NRP 66 "Resource Wood": 28 projects approved
The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has approved 28 projects in the National Research Programme "Resource Wood" (NRP 66). These projects have an overall budget of 10.7 million Swiss francs. This does not mark the end of the evaluation process for NRP 66, however.
With the selection of 28 projects, the evaluation process for NRP 66 has taken a big step forward. The process is not yet complete, however, as the projects approved so far do not adequately cover all aspects of the programme. There are gaps in module 1 "Raw wood - availability, politics and processes of provisioning". For this reason, the National Research Council has agreed to a proposal from the Steering Committee of NRP 66 to issue a targeted second call in January 2012.
Research is about to get underway
The evaluation process was particularly challenging due to the great number of high quality draft proposals - almost 70 in all. In view of the limited budget, the Steering Committee last spring unanimously decided to invite about half of the projects to submit a full proposal. The Steering Committee as well as experts from abroad assessed the proposals this autumn and have now approved 28 of them. These projects could get underway as early as January 2012.