Ten doctoral projects have been granted within WIFORCE – Wallenberg Initiatives in Forest Research program at SLU. The projects are conducted in collaboration with private and public partners and aim to contribute to the sustainable forestry of the future. The PhD students are trained at SLU and employed by their respective partners.
"This is a fantastic opportunity for the PhD students, who gain a direct connection to the labor market. At the same time, we ensure that the research will truly benefit society" says Hjalmar Laudon, program manager for the WIFORCE Research School.
The research program is funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and runs until 2030. The goal is to develop both the management and conservation of forests to meet the challenges of the future.
The research school aims to train over 50 PhD students, 16 of whom will collaborate with society. The first six collaborative projects have already been established. In these, research will be conducted together with industry partners to adapt forests to a changing climate and use environmental DNA to investigate biodiversity.
Now, ten additional projects have been approved, with partners from both the forest industry and the public sector.
"We are broadening our collaboration by now including the private sector, authorities, and a municipality in the research, which is important to capture societal needs" says Hjalmar Laudon.
The selection process has been unique, where actors in the forest sector shared their knowledge needs, and researchers at SLU presented their research ideas. Researchers whose ideas were ranked highest were invited to submit full applications. These were then evaluated by a review group that selected the projects and matched them with partners.
Anders Dahlberg at the Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology together with industrial/collaboration partner Sveaskog for the project Unfolding cryptic ectomycorrhizal fungal life cycles to advance knowledge-based sustainable biodiversity management in forestry with focus on sandy soil pine forests
Anneli Ågren at the Department of Forest Ecology and Management together with industrial/collaboration partner Komatsu for the project Minimizing environmental damage during forest operations by developing dynamic soil moisture maps and optimization tools
Henrik Persson at the Department of Forest Resource Management together with industrial/collaboration partner GuidelineGeo for the project Ground-penetrating radar systems: making qualitative forest soil data quantitative
Joachim Strengbom at the Department of Ecology together with industrial/collaboration partner Södra for the project Microclimate buffering and species responses to clearcut and non-clearcut forestry
Karin Öhman at the Department of Forest Resource Management together with industrial/collaboration partner Skogforsk for the project Co-planning timber production and nature conservation: Spatial and temporal habitat modelling for sustainable forest management
Lars Östlund at the Department of Forest Ecology and Management together with industrial/collaboration partner Holmen Skog for the project Unveiling new horizons in forest floor remote sensing
Michael J. Gundale at the Department of Forest Ecology and Management together with industrial/collaboration partner Skogsstyrelsen for the project Mixed forests in Northern Sweden: Productivity, resilience and biodiversity
Therese Löfroth at the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environment together with industrial/collaboration partner Umeå Municipality for the project How does decidification (deciduous forest restoration) impact interactions, function and habitat dynamics of bird, bat and beetle assemblages
Thomas Ranius at the Department of Ecology together with industrial/collaboration partner Kopparfors for the project The function of tree retention for biodiversity
Åke Olson at the Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology together with industrial/collaboration partner SweeTree Technologies for the project Innovative methods in plant production: Spray-induced gene silencing for the control of liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha)
The positions for the ten new projects will be announced this spring. The projects last for five years, and the PhD students will combine research studies (80%) with internship (20%). The PhD students will be employed by their respective partners and retain their jobs after completing their doctoral studies.