Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB Northern Periphery and Arctic

Date of latest update: 2023-11-16

Description

Description (EN):

FOBIA aims to enhance the business competitiveness of forestry service enterprises in the NPA regions of Finland, Sweden, Scotland and Ireland by: (1) promoting the development of innovative business models; (2) providing tools for increasing operational efficiency; and, (3) developing and piloting the use of digital platforms for knowledge transfer, networking and trading of services. Forestry is an economically important industry across much of the Northern Periphery. The NPA areas of Sweden and Finland produce 30% and 60% respectively of domestic roundwood consumption, and timber harvesting alone employs around 10,000 people. In the NPA areas of Ireland and Scotland, annual timber production is forecast to increase significantly over the next 10 years (almost doubling in Ireland to reach 6M m3 and increasing by 30% in Scotland to 4.5M m3). Mobilising this wood flow will require considerable investment and development of forestry services. The scale of forestry businesses providing timber harvesting and silvicultural services ranges from self-employed sole-traders and micro-enterprises, to larger companies operating dozens of machines. These businesses are required to provide an increasingly diverse range of services, as more business activities are outsourced (e.g. planning, quality control and reporting). Many forestry entrepreneurs lack the management skills required to successfully meet these increased demands, and their ability to acquire new skills is often constrained by a lack of time and the long distances involved in accessing training. Many forestry service businesses are also experiencing declining profitability, making it difficult to recruit and retain skilled employees. FOBIA will address these barriers by developing resources and tools, available through digital platforms, to help forestry entrepreneurs improve profitability through new business models, increased operational efficiency and enhanced management skills and leadership.

Website: http://www.interreg-npa.eu/

Expected Results (EN): Conditions for start-ups in remote, sparsely populated areas

Expected Outputs (EN):

FOBIA will develop and introduce support systems which facilitate enhancement of the profitability of forestry service businesses. Emphasis will be put on improving entrepreneurs’ managerial skills, promoting networking and collaboration among entrepreneurs, and adopting machine monitoring and business management systems. The starting point will be a comprehensive analysis of the current status of forestry service businesses in the participating regions of the NPA, characterising them in terms of operational activities, size, use of technology and business models applied. Providing improved support systems for forestry entrepreneurs, available through digital platforms, will improve the conditions for forestry machine operators or other contractors who wish to found their own start-ups, and may encourage them to do so. FOBIA will also increase understanding of the most important barriers in regard to entrepreneurship. As well as contributing to the lifelong learning of entrepreneurs and improving their business competitiveness, the new knowledge generated in this project can immediately be adopted in the training modules of various forestry training institutes and colleges. FOBIA will therefore have a significant impact on attitudes towards forest entrepreneurship among young people.

Thematic information

SME and entrepreneurship Agriculture and fisheries and forestry

Specific Objective: Improved support systems tailored for start-ups and existing SMEs in remote and sparsely populated areas

Thematic Objective: (03) enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs by:

Investment Priority: (03a) promoting entrepreneurship, in particular by facilitating the economic exploitation of new ideas and fostering the creation of new firms, including through business incubators

Partners (8)

Lead Partner: Luonnonvarakeskus

Department: Green technology

Address: Latokartanonkaari 9, 790 Helsinki, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.luke.fi/en

Total budget: EUR 557 979.36

ERDF budget: EUR 362 686.58

Inverness College-UHI

Name: Inverness College-UHI

Department: Research

Address: Inverness Campus 1, IV2 5NA Inverness, United Kingdom

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.inverness.uhi.ac.uk

Total budget: EUR 210 513.68

ERDF budget: EUR 136 833.89

Svenska Skogsentreprenörerna ek.för

Name: Svenska Skogsentreprenörerna ek.för

Address: Storgatan 19, 102 15 Stockholm, Sweden

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.skogsentreprenad.nu

Total budget: EUR 157 577.33

ERDF budget: EUR 78 788.66

TTS Työtehoseura

Name: TTS Työtehoseura

Address: Kiljavantie 6, 5201 Rajamäki, Finland

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.tts.fi

Total budget: EUR 319 332.00

ERDF budget: EUR 207 565.80

Waterford Institute of Technology

Name: Waterford Institute of Technology

Address: Cork Road, X91 KOEK Waterford, Ireland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.wit.ie

