1. Bases of the ARTEMIS program : the Labex ARBRE community
The interdisciplinary program ARTEMIS (Advanced Research and educaTion on the biology, the Ecology, the Management and the biomonItoring of forest ecoSystems in a changing world) is based on the dynamics engaged in the frame of the Laboratory of Excellence ARBRE(2012-2024) and the ambition of its community to cover new areas and to serve as a cluster for a wider multidisciplinary community in Lorraine federating research and education in order to design trajectories for the ecological and industrial transitions, based on adaptation and mitigation of global changes in forest socio-ecosystems. In view of the multi-functionality of forest ecosystems, ARTEMIS has the ambition to serve as a connection platform to other major challenges of Lorraine Université d’Excellence (LUE), namely to the priority fields of new materials, energy transition, and health to a lower extent.
To do it, the program will associate all the scientists from LUE which ambitions are to consider the different dimensions of forest and wood at both research, innovation, social and formation levels. Among the core partners are research departments from INRAE, Université de Lorraine, AgroParisTech, CNPF, IGN, ANSES and socio-economic partners (ONF, CRITT-Bois). Such cooperation between academic, education, social and industrial partners is a strength of this community and is essential to permit for sharing knowledge and ideas and stimulating innovations for a more sustainable forestry production system, more favorable to biodiversity and more resilient to climate change ; for the evolution of existing transformation techniques for a mastery of the life cycle. Our premise is that tackling the challenges in forestry brought on by global changes require projects relying on cutting-edge approaches in basic sciences on tree and ecosystem functioning, tree microorganisms interactions, soil biogeochemistry, then economics (of risk, adaptation trajectories and amenities) and lastly material and process engineering adapted to the specificity of local biomass and new performances.
Beyond this basic research done in the best labs of the site, our strength, built on the old story of the Nancy forestry school, is our ability to connect these approaches to the more integrated disciplines of forest observation and monitoring (national inventory), forest planning and management and wood sciences, developing a strong expertise transferred to executives responsible for adaptive forest management as well as forest-based sustainable bioeconomy for the industrial transition, through collaborations, training programs and master/PhD degrees. In the last 5 years, as forests are more and more a matter of socio-technical controversies (opposing for instance conservation and “ecological intensification”, industrial resources and common goods to develop intelligent management of natural resources, optimization of their life cycle), we started to mobilize social and innovation sciences (beyond economics) to open our communities to larger innovation and training networks.
2. Ambition and long-term vision of the ARTEMIS programm
2.1) Program context and positioning
At the global, European and national scales, forests are considered as effective carbon sinks and havens of biodiversity, sources of green materials and renewable energy. European managed forests offer a triple lever to mitigate climate change, through carbon sequestration in trees and forest soils, substitution of wood-based products and energy to carbon emitting technologies, while stocking carbon in long lasting wood products. They provide also various other benefits, such as protection of populations against natural hazards, space for recreations, and even local climate buffering. At the same time, due to their specificities relatively to agroecosystems (i.e., nutrient-poor and acidic or basic soils, rarely amended, long-term production system), they are particularly vulnerable to climate change that could jeopardize all these benefits – mitigation potential included. Perceived as refuges against the threatening degradation of the planet and its biodiversity, they are under the increasing scrutiny of citizens.
As an extensively (though for centuries) managed ecosystem, forests may also provide original clue to the ecological transition in agriculture, in a context of increasing demand for more extensively elaborated agricultural products. Thanks to tree interactions, the soils supporting forest development are considered as very efficient, as forests function on their own resources, in terms of nutrient cycling, biodiversity, and represent an essential compartment where long term interactions between trees, symbiotic or pathogenic microorganisms are established.
