Academic co-operation on the boreal forest belt launched to accelerate innovation and adoption of bio-based solutions
University of British Columbia (UBC), Aalto University and VTT are joining their strong expertise on bio-based materials by launching the Boreal Alliance. The collaboration is realized via the Finnish FinnCERES Flagship and the BioProducts Institute at UBC.
Canada and Finland have a lot of similarities to support the collaboration: raw material base on the boreal belt, societies’ commitment to sustainability and clean planet, forest-oriented culture, and high expertise in innovation.
Boreal Alliance aims to identify opportunities to translate bio-based materials science to sustainable innovations, and welcomes interested academic partners to join the mission. Knowledge exchange between the partners is enabled by, for example, visiting students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty members. The aim is also to develop co-supervised doctoral research topics and to enable and promote reciprocal access to the partners’ research infrastructures. Another practical way to collaborate is to promote partners’ seminars within the Alliance, and to organize joint events. Furthermore, the new co-operation aims to promote science-based policies, standards and circular bioeconomy platforms. By joining forces, the partners aim to encourage sustainable developments and innovations.