 k€ to 100 M€ • Mode of operations ranges from • weak coordination of national programmes to • common pot of resources for a joint RTD programme

4. Foresight within ERA-NETs WoodWisdom-Net Background • Timeline • Established in 2004 • Calls for proposals in 2007 - research will start in 2008 • 18 partners (ministries and national funding agencies) • Austria, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, UK • Joint Research Programme • Research projects to be funded by WW-Net partners • Partners allocate funds to researchers in their countries • Funding decisions are taken jointly • Cross-national research projects • Five workpackages (WPs) • WP2 strategic activities: WP 2.4 and 2.5 Collaborative Shaping of Research Agendas in WoodWisdom-Net

5. Foresight within ERA-NETs Collaborative Shaping of Research Agendas Consultation process • Challenges • New instrument → No established approaches • A broad range of issues to be covered • Forestry, wood products, paper industry, etc. • Research, industrial and societal perspectives • Different partners (funding organizations) • Different management cultures • Different national interests • Different focus areas • Systematic process to engage key stakeholders • Well-defined roles and responsibilities • Taxonomy for research issues • Multiple methods (internet surveys, multicriteria analysis, participatory workshops) • Over 400 participants from eight different countries

7. Foresight within ERA-NETs Process Description Participants • Representatives from funding organizations • One per each organization • National coordinators • One per each country (i.e. Austria, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, UK) • Researchers • Approx. 200 researchers • Industrial leaders • Approx. 50 industry representatives • The project team • Project manager plus research group at TKK (the authors)

8. Foresight within ERA-NETs Process Description Taxonomy RESEARCH AREA 1 Knowledge-based products – new value- added e.g. for construction, interior design, information, packaging and health-care purposes Sub-area 1.1 Wood-based biopolymers to composites Sub-area 1.2 Eco-friendly chemicals and polymers Sub-area 1.3 Creating new functionalities or improved to materials/products Sub-area 1.4 Combining fibres with other materials Sub-area 1.5 Creating new innovative wood and fibre structures for different end-uses RESEARCH AREA 2 Biorefinery concept for efficient utilization of wood raw material Sub-area 2.1 Modification and processing of wood raw material into innovative, eco-efficient products Sub-area 2.2 Effective utilization of side streams Sub-area 2.3 Development of recyclability characteristics Sub-area 2.4 Advanced production of bioenergy Sub-area 2.5 Utilization of enabling technologies to improve productivity and reduce capital costs RESEARCH AREA 3 Sustainable, renewable raw material production Sub-area 3.1 Techniques for measurement and characterization of the properties of wood and fibres Sub-area 3.2 Tree breeding using traditional techniques or forest biotechnology Sub-area 3.3 Factors affecting wood and fibre properties Sub-area 3.4 Silvicultural methods, procurement and harvesting operations Sub-area 3.5 Optimizing the raw material supply chain for specific products or demands RESEARCH AREA 4 Socio-economic aspects related to scientific innovations of wood-based materials Sub-area 4.1 Combining social and natural/engineering sciences Sub-area 4.2 Values and perception Sub-area 4.3 New business models

9. Foresight within ERA-NETs Process description Process Design

10. Foresight within ERA-NETs Process description Tasks 1 – 3: Web-activities • Task 1 : • Timetable: Mid-July – Mid-October 2005 • Participants: ~ 200 Researchers • Researchers submitted research issues • Output: 317 Research issues • Task 2 • Timetable: December 2005 – Mid-January 2006 • Participants: ~ 200 Researchers • Researchers assessed proposed research issues • Task 3 • Timetable: January 2006 • Participants: ~ 50 Industrial leaders • Industrial leaders assessed research issues

11. [Paper title] Process description Task 1 Exapmle

13. Foresight within ERA-NETs Process description Task 4 Initial screening of research issues • Timetable • January – February 2006 • Participants • The project team • Task • Multi-criteria analyses with RPM-methodology based on the assessments (http://www.rpm.tkk.fi) • Output • Key evaluation statistics • Shortlists of most promising issues

14. Foresight within ERA-NETs Process description Task 5 Workshops for researchers and funding organisations • Three one day workshops in February 2006 • New value added products and production, Wood products and Forestry • Participant • One researcher and one Industrial leader from each participating country / workshop • Issues, assessments and analysis on each research sub-area allocated to each workshop by topic • Discussion of solicited issues • Evaluation of sub-areas with regards to i) suitability for WW-Net and ii) tentative proposition of distribution of funding • Synthesis of the results i) at the international level and ii) on each country

15. Foresight within ERA-NETs Process description Task 6 Workshop for funding organisations • Timetable • March 2006 • Participants • Representatives from funding organisations • One-day workshop • Results from previous tasks supported discussions • Funding organisations estimated i) how much and ii) which sub-areas they would be willing to fund • Three working groups of WW-Net partners created based on these answers  Specification of Calls-for-Proposals

16. Foresight within ERA-NETs Collaborative shaping of research agendas Conclusions • Benefits to stakeholders • Researchers: Learning from a systematic process • Industry: Influence through comments on prospective research • Funding organizations: Improved understanding of research issues that are relevant to researchers and industrialists • Makes it easier to commit funds • Supporst the development of Calls-for-Proposals • Key process considerations • How to balance top-down and bottom-up prioritisation? • At what stage to build a taxonomy of research issues? • How to foster new networks of collaboration? • Extensive analyses distributed among WW-Net members • Potentially useful in other ERA-NETs, too