This trajectory adopted by France to meet carbon (C) neutrality by 2050 strongly relies on the capacity of forest ecosystems and wood products to substitute to fossil-based energy and materials and to sequester C in the long term (i.e., SNBC strategy). Alongside with a rapid reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions, this requires the development of a sustainable, circular and inclusive bioeconomy. Beyond climate mitigation issues, the adaptation of forest socio-ecosystems are strongly solicited to climate change – and will face more and more in the future – as they are facing multi-risks and an unprecedented ecological crisis (mortality due to drought and high temperatures, fires, reduced regeneration…). Achieving the ecological and energy transitions implies filling the knowledge gaps in order to design strategies with the common objective of reducing vulnerability, increasing the resistance and resilience of forest systems, enhancing their capacity to mitigate climate change, while preserving the provision of ecosystem services, taking into account trade-offs and synergies. Such priorities have been identified at both national and international levels. The European Forest Institute (EFI) has also clearly identified adaptation and restoration of forest ecosystems as key topics in a context of high uncertainty and never experienced environmental and socioeconomic situations. Several institutions dealing with forest research and development, such as INRAE in France, the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), identified such goals as research priorities in their strategic plan as it is in the Lorraine Region. All of them also identified the importance to develop integrative approaches based on research, education and formation on forest socio-ecosystems with all stakeholders.
In this challenging context, the ambition of the ARTEMIS program is to federate and expand a scientific community handling these multidisciplinary research issues in order to design forest trajectories based on a trade-off between adaptation and climate mitigation for the ecological transition in the forest socio-ecosystems and a better inclusion of local communities of stakeholders and citizens, and authorities (i.e., territories). ARTEMIS covers the whole quadruple helix (RED/I&S), through academic research (R, Research) and higher education (E, Education), collaboration with socio-economic partners (D/I, Development/Innovation), collaboration with territories, and active scientific interaction with citizens (S, Societal aims). Our region is THE place in France for training in forest and wood sciences from “Bac-3 to Bac+8” and ARTEMIS contributes through several master degrees (including among others ENSTIB and AgroParisTech masters of science in engineering, European Forestry master) and training doctoral students. Rooted in a strong regional forest-wood sector, and at the same time opened to new players and recognized in general fields of research, ARTEMIS offers an original position between forest & wood sciences and more generic plant, economics or environmental sciences, between very specialized research areas and more systemic and interdisciplinary views and can have a transformative impact on forest and wood sectors, forest socio-ecosystem management and bioeconomy at European level.
2.2) Artemis agenda
ARTEMIS agenda in Research, Education, Development/Innovation and Societal issues (REDI&S) is driven by the priorities of adaptation of forests and forest-based bioeconomy to global changes. To address these challenges, the strategy of research will be the following :
a) To develop “high level” research on the biology, ecology and biomonitoring of ecosystems (i.e., lead ingto international scientific leadership and high impact), including biogeochemical cycles, tree-microorganism(s)interactions, and plant/ecosystem responses to disturbances. Such an understanding of underlying mechanisms of ecosystem functioning and resilience is essential to innovative and sustainable management in a context of uncertainty and unknown changing environments.
b) To study adaptation through economic and policy approaches and promote forest questions in all concerned fields of economic sciences (as economics of risk, of environment, industrial economics) at several spatial scales (territories, national, European and global)
c) To integrate results from previous cutting-edge molecular (omics), isotope, soil sciences, biological, ecological and economical approaches into more integrative sciences and techniques such as forest monitoring and planning, silviculture. Such integration effort will require new developments and partnerships on data processing, sensors, and system modeling. It will also request to question, amplify and prioritize the academic capacity of the ARTEMIS community in the areas of decision and policy sciences, for the sake of trajectory design and implementation.
d) To study the adaptation of both forest resources and wood processing systems to new societal requirements (e.g., energy transition). It values some basic researches of section a) for instance to understand the role of microbial actors in wood processing and recycling (detoxication, decomposition). More generally, linking wood techno-system changes to forest ecosystem adaptation is based on the principle that processing a local renewable and natural but vulnerable resource must be designed from/adapted to the soil, ecosystem and system management capacities and not only to the market demand. Moreover, the forest ability to mitigate climate change relies not only on C-sequestration in forest pools, but also on the uses of wood products replacing fossil C-based products. Partners outside forest and wood engineering fields will be necessary for general skills in process engineering, civil engineering, biotechnology environmental sciences (life cycle analysis).
e) The b), c) and d) strategies cannot guarantee solutions to the challenges of forest socio-ecosystems adaptation, consequently conceptual and practical shortcomings must be overcome to understand and activate leverage actions. ARTEMIS ambition is here to bridge them with social and decision sciences (e.g., CEREFIGE, LOTERR, IRENEE and others in LUE communities, ECOFOR, NFZ network or EFI in national and European networks). Lastly, successful innovation requires new approaches of problem solving beyond “technology push” and one-way knowledge transfer from science to practices. To tackle these objectives, living labs and citizen sciences will be developed. They will not only support RDI, but also learning by doing and innovative training.
