Online with this research strategy, the ARTEMIS program identified 6 operational challenges (OC) to tackle, combining Research, Education, Development/Innovation and Societal aims.

• Challenge 1 (OC1): Decipher the biology of the tree-microbiome systems. Integrating omics (genomics, proteomics, genetics, metabolomics) know-how and toolkits to identify major factors controlling soil microbiomes, plant-microorganisms interactions, plant development, plant functioning and dysfunction, to focus on responses to stresses and disturbances (e.g., climatic extreme events and climate change, nutrient limitations, pests and diseases…), which are expected to increase in both frequency and intensity.

• Challenge 2 (OC2): Investigate and quantify process responses and ecosystem patterns to short- and long-term environmental changes in forest ecosystems (multi-risks approaches). It is essential to understand and quantify the processes in the atmosphere/tree/soil continuum, in particular the mechanisms of tree dieback and mortality, the interactions between microorganisms and plants controlled by the pedoclimatic environment, and the coupling of carbon, nutrients and