Imagine you run a sawmill and you need to know if a batch of logs is strong enough for construction beams or only good for paper pulp — but testing each log takes hours. TOPWOOD built faster, cheaper ways to measure wood quality right in the forest or on the factory floor, using infrared light, ultrasound, and tiny sensors strapped to living trees. They even installed 45 automatic tree-monitoring devices on pine plantations in Argentina to track how wood forms in real time. Think of it as giving the timber industry an X-ray machine for trees.
Timber and forestry companies currently rely on slow, expensive, and often destructive methods to assess wood quality — cutting samples, lab testing, and manual grading. This means inconsistent product quality, wasted material, and an inability to predict how trees will perform under changing climate conditions. As building codes tighten and sustainable sourcing demands grow, the industry needs faster, cheaper, and non-destructive ways to measure wood properties at scale.
The project built an affordable automatic dendrometer prototype for continuous tree growth monitoring, and deployed 45 such devices on hybrid pines in Argentina for field validation. It also developed and improved near-infrared spectroscopy, microdensity, and ultrasonic measurement methods for rapid wood quality assessment, plus data analysis tools for handling the large datasets these instruments produce.
If you are a sawmill operator dealing with inconsistent wood quality and costly manual grading — this project developed near-infrared spectroscopy and ultrasonic measurement methods that can rapidly assess wood density and structural properties. With faster quality sorting, you reduce waste from misgraded timber and can price your products more accurately based on verified properties.
If you are a forestry company struggling to monitor tree growth and predict harvest quality — this project built an affordable automatic dendrometer prototype and deployed 45 units on hybrid pines in Argentina. These devices track wood formation in real time, helping you decide when to harvest and which genetic stock performs best under changing climate conditions.
If you are a manufacturer of engineered wood products (CLT, glulam, LVL) facing tighter building code requirements for material certification — this project improved high-throughput methods for measuring wood hydraulic conductivity and microdensity. Batch-testing incoming timber before production means fewer rejected panels and stronger quality guarantees for your clients.
The project specifically developed an affordable automatic dendrometer prototype, suggesting cost reduction was a design goal. However, exact unit pricing is not published in available project data. The overall EU contribution was EUR 675,000 across 4 partners over 4 years, indicating this was a research-stage investment rather than a commercial product launch.
The near-infrared spectroscopy and ultrasonic approaches developed in WP1 are described as medium and high-throughput phenotyping tools, designed for processing large numbers of wood samples. The 45 dendrometers deployed in Argentina demonstrate field-scale operation. However, full industrial-line integration would require further engineering.
The project involved 4 partners across 4 countries including 1 private company (SME). IP arrangements would depend on the consortium agreement. The coordinator is INRAE (French public research institute). Contact the coordinator to discuss licensing or collaboration on specific tools.
Yes. The project installed 45 automatic dendrometers on hybrid pines in Argentina, which is real-world field deployment. The NIR spectroscopy and ultrasonic tools were developed for both laboratory and field use, as stated in the project objectives.
The phenotyping tools measure wood properties involved in forest tree adaptation — specifically hydraulic conductivity and vulnerability to cavitation (how trees handle drought stress). This data helps forestry managers select tree varieties that perform better under changing climate conditions. The EuroSciVoc classification explicitly includes climatic changes and silviculture.
WP3 was entirely dedicated to developing data analysis methods for the large, complex datasets these measurement devices generate. The project's EuroSciVoc classification includes data science, indicating software tools were developed alongside the hardware.
The TOPWOOD consortium is compact but internationally diverse: 4 partners from France, Austria, Spain, and Argentina, spanning 2 research organizations, 1 university, and 1 private SME. The 25% industry ratio means there was direct private-sector involvement in tool development, though the project was primarily academic in nature (MSCA-RISE staff exchange). The coordinator is INRAE, France's national agricultural and environmental research institute — a major player in forestry science. The inclusion of an Argentine partner brought access to large-scale pine plantations for field testing. For a business looking to adopt these tools, INRAE is the main entry point, and the SME partner may already have commercialization experience.
INRAE (Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement), France — contact through their technology transfer office or the CORDIS project page
Want to connect with the TOPWOOD team about wood quality testing tools? SciTransfer can arrange an introduction and help you evaluate which measurement methods fit your operations.