Total budget: EUR 276 768.79

ERDF budget: EUR 179 899.71

North Karelia Municipal Education and Training Consortium

Name: North Karelia Municipal Education and Training Consortium

Department: North Karelia College Valtimo

Address: Tulliportinkatu 3, 80130 Joensuu, Finland

Legal status: public

Website (not verified): http://www.pkky.fi

Total budget: EUR 38 739.80

ERDF budget: EUR 25 180.87

Tietohippu Ltd

Name: Tietohippu Ltd

Address: Kehräämöntie 7, 87400 Kajaani, Finland

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.tietohippu.fi

Total budget: EUR 73 290.00

ERDF budget: EUR 36 645.00

Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet

Name: Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet

Department: Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology

Address: Skogsmarksgränd 77, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.slu.se

Total budget: EUR 266 819.96

ERDF budget: EUR 173 432.97

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Inverness College-UHI

Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Partners and Projects info

The Swedish Association of Forestry Contractors

Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Partners and Projects info

TTS Työtehoseura

Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Partners and Projects info

Waterford Institute of Technology

Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Partners and Projects info

North Karelia Municipal Education and Training Consortium

Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Partners and Projects info

Tietohippu Ltd

Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Partners and Projects info

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Partners and Projects info

Natural Resources Institute Finland

Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Project acronym: FOBIA

Project start date: 2017-06-01

Project end date: 2020-05-31

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 1 901 020.92

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 1 201 033.50

Total EU funding (co-financing rate): 63.00%

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 1 201 033.50.

Documents

Documents on this project are listed below, and organised by category. Please note field "Data source", attached to each document. Keep.eu users are free to use these documents as long as they mention the data source and keep.eu.

Videos / films

Better future for forest service enterprises - FOBIA project (en)

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: https://fobia.interreg-npa.eu/outputs-and-results/

Publication date: 2022-11-14

Document date: 2018-04-16

Languages: en

Metsäkoneenkuljettajien osaamiskartoitus/forest machine operators' competence survey (FI, EN & SE)

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: https://fobia.interreg-npa.eu/outputs-and-results/

Publication date: 2022-11-14

Document date: 2019-03-14

Languages: fi, sv, en

Johdanto metsäkoneen tietojärjestelmiin/Introduction to forest machine data systems (subs: EN & SE)

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Video / film

Data source: https://fobia.interreg-npa.eu/outputs-and-results/

Publication date: 2022-11-14

Document date: 2019-06-12

Languages: sv, en

Reports

DIGITAL SOLUTIONS IN THE FORESTRY SERVICE BUSINESS

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://fobia.interreg-npa.eu/outputs-and-results/

Publication date: 2022-11-14

Document date: 2019-12-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Websites / webtools / webforums / cooperative platforms

Boost Site Portal

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Website / webtool / webforum / cooperative platform

Data source: https://www.interreg-npa.eu/projects/funded-projects/project/193/

Publication date: 2022-11-14

Document date: 2020-05-31

Languages: fi, en, sv

Attachment link: https://boostsite.org/en/

Media releases / articles

Modeling the productivity of mechanized CTL harvesting with statistical machine learning methods

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Media release / article

Data source: https://www.interreg-npa.eu/projects/funded-projects/project/193/

Publication date: 2022-11-14

Document date: 2020-10-19

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Studies / surveys

Koneellinen hakkuu- Seurantatutkimus

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Study / survey

Data source: https://www.interreg-npa.eu/projects/funded-projects/project/193/

Publication date: 2022-11-14

Document date: 2019-11-30

Languages: fi

Attachment file: Download

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB Northern Periphery and Arctic

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-11-02

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

152 / 152 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

779 / 779 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme

Languages

Contact Form

Forest Business Innovation and Advancement in the Northern Periphery

Description

Thematic information

Partners (8)

Partners map

Summary

Documents

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Disclaimer