“This year is the EU-Russia Year of Science,” says Marc Palahí, EFI’s Deputy Director. “Forest research can lead the way and demonstrate the added value of EU-Russian cooperation. For example, a recently-started ERA-NET project, SUMFOREST*, can play an important role in integrating Russia as a major partner in the emerging European forest research area.”
EFI has a
broad strategy for collaboration with Russia
and negotiations with significant outcomes took place at the Federal Forestry
Agency of the Russian Federation.
It was agreed that cooperation between EFI and Russian forest sector could be
built on the following four main pillars:
- Enhancing EU-Russian scientific cooperation at a strategic level e.g.,
through joint research agendas, joint programming of research (e.g., via
SUMFOREST ERA-Net)
- Generating new research-based knowledge on Russian forests and forest sector
(e.g. via a new Foresight Study on Future of Russian Forest Sector) ;
- Capacity building, especially supporting the emergence of a new generation of
Russian forest sector experts/leaders, e.g., through a Young Leadership
Programme;
- Facilitating science-based political and economic discussions between EU
countries and institutions and Russia e.g., via targeted workshops and events,
such as the forthcoming science-policy event: “Thinking out of the box: facing
the impacts of wildfires and their consequences at multiple scales” which will
bring Mediterranean and Russian experts together in March in Barcelona.
The
strategic relevance of Russia
for EFI has been demonstrated by i.a. by EFI’s recent recruitment of Dr. Elena
Kulikova as an expert in Russian forest sector.
The Deputy Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Mr Alexander Panfilov noted that
“many of the proposed EFI activities are of great interest for the Russian
forest sector, and we are ready for further discussions with EFI on developing
them further. Already now we can state that we are interested in the
development and implementation of the Young Leadership Programme and the Foresight
Study for the Russian Forest Sector, as well as a study on existing research
capacities in the Russian forest sector. We
are ready for further collaboration.”
