The overall objective of the research programme is to provide new knowledge in the field of nature-based solutions, in particular using wood, that support and accelerate the adoption of regenerative sustainability through:
– Material and processing advances to optimise efficiency and generate knowledge,
– Engineered living materials to bring the function and capabilities of living organisms,
Design solutions for health and sustainability based on Restorative Environmental and Ergonomic Design (REED).
Advances in these areas will contribute to greater forest sustainability, a healthier built environment and growth in forestry and woodworking. This will be achieved by a multidisciplinary team that will ensure progress in wood science, in the development of engineered living materials and lead to new interdisciplinary research that will accelerate the development of wood structural systems. The research program consists of five working groups: materials, advanced manufacturing technologies, buildings, information processing, and health. These groups will collaborate and jointly contribute new knowledge and achieve scientific, development and innovation excellence (with excellent interdisciplinary science) in the following areas:
– Development of new wood composites based on human health data, theoretical knowledge of biomaterials and predictive modeling of material functionality.
– Comprehensive development of new and evaluation of existing and new wood construction products and systems with new construction products and methods, introducing modern insights into human health aspects and using the latest analysis methods.
– New understanding of the physiological and psychological impacts of human interaction with wood and wood-based materials, such as wood composites.
– Data-driven intelligent solutions for next-generation sensor networks for sustainable buildings, computationally-based design of biomaterials and optimization of processes for the production of renewable materials.