LANDESBETRIEB WALD UND HOLZ NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN

Their core work

Landesbetrieb Wald und Holz NRW is the state forestry enterprise of North Rhine-Westphalia, responsible for managing approximately 300,000 hectares of public forest and providing forest-related services across Germany's most populous federal state. Their core work spans sustainable timber production, close-to-nature silviculture, forest ecosystem monitoring, and public forest stewardship — giving them direct, operational access to working forests at landscape scale. In EU research projects, they contribute as a practitioner partner: hosting field experiments, facilitating knowledge transfer to forest managers, and grounding scientific findings in the realities of day-to-day forest administration. Their value to consortia is that they are not a laboratory — they are a living forest system managed by professionals, making real-world validation and stakeholder engagement possible.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects started in 2021, so genuine temporal evolution is limited — there is no earlier period of EU-funded work to contrast against. Within the project portfolio, the keyword pattern suggests a thematic progression: the Skill-For.Action work centers on carbon accounting, resource efficiency, and risk assessment in production forestry, while SUPERB shifts toward biodiversity, ecosystem services, forest resilience, and integrated management systems. If this split reflects an internal strategic shift, it points toward a broadening from timber-and-carbon concerns toward a fuller ecosystem services framing. The inclusion of an MSCA training network also suggests they are investing in the next generation of forestry professionals, not just operating existing forests.

They appear to be moving from production-oriented forestry metrics toward a broader ecosystem services and restoration agenda, positioning themselves as a field partner for biodiversity and climate adaptation research at landscape scale.

How they like to work

Landesbetrieb Wald und Holz NRW has participated exclusively as a consortium partner across both projects — they have never served as a project coordinator in H2020. They work within large, multi-national consortia: 46 unique partners across 18 countries from just two projects indicates they are embedded in ambitious, European-scale initiatives rather than small bilateral collaborations. This suggests they are sought as a practitioner node — a grounded, operational counterpart that gives large research consortia access to managed forest landscapes and the institutional credibility of a public authority.

With 46 unique consortium partners spanning 18 countries from only two projects, their network footprint is disproportionately broad for an organization of this size, reflecting the large pan-European consortia typical of MSCA and Innovation Action calls. Their collaborations are clearly European in reach rather than regionally concentrated.

What sets them apart

Unlike university forestry departments or private consultancies, Landesbetrieb Wald und Holz NRW brings institutional authority over actual, large-scale publicly managed forests — giving research consortia access to real forest systems under active management rather than experimental plots. As the forestry arm of Germany's most populous federal state, they also carry the political and administrative weight needed to translate research into regional forest policy. For projects that need to demonstrate real-world applicability, close-to-nature management practice, or policy uptake pathways in Central European forestry, this organization bridges the gap that pure research institutions cannot.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SUPERB
  The larger and better-funded of the two projects (EUR 706,250), SUPERB is a major Innovation Action targeting systemic, upscaled ecosystem restoration for forest biodiversity across Europe — exactly the scale and ambition that makes it a flagship reference for this organization's restoration credentials.
• Skill-For.Action
  An MSCA Innovative Training Network focused on forestry skills for climate action, demonstrating a commitment to workforce development and the integration of carbon footprint and resource efficiency thinking into professional forestry training.