NSF Engines Development Award: Advancing forest ecosystem management and forest product innovations (NH, ME, VT)

Northern Forest Center, Concord NH

Investigators

Abstract

This Regional Innovation Engines Development Award is focused on a future where advanced forest ecosystem management and forest product innovation unlock new opportunities in a circular bioeconomy for northern New England. Through a strategic regional partnership, this Development Award will enable the team to leverage knowledge in precision forest management, traditional wood products, and bio-based materials to complement past successes and infrastructure investments with emerging forest-based sustainable products and technologies. The Development Award will unify capacities within the industry, institutions of higher education, workforce development, and the public sector into a regional innovation ecosystem that matches the multi-state scale and diversity of the Northern Forest ecosystem. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are three of the most forested states in the US, with economies and communities tightly linked to their natural resource base. Globalization has wrought fundamental changes in the forest sector. The impacts of climate change are stressing the forest and highlighting the critical role that a healthy Northern Forest and the wood-based products that come from it play in storing and sequestering carbon. From these complex challenges comes a critical opportunity: to re-tool and reinvigorate a forest-based economy to contribute to US competitiveness while building rural community equity and strengthening economic development. Three specific objectives will be addressed during the Development Award: (1) accelerate advances in forest resource management, wood products manufacturing, and emerging forest-based technologies; (2) implement best practices for intelligent utilization of Northern Forest resources for economic, ecological, and climate benefit; and (3) improve workforce skills and participation in forest-based careers, including expanded participation by historically underrepresented populations. Three focus areas include (1) precision forestry for climate-smart sustainable management and operations (e.g., advanced forest inventory, carbon accounting, geospatial assessment); (2) conventional forest products (e.g., dimensional and pattern solid sawn lumber, wood composite panels, pulp and paper, bioenergy); and (3) emerging forest bioproducts (e.g., nanocellulose, forest biochemicals, mass timber, additive manufacturing). Outcomes will include a strategic roadmap that provides: (1) identification of the existing and needed research & development processes, infrastructure, and practices for building a thriving regional innovation engine; (2) facilitated collaboration to create a commercialization and innovation strategy based on Northern Forest assets and capabilities; (3) development of networks, resources, and pathways for integration of commercialization and innovation framing of research, education, and workforce development; and (4) preparation for a full NSF Engine Award. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.