NEWS
As one out of four Berzelii centres the UPSC Centre for Forest Biotechnology (UCFB) is one of the largest joint research efforts in the country. Researchers are now turning their attention to the spruce - a tree of great importance for Swedish forestry.
The mapping of the spruce – probably the most important tree for Swedish forestry management and the forestry industry – will now begin in earnest.
“Until now, research into forest biotechnology at UPSC has primarily focussed on the aspen tree and the model organism mouse-ear cress, all the genes of which have now been mapped. The new research funds we have received mean that we can now begin to seriously examine the spruce,” explains Professor Ove Nilsson, head of the new research centre.
SEK 200 million
Opened in 2007, the centre will spend around SEK 200 million in funds over the next ten years. The Swedish Research Council (VR) and Vinnova have contributed half of this amount, with Umeå University, SLU, SweTree Technologies, Sveaskog, Holmen skog, Bergvik and others contributing the remainder. The Swedish Forest Industries Federation is also cooperating in the research effort. “We want to conduct basic forest biotechnology research and become an innovation platform for industry,” explains Ove Nilsson.
“The hope is that we will find the tools to increase forest growth and help the trees to adapt to a new climate. We also believe it will be possible to produce different kinds of wood fibre which can be used in different end-products – everything from bioenergy to various new composite materials.”
Numerous challenges
Ove Nilsson highlights the challenges the forestry industry is facing when it comes to ensuring supply of the raw material when he points out what global population increase will mean in terms of access to wood, energy, paper and other goods. The transition from fossil fuels to bioenergy further increases this pressure.
Nilsson and the other researchers hope to be able to provide forestry with a biotechnological revolution like the one that has taken place within agriculture. “The forestry industry is lagging far behind agriculture. There’s been no processing or biotechnological revolution here. There’s a lot to do and it will take time.”
UPSC is a state-of-the-art plant biotechnology research facility where world-leading basic research is combined with the development of future products and processes for agriculture and forestry. The new Berzelii Centre for Forest Biotechnology in Umeå consists of more than 20 research groups at UPSC. Researchers are to concentrate their efforts on the central question of tree biology.
