Forestry

Nearly one third of the planet’s land surface is covered with forests, and these need to fulfil many purposes: They provide society with goods such as timber, food and medicine. Forests play a crucial role in mitigating climate change and can protect biodiversity, soil and water quality as well as serve as places where people can enjoy nature. Wood has a lower environmental impact than many alternative materials and the increasing use of forest products can reduce the carbon footprint.

With the funding program in forestry, the foundation wants to contribute to this challenge by supporting solution-oriented research based on an interaction between science and practitioners.

The forestry program at a glance

Goals:

• Fostering a change of perspective in the use and value of forests and sustainable forest management addressing the pressing issues of climate change and biodiversity loss as well as society’s need for timber. The change of perspective shall be solution-oriented and based on interaction between science and practitioners.
• Developing financial innovation and improved framework conditions shall offer leverage to implement sustainable forest management providing forests which can maintain biodiversity, act as a carbon sink and supply forest products.

Duration of program:

• 2022 – 2026
• One specific call for proposals every year

Next deadline:

• 23 September 2023, with a final decision on proposals in March 2024

The call for proposals:

• The details of the call 2023 can be viewed here.

Thematic focus of the call:

• Innovative, sustainable and integrative forest management to develop and provide solutions for adapting to or mitigating climate change, promoting biodiversity, providing resilient ecosystem services while supplying sustainable forest products.
• Incentives for action and behavioural change by transforming theoretical and abstract values of forest products and services.

Project types:

• Research projects: Innovative, interdisciplinary, implementation-oriented research projects with a high potential to foster change in practice
• Science-practice networks: Existing or novel interdisciplinary science-practice networks to co-develop or implement the thematic focus of the call

Selection procedure: All applications go through a formal screening by the foundation management. The selection of the applications that will be presented to the board is performed by a scientific committee according to our funding criteria. The foundation board of Velux Stiftung will take the final funding decision. More information is available on our page about the selection procedure.

If you are unsure about the fit of your application to the scope of the call, please contact us beforehand.