INTRODUCTION

Our forest industry is undergoing a change, after which it is believed to become a very different field in 10 years time. Paper is not going anywhere, but remains a remarkably usable interface. However, new turnover and profits have to be found outside of the traditional products. It has been estimated that in the future half of the turnover of the forestry field will come from new products and half from traditional products.

The goal of the Forest Industry Future competence cluster is to find new solutions for the industry and especially to support the growth of the small and medium-sized firms and to promote the reformation of the field. These goals are pursued by developing new technologies, operating models, products, and services. The premise for development is versatile innovation, which combines both research and technology and business knowledge. The operation of the competence cluster is heavily focused on national and global networking.

The operation of the competence cluster is coordinated by Lappeenranta Innovation Oy, and there are seven Centres of expertise participating in its implementation:

- Jyväskylä Region
- Southeast Finland
- Kokkola Region
- Mikkeli Region
- Measurepolis-Kajaani measurement technology and
- North Karelia

All the regions of these Centres of expertise have versatile, mutually supportive forestry industry know-how. The international operator network of the Centres of expertise includes, for example, forest industry corporations, universities, colleges, universities of applied sciences, and research institutes. In addition, the network has many starting and already globalised small and medium-sized businesses.