This one day COST Exploratory Workshop, forming a part of CEPI’s European Paper Week, is designed to encourage links between researchers in different institutions and links between the research sector, industrial Research & Development organisations and the Manufacturing Sector of the Pulp, Paper & Board. Leading, established researchers in the Pulp, Paper & Board sector, along with Young Researchers embarking on a career in the Paper Industry, will meet with Industry partners to address the short to medium term challenges facing the Industry.

In the past few years, the European Industry has faced a series of new challenges as governments & legislation have responded to public opinion on matters surrounding ‘Sustainability’. Cellulose fibre, the fundamental raw material for nearly all paper products, is potentially one of the most sustainable biomaterials available for industrial scale use, yet the industries dependence on energy, water and fossil fuel derived chemicals must be reduced.

Close links must be forged between industry & researchers to develop new research groups and activities addressing these new challenges, develop new competitive, fit for purpose products & find solutions for a 21st Century Sustainable Pulp, Paper & Board Industry; an industry capable of producing not only paper, but also raw materials for a wide range of emerging industrial processes and, perhaps most importantly of all, energy!

The event provides a two way forum to ‘kick start’ the research process, in line with the ’Forest-based Sector Technology Platform Strategic Research Agenda’, whilst engaging industrial partners from the outset and introducing early stage researchers to the Pulp, Paper & Board Industry.