Co-creation, innovation, decision-making, tech-transfer, and sustainability actions

Funding Information: Open access funding provided by FCT|FCCN (b-on). This work was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program [H2020-SC5-2019–2]—869520 NextLand, [H2020-SPACE-202]—101004362 NextOcean, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UIDB/00124/2020 and Social Sciences DataLab, PINFRA/22209/2016), POR Lisboa and POR Norte (Social Sciences DataLab, PINFRA/22209/2016). Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).European Community (EC) Horizon-funded projects and Earth Observation-based Consortia aim to create sustainable value for Space, Land, and Oceans. They typically focus on addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many of these projects (e.g. Commercialization and Innovation Actions) have an ambitious challenge to ensure that partners share core competencies to simultaneously achieve technological and commercial success and sustainability after the end of the EC funds. To achieve this ambitious challenge, Horizon projects must have a proper governance model and a systematized process that can manage the existing paradoxical tensions involving numerous European partners and their respective agendas and stakeholders. This article presents the VCW-Value Creation Wheel (Lages in J Bus Res 69: 4849–4855, 2016), as a framework that has its roots back in 1995 and has been used since 2015 in the context of numerous Space Business, Earth Observation, and European Community (EC) projects, to address complex problems and paradoxical tensions. In this article, we discuss six of these paradoxical tensions that large Horizon Consortia face in commercialization, namely when managing innovation ecosystems, co-creating, taking digitalization, decision-making, tech-transfer, and sustainability actions. We discuss and evaluate how alliance partners could find the optimal balance between (1) cooperation, competition, and coopetition perspectives; (2) financial, environmental, and social value creation; (3) tech-push and market-pull orientations; (4) global and local market solutions; (5) functionality driven and human-centered design (UX/UI); (6) centralized and decentralized online store approaches. We discuss these challenges within the case of the EC H2020 NextLand project answering the call for greening the economy in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We analyze NextLand Online Store, and its Business and Innovation Ecosystem while considering the input of its different stakeholders, such as NextLand’s commercial team, service providers, users, advisors, EC referees, and internal and external stakeholders. Preliminary insights from a twin project in the field of Blue Economy (EC H2020 NextOcean), are also used to support our arguments. Partners, referees, and EC officers should address the tensions mentioned in this article during the referee and approval processes in the pre-grant and post-grant agreement stages. Moreover, we propose using the Value Creation Wheel (VCW) method and the VCW meta-framework as a systematized process that allows us to co-create and manage the innovation ecosystem while engaging all the stakeholders and presenting solutions to address these tensions. The article concludes with theoretical implications and limitations, managerial and public policy implications, and lessons for Horizon Europe, earth observation, remote sensing, and space business projects.publishersversionpublishe

Wood identification services in support of legal supply chains: A market study

Major wood-importing markets, such as the European Union, the United States of America, and China, have set regulations in place requiring operators to only sell wood-based goods that are sourced and processed in accordance with local laws. Customs, CITES or other official trade documentation require to accurately state the geographic origin, tree species, and in some cases, age of a wood-based product. However, it frequently happens that these are consciously or unknowingly misreported. Various wood identification technologies can be used to verify trade declarations by assessing the anatomical, genetic, and the chemical properties of wood. Through literature review and an online global expert survey, we analysed the market potential for wood identification technologies. Our study finds a substantial but largely unexplored market. Key issues that need to be addressed are a lack of awareness, limited accessibility and availability of the technologies, and limitations in applicability caused by the lack of reference samples and data. The technologies are applied more by law enforcement than by traders in context of due diligence. Wood identification has less uptake in nations scoring lower on governance indexes. Potential private and public sector users should also be better informed about the capabilities and limitations of these technologies. Our findings are of particular interest to competent authorities and business developers in wood identification and/or chain of custody certification

Sustainable Forest Management, FLEGT, and REDD+: Exploring Interlinkages to Strengthen Forest Policy Coherence

Sustainable forest management (SFM) is a concept that guides forest management and policy globally. Over the past decades, two prominent regimes have emerged at the global level that can strengthen SFM: The European Union’s Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) and the United Nations’ mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+). However, the understanding of how FLEGT and REDD+ can interlink with SFM to strengthen forest policy coherence is limited. Enhancing knowledge about interlinkages and synergies is important in view of recent global commitments to strengthen policy coherence. This study employed content analysis of the main global policy documents related to FLEGT and REDD+ to identify (i) the potential contributions of the two regimes to SFM, and (ii) strategies to manage the interlinkages among SFM, FLEGT, and REDD+. The results revealed several potential interlinkages, such as monitoring, reporting, and verification systems, establishing the enabling conditions of SFM, and addressing drivers of forest degradation. However, the interlinkages must be managed if their potential is to be realized. For this, the study proposes three approaches to managing the interlinkages and catalyzing progress toward SFM