Interdisciplinarity will be then rationally and realistically fostered at each step. Research developments will be fully integrated with Education, Dissemination and Development/Innovation through active programs linking academic (ORION cohorts and scientific clubs, socio-economic partners and education structures (i.e., LUE, Tous Chercheurs and DHDA).
2.3) Artemis objectives
The objectives of the ARTEMIS program for the next 10 years are to build a leading consortium on “Forest and Wood Sciences and Education” in France and Europe, and to develop knowledge and methods for designing trajectories for the ecological and energy transitions and to open to new fields of research and to partners on environmental challenges, participating in research on the ecology, the functioning and the transition of forest socio-ecosystems, or to fields where trees are part of innovative and sustainable agro-ecological systems (agroforestry, urban forestry) or represent a revegetation tool to manage polluted soils. To do so, the ARTEMIS Program will: i)develop a top ranking fundamental research in the fields of tree/microorganisms/soil interactions, forest ecology, biogeochemistry, soil sciences, wood sciences and environmental economics; ii) develop integrative multidisciplinary and multi-criteria approaches to model and predict the functioning and evolution of forest socio-ecosystems and forest-based circular bioeconomy, according to more intense and frequent perturbations and necessary ecological and energy transition; iii) accompany and propose innovative forestry management practices and wood processes (including recycling and up-cycling) in a real-time and prospective manners; iv) develop adapted master courses to attract and train the best students and v) develop research programs for and with citizens in the different fields covered.
This ambition will be reinforced through the development between LUE partners of strong connections between scientific challenges and i) higher education (i.e., ORION program: wood and forest bioeconomy and ecology cohorts/clubs), ii) innovation (i.e., SIRIUS program: Forest inn lab and ‘Tous Chercheurs’), iii) citizen sciences (i.e., ‘Science avec et pour la société’ (SAPS) project). One important axis will be to improve the tools and methods modeling the evolution of the forest ecosystems and sector at different scales including uncertainties and then to use such models in projection or foresight approaches. Such improvement requires the accumulation of quantitative and qualitative data, the integration of data covering different scales and exploring more deeply different fields. The integration of new challenges related to green processes and chemistry (e.g., active biomolecules and enzymes),environmental transitions and habitability (e.g., forest management, assisted migration) and forest uses (e.g., forest edges, agroecology, revegetation of polluted soils) at different scales (from local to landscape and territories) will require common efforts and data/recommendation integration of the different partners. Interactions will be established and/or reinforced with partners of the Grand Est region (e.g., Reims, Strasbourg) on different are as such as biomass treatment and environmental biomonitoring.
Through the different dimensions covered and its connections (i.e., ‘gateways’) with the other interdisciplinary programs, the ARTEMIS program will strongly contribute to the LUE societal expectations “Sustainable management of natural resources and the environment / ecological transition” (One Earth), with interactions with others.
3. Vision in terms of innovation and interaction with society (Science with and for society)
Numerous studies have attempted to provide answers to policy makers and practitioners to address the main issues and challenges at the heart of the forest-wood sector (bioeconomy development, climate change adaptation and mitigation, forest renewal, citizens; expectations, reconciling ecosystem services). They underline the difficulty of managing an ecosystem of very diverse actors with divergent objectives, and call for testing a variety of methods. The vision of ARTEMIS is to foster a sustainable innovation, based both on technological improvement and on more complex organizational and social processes, integrating all stakeholders up to the citizens. Actually, forests, as common goods, concern all citizens and are increasingly the subject of socio-technical controversies (see the debates on clear-cutting for example). We defend the idea that this user-centred open innovation must integrate non-scientific stakeholders at the very heart of the research and innovation process, on the model of participatory research, which provides useful and relevant tools to (i) raise awareness and understanding of science and the scientific process, (ii) increase the skills and capacity of citizens to tackle the uncertainty and ambiguity of forestry issues. They also contribute to the sharing of expert and lay knowledge, and encourage the construction of new research questions that are closer to the expectations of professionals and citizens, with a view to producing new scientific knowledge and finding innovative solutions.
