Network Partners

Who's Involved

The FutureForests Doctoral Network is a multidisciplinary consortium involving a wide variety of partners, connected by nine flagship forest manipulation facilities across Europe. The network is structured as a collaborative ecosystem where academic institutions, industry experts, NGOs, and government bodies work together to understand how forests respond to global climate change and to bridge the gap between fundamental forest science and real-world policy application. The network is made up of four key groups: a Project Coordinator, 10 Beneficiaries (PIs), 13 Associated Partners (APs), and 15 Doctoral Researchers (DRs).

Professor Sami Ullah from the University of Birmingham (UK) serves as the primary leader and liaison with the European Commission. He oversees the entire project management, financial distributions, and network-wide communication. He is supported by a project administrator from the University of Birmingham, Emma Melling. 

These are the 10 core partner organisations that recruit, hire, and host the 15 DRs. They provide the high-tech research facilities and lead the scientific training, and they are directly funded by the EU grant. They include:

  • University of Birmingham (UoB), UK
  • University of Bologna (UNIBO), Italy
  • University of Innsbruck (UIBK), Austria
  • University of Exeter (UEXE), UK
  • University of Tartu (UNITA), Estonia
  • University of Athens (UoA), Greece
  • Aix-Marseille University (AMU), France
  • Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany
  • Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Research (WSL), Switzerland
  • Hellenic Agricultural Organization Dimitra – Forest Research Institute (ELGO-FRI), Greece

These 13 organizations include NGOs, government agencies, and industry experts who provide a ‘real-world’ perspective. They will host the DRs on secondments and will co-supervise the researchers alongside academic professors, but they do not receive direct funding from the EU. They are:

  • DigitSoil SA, Switzerland
  • National Forest Company (NFC), UK
  • Environmental Protection Agency of Aosta Valley (ARPA), Italy
  • Ente di gestione per Parchi e la Biodiversita – Romagna (EGPB), Italy
  • Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
  • Environment Agency Austria (EAA-UBA), Austria
  • Future Trees Trust (FTT), UK
  • Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zuerich (ETH), Switzerland
  • Ecomatik, Germany
  • UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), UK
  • State Forest Management Centre (SFMC), Estonia
  • Scientific Enterprises Ltd (SEL), Greece
  • Protisvalor Méditerranée SAS (PVM), France

Meet the Principle Investigators

Sami Ullah

Project Lead - University of Birmingham

Estrella Luna-Diez

Supervisor - University of Birmingham

Alice Gauthey

Supervisor - University of Birmingham

Rossella Guerrieri

Supervisor - University of Bologna

Lina Mercado

Supervisor - University of Exeter

Priit Kuuper

Supervisor - University of Tartu

Mariangela Fotelli

Supervisor - Forest Research Institute (ELGO-FRI)

Michael Bahn

Supervisor - University of Innsbruck

Ilse Kranner

Supervisor - University of Innsbruck

Charlotte Grossiord

Supervisor - Swiss Federal Research Institute

Frank Hagedorn

Supervisor - Swiss Federal Research Institute

Thorsten Grams

Supervisor - Technical University of Munich

Virginie Baldy

Supervisor - Aix Marseilles University

Nikos Fyllas

Supervisor - University of Athens

Meet the Associated Partners

Sonia Meller

DigitSoil

Heather Gilbert

NFC

Marta Galvagno

ARPA

Matteo Ruocco

EGPB

Thomas Dirnboeck

EAA

Jo Clark

FTT

Michael Goisser

Ecomatik

Ajinkya Deshpande

UKCEH

Margus Pensa

SFMC

Fanis Karageorgos

SEL