The ten-year "Horizon Europe" (Horizon Europe) programme brings together 28 countries and 99 organisations in a joint research effort, with its coordination team based in Helsinki.

Finland will lead and coordinate a ten-year European forest partnership spanning 28 countries and 99 organisations, with a total budget of around 240 million euros. The initiative will bring participants together under the "Horizon Europe" programme to develop the continent's forestry sector. This is according to Finland's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which officially launched the partnership on 1 June and confirmed that its coordination centre will be based in Helsinki.

The partnership has its roots in European forest research networks going back three decades – including WoodWisdom-Net, SUMFOREST and ForestValue (the latter continuing under the name ForestValue2 until the end of 2027). By bringing funders together under a single ten-year framework, the partnership aims to reduce the fragmentation that has so far weakened Europe's standing on the international forest research agenda.

The programme is built on the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, published in October 2025 by the EUFORE project. Coordinated by the European Forest Institute, it was drawn up on the basis of responses from more than 2,200 industry representatives across Europe. This agenda is a mandatory prerequisite for any "Horizon Europe" partnership and will set the priorities for the first joint research funding call.

Finland's Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Sari Essayah, stressed that coordinator status gives Finland a unique opportunity to promote the sustainable use of forest resources and long-term European cooperation, after years of Finnish effort to establish it: "Now this work is bearing very tangible fruit."

The coordination team in Helsinki will run day-to-day operations and handle communications as the partnership moves into its operational phase over the summer. The initiative is registered under the "Horizon Europe" programme and supports the EU Forest Strategy's goal of aligning fragmented national research efforts and cutting duplication of work. Project coordinator Mika Kallio, who singled out the importance of the preparatory phase, described the ten-year programme as a chance to deepen sustainable management across the sector: "This is a great opportunity to develop sustainable forest management."

"Horizon Europe" rules encourage the partnership to also involve strategic research partners from countries outside the EU, giving forest science institutions beyond Europe the chance to join in later project calls. The first call for project proposals is expected to open in autumn 2026, with selected projects due to start work around the end of 2027.