EFI's mission is to carry out, strengthen, and mobilise forest research and expertise aimed at addressing policy-relevant needs with regard to forests and their governance. The aim of EFI’s research activities is to provide scientific basis for policy support, using applied, integrated and multidisciplinary methods in addressing policy needs at the European level and in different European regions and countries.
EFI’s research is complementary to, and carried out in collaboration with
EFI’s Associate Members, and it serves the EFI
Policy Support function. The target groups of EFI research activities are the EFI Member countries and the European Union, international processes and organizations, forest sector stakeholders as well as the research community.
Click here for the R&D long-term goals and R&D Directions.
EFI also maintains and develops competencies in tools and methodologies which enable international comparisons and future projections in strategic research issues. These include, for example, the European Forest Resources Scenario Modelling (
EFISCEN), Global Forest Sector Model (EFI-GTM), forest sector sustainability impact assessment tools, and
forest mapping applications.
Research is carried out in flexible teams of experts among EFI’s own research staff and other experts, based on the given task. EFI has research staff in the three headquarter-based research programmes: Sustainability and Climate Change, Foresight and Policy Support and Forest for Society, and at Regional Offices: EFIMED based in Barcelona, EFIATLANTIC in Bordeaux, EFICEEC-EFISEE in Vienna and in Varaždin, EFINORD in Copenhagen and EFICENT-OEF in Freiburg and in Nancy.
EFI has a Scientific Advisory Board, which advises the EFI in scientific matters, monitors EFI's R&D activities and anticipates future research needs.
More information: Marc Palahí, Deputy Director (firstname.lastname(at)efi.int)
Photo by Yoshiyayo - Fotolia
See our newsletter