We are looking to join (or co-build) a Topic 4 consortium. We offer a value-chain perspective on how satellite and Earth-observation data can make forest-based sectors more resilient, competitive and circular. Forest monitoring from space is mature, but its value is rarely captured further down the chain: by forest owners, engineered-wood producers, insurers, public authorities and others. We study how that data becomes decisions, services and business models. In particular, we could contribute in the following areas:

TOPIC 4 – Forest Value Chains, Markets and Governance (“How forest-based sectors, markets and governance are organised”)

Value-chain analysis from a satellite-data perspective: mapping where Earth-observation information on forest condition, disturbance and supply (fire, storm, bark beetle, drought) creates or loses value, from forest owner to wood industry and end user
Business models and service design for satellite-based forest information: who pays, who benefits, and how data services scale across regions and countries
Innovation ecosystems and multi-actor collaboration: how forest companies, geodata and space-tech firms, SMEs, authorities and research organisations organise around shared data

Luleå University of Technology is Scandinavia’s northernmost technical university, with strong links to the forest, mining, process and space industries of northern Sweden. The research subject Entrepreneurship and Innovation studies business models, digital servitisation, innovation ecosystems and the circular transition in industrial firms, and works closely with companies and public actors.

Within the subject we lead a research area on the space economy and satellite-data innovation. Projects include a Satellite Data Innovation Roadmap funded by the Swedish National Space Agency and a project on a space-tech innovation ecosystem for SMEs in northern Sweden. This gives us a close view of how satellite data is turned into products and services, and of the barriers firms face in adopting it.

We recently completed a Swedish National Space Agency funded project on satellite data value chains in which forestry and wildfire detection value chains was one of key value chains examined. We bring social-science expertise in value chains, business models and governance, plus access to Swedish forest, wood-industry and geodata actors. We are open to a partner or work-package-leader role and would consider coordinating.