Wood-Based Products in the Circular Bioeconomy: Status and Opportunities towards Environmental Sustainability

The circular bioeconomy offers solutions to curb the effects of climate change by focusing on the use of renewable, biological resources to produce food, energy, materials, and services. The substitution of fossil products by wood-based products can help avoid or reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the life cycle of products. However, it is important to understand the potential impacts of large-scale material substitution at the market level. This study aimed to assess the role of selected wood-based products in the circular bioeconomy, the possible changes in their markets, and investigate which elements could ensure the environmental sustainability of these products. The demand for graphic paper has declined over the last 15 years, while the demand for packaging has increased. Cross-laminated timber and man-made cellulosic fibres have seen their global consumption increase over the last decade. While there are benefits associated with the substitution of non-renewable materials by wood-based products, there is still limited understanding of the substitution effects at market-, country- and global level. Some factors enabling the further uptake of wood-based products include initiatives that stimulate technological change, incentives to produce or consume less fossil-based and more bio-based alternatives, and the promotion and marketing of wood-based products as viable alternatives to non-renewable materials

Wood-Based Products in the Circular Bioeconomy: Status and Opportunities towards Environmental Sustainability

The circular bioeconomy offers solutions to curb the effects of climate change by focusing on the use of renewable, biological resources to produce food, energy, materials, and services. The substitution of fossil products by wood-based products can help avoid or reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the life cycle of products. However, it is important to understand the potential impacts of large-scale material substitution at the market level. This study aimed to assess the role of selected wood-based products in the circular bioeconomy, the possible changes in their markets, and investigate which elements could ensure the environmental sustainability of these products. The demand for graphic paper has declined over the last 15 years, while the demand for packaging has increased. Cross-laminated timber and man-made cellulosic fibres have seen their global consumption increase over the last decade. While there are benefits associated with the substitution of non-renewable materials by wood-based products, there is still limited understanding of the substitution effects at market-, country- and global level. Some factors enabling the further uptake of wood-based products include initiatives that stimulate technological change, incentives to produce or consume less fossil-based and more bio-based alternatives, and the promotion and marketing of wood-based products as viable alternatives to non-renewable materials

Stakeholder perceptions of wood-based products in the built environment : a literature review

Current global environmental challenges, such as climate change, set an urge to seek renewable low-emission alternatives to substitute fossil fuel-derived products while transitioning towards circular bioeconomy. Wood has proven to be a versatile renewable material that is able to substitute fossil-based materials. However, the market potential and uptake of wood-based products is also dependent on the preferences of consumers and other stakeholder groups. This paper presents a systematic literature review of studies examining stakeholder perceptions of wood-based products, which also resulted in the identification of research gaps and suggestions for future research directions. The results show that while there has been an adequate amount of research concerning perceptions of wood construction and wood products in the built environment especially in recent years, the perceptions of other wood-based products and emerging innovations, such as wood-based textiles and chemicals have previously been studied only marginally. The results show that relevant stakeholders can be divided into two major groups: professionals at different places in the forest products value chain and end-users. Stakeholders are interested in wood-based products in the built environment, seen as competitive to conventional non-wood alternatives. Wood-based products are seen as interesting and environmentally friendly, but also expensive and not easily available. Moreover, there is a lack of information regarding product characteristics. To improve the market share of especially new wood-based products, the focus needs to be on both product development as well as providing information, including information on the environmental performance, on different products.peerReviewe

Forest Concessions and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Potentials, Challenges and Ways Forward

The Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have directed increased political attention to forests and their sustainable management globally. Forest concessions are a predominant instrument for the sustainable management of public production natural forests in the tropics, but the relationship between the SDGs and forest concessions is poorly explored. Knowledge of this relationship could facilitate aligning tropical forest concession regimes with the SDGs. This research was conducted by means of an online survey, expert interviews and four regional stakeholder workshops to examine (i) how forest concessions can support the implementation of the SDGs; and (ii) what are the key barriers hindering the potential contributions of forest concessions to the SDG. The findings revealed three broad pathways through which forest concessions can support the implementation of the SDGs: (i) sustainable use and management of ecosystem goods and services as the core business; (ii) provision of public goods for socioeconomic development; and (iii) contribution to (sub) national economies through income, employment and fiscal obligations. The paper identifies region-specific (Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia) technical, legal, governance and institutional barriers limiting the potential contributions. Among these, the key barriers are unclear and conflicting tenure, and the lack of available technical and qualified personnel. The paper concludes that the contributions of forest concessions to the SDGs depend on governance context and the clear use of the instrument to deliver such objectives as better planned and implemented concessions and binding concession contracts. The paper also provides recommendations for aligning forest concessions with the SDGs

Maintenance, conservation and appropriate enhancement of biological diversity in forest ecosystems

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