Innovation is the key to maintain the competitiveness and sustainable development - This is one of the main conclusions of the consortium meeting of the FORESDA project, which was organized in the last week of September in the picturesque German town of Bad Wildbad. It is situated in the state of Baden-Württemberg, which is famous for the Black Forest, the main mountain range of the state. 

The three-day meeting was dedicated to the project topics, and after several discussions related to the current status of R&D&I intensity level in forest-based industries in the project regions, the partners were united in the opinion that precisely innovation is the key force which will ensure the sustainability in the long-term development of the Danube Region. The market research in the framework of the project has shown that the highest activity in implementing innovations is to be observed in the furniture production subsector (62%), and the lowest in the forestry and woodworking (15%)*. Nevertheless, exactly the processes in those two subsectors are often underestimated, although they are of crucial importance in contributing to the competitiveness of the forest-based industries.

The visit was also an opportunity to learn from the best: It hosted representatives of some of the most interesting ongoing EU projects (ROSEWOOD, AlpLinkBioEco, TripleWood) and institutions (SteinBeis Europa Zentrum, BioPro, ProHolz Baden Württemberg). The consortium also visited CyberForum, a lead partner's organization based in the City of Karlsruhe, which is being considered as one of the most innovative German cities. CyberForum is a non-profit organization, which strongly supports businesses from the IT and high-tech industry in all stages of their development. Especially interesting was also the visit to the Living Labs - Conducted by the research institute FZI (Research Center for Information Technology). Their research facilities are dealing with some of the most interesting research fields like smart automation, mobility, automotive, robotics, energy, and home.

The cross-sectoral approach, which is one of FORESDA's main accents, is being more and more important for further development of the economy in the Danube Region. Accordingly, FORESDA develops ten pilot projects linked to three thematic areas: Smart and sustainable construction and furniture, innovative bio-based products and materials, and energy efficiency. The pilots should lead to the emergence of new cross-sectoral value chains and increased effectiveness of collaborative research and innovation activities. The implementation phase started in January 2018 and some interesting results have already been achieved. More information about the pilots will be presented during the next project meeting, which will be organized in Belgrade, at the beginning of November this year.

*The data was collected in 2017, during the survey conducted within each of the project region among wood processing companies and other relevant market stakeholders. Upon those data as well as other regional analysis, FORESDA Project Consortium developed a Transnational Strategy on Cross-sectoral Level, which addresses the identified needs for further development and an increase of R&D&I activities with respect to the regional innovation systems, aiming to improve the framework conditions for forest-based cross-sectoral value chains. Check more information about FORESDA and forest-based industries in the FORESDA Project Video

(Photo from the project meeting in Bad Wildbad, September 2018)