The strength of ARTEMIS is to be able to rely on two original and complementary initiatives created by the LabEx ARBRE, –the FOREST INN LAB devoted to open innovation and the ‘Tous Chercheurs’ platform whichoffers services to researchers and civil society actors to implement participatory research projects–, to produce innovation based on research with and for professionals and citizens (and students). Particular attention will be paid in this process to the training of all non-scientific stakeholders, including citizens, in the research process.
By relying not only on these two pilot devices but also on its analytical platforms, its industrial prototypes, its network of field experiments, its databases and its models, ARTEMIS aims to approach technological innovation in a different way, on subjects as varied as forest monitoring, plantations and natural regeneration techniques, soil management, truffle farming, wood traceability, wood processes, wood materials and molecules, bioenergies, biotechnologies using microorganisms, recycling, economic models of forest management, including insurance and payments for environmental services.
ARTEMIS strategy is fully in line with the dynamics supported by the University of Lorraine as part of its Science with and for Society policy (SAPS), which has been labelled by the MESRI.
4. Positioning in the national to international initiatives, and European to international ambition
Members of the ARTEMIS community are core partners of different national initiatives such as : i) projects related to forest crisis (e.g., support of Chantilly forest domain, Doller Valley, Harth Forest, AXA insurance project); ii) the PEPR (“Programmes et équipements prioritaires de recherche exploratoires”) FORESTT on forests socio-ecosystems in transition under global changes that was recently accepted (roadmap under validation). They also participate to the other PEPRs such as FAIRCARBON or SOLU-BIOD. Such national programs cover different areas related to forest socio-ecosystems and represent important opportunities to reinforce the connections between the French partners of Lorraine, Bordeaux, Orléans, Guyane and Montpellier involved in researches on temperate, mediterranean and tropical forests. Europe is a relevant scale for the ARTEMIS leading ambition. Members of the ARTEMIS community are regularly involved in European H2020 projects and are currently actively involved in the writing of a Research andInnovation Action (RIA) plan entitled ‘European Forest Research and Innovation Ecosystem’ EUFORE. Behind thisinitiative, ARTEMIS core partners have a strong interaction history with the Nancy-Freiburg-Zürich (NFZ) forest.net. Members of the community are also part of ENFIN (NFI European network) playing a critical role in the elaboration of pan-European forest monitoring regulations. Noticeably, common projects have been granted in the last years between the Labex ARBRE and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). Regular meetings are performed between members of the network to synchronize agendas and initiate collaborations. ARTEMIS members are also actively involved in international collaborations on different areas. The support of the ARTEMIS program will increase visibility and recognition of the Lorraine community and foster collaborations and joined call projects. At last, a specific attention will be paid to an international strategy with other continents, by structuring the networks of our top researchers, especially with North America and China.
5. Interdisciplinary potential
The complexity of the forest socio-ecosystems and their position at the interface of various societal challenges, require an increasing integration of new and complementary works of research, innovation, training, and education addressing long-term questions related to forest & wood sciences. The whole history of the Lorraine forest and wood sciences community has been based on the ability to attract new players, including for instance microbiologists in traditional forest sciences as growth and yield studies or soil sciences, or material sciences and chemistry in traditional wood technology studies.
The ambition of the ARTEMIS program is to couple the complementary expertises of its community in chemistry, biophysics, biogeochemistry, environmental microbiology, genomics, bio/eco-computing, genetics, physiology, ecology, ecotoxicology, forest science, monitoring, remote sensing, forest modeling, forest economy, forestry practices, soil sciences, science/society mediation and training to address questions related to: i) Time. Compared to other agrosystems exploited/managed by humans, forests are long-living and perennial, require time to grow, giving importance to the management of this resource and especially to anticipation; ii) Land use. Depending on the region and/or country, forests are not the same (species, age, management), their history varies (old forest, new forest) as the soil properties (and in particular, the fertility). Some regions have seen their forest capital and their economy increase or decrease significantly. Developing a bioeconomy on a territorial scale becomes essential as well as a relevant legislation system. In addition, forest and agricultural land uses may be found to critically compete with each other in the future; iii) Production. Maintaining forest and wood production in changing and stressing periods are real challenges. Forest surfaces are in evolution and forest management is fundamental to value this resource and avoid forest decline. Adapting forest management according to the pedoclimatic and territorial characteristics, favoring forest resilience through good practices and by introducing the relevant tree species are key dimensions to consider; v) Perception of the forest. Carbon sink, biodiversity reserve or wood production factory, so many perceptions that must be reconciled.
Improving our knowledge and our anticipation capacity require to know how this ecosystem: i) functions, ii) reacts to environmental stresses (e.g., climate), iii) can be driven to allow a trade-off between environmental and economical requirements, iv) can be exploited to produce wood and derivatives (i.e., green products) and v) can9remain a provider of services (biodiversity reserve, C sink, recreational use). The mobilizable community (see below) is a guarantee of success of such integration effort. In addition, these advances will irrigate other sectors related to agroecology and urban forestry, water management, one health studies, biosourced materials and molecules.
6. A critical mass mobilized / mobilizable around the proposal, by making a distinction between research forces, training forces, socio-economic and societal partnerships
While the ARTEMIS program is open to all the LUE partners, several R and R&D departments have as research axes covering one or several forest and wood dimensions. The goal of the ARTEMIS program is to attract a maximum of scientists from the departments of LUE.
On the issue of forest and wood, whatever the dimension considered, a minimum of 260 researchers, engineers and technicians will be able to participate. This number includes academic (INRAE, IGN/ENSG, ANSES, AgroParisTech), socio-economic partners (ONF, CRittBois, CNPF, IGN (NFI, observatory of forests)) and education structures (i.e., LUE, Tous Chercheurs and DHDA). In terms of research and training, this number can go up to 400 when post-doctoral scientists, PhD students, Contractual engineers and technicians, Masters, BTS and IUT are included. This number will increase when considering researchers whose study focus is not forestry, but whose approach or technique will contribute. Many of the researchers are lecturers/professors or involved in students training in different class levels (IUT, license to Master, Engineer school). The area covered by the ARTEMIS program corresponds also to different doctoral school of Lorraine University (e.g., SIRENA, SJPEG, SIMPEE).
ARTEMIS core = Departements where forests ecosystems and organisms, forest sociosystems, or wood products and processes, are very significant (and historical) objects
– UR 1138 Biogéochimie des Ecosystèmes Forestiers (BEF);
– UMR 7522 Bureau d’Economie Théorique et Appliquée (BETA);
– UMR 1128 Dynamique des Génomes et Adaptation Microbienne (DYNAMIC);
– UMR 1434 Ecologie des Ecosystèmes Forestiers (SILVA);
– UMR 1136 Interactions arbres microorganisms (IAM);
– EA 4379 et EA UL/USC INRAE Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherche sur le MAtériau Bois (LERMAB)],
– RDI ONF Département Recherche, Développement, Innovation de l’ Office National des Forêts ;
– CNPF/IDF Institut pour le Développement Forestier (Institut Technique de la Forêt Privée);- (CRITT-Bois) Centre Régional d’Innovation et de Transfert de Technologies des Industries du Bois ;
– (LNPV) ANSES / USC INRAE Laboratoire National de la Protection des Végétaux;
– IGN/UPR LIF 201423823N RNSR /USC INRAE Laboratoire d’Inventaire Forestier.
ARTEMIS new actors = Departements where teams or individual researchers already bring complementary expertise on specific projects. ARTEMIS aims to foster strengthened and structured collaborations. Here is a non-exhaustive list that will evolve.
– Ecology, Environment :
UMR 7360 CNRS/UL Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Environnements Continentaux (LIEC)- Material sciences and process engineeringLRGP : Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés ; Institut Jean Lamour (campus ENSTIB)
– Applied maths, computer sciences, automatics, sensors
LORIA Laboratoire lorrain de Recherche en Informatique et ses Applications est une Unité Mixte de Recherche(UMR 7503) (ADAGIO team, others) ; GeorgiaTech Dream lab ; ICL Institut Elie Cartan
– Innovative systems
EA 3767 Equipe de Recherche sur les Processus Innovatifs (ERPI) Laboratoire de Génie Industriel spécialisé dansl’étude des processus d’innovation
– Social sciences
CEREFIGE Centre Européen de Recherche en Économie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises
IRENEE Institut de Recherches sur l’Evolution de la Nation Et de l’Etat (EA7303)
LOTERR Centre de recherche en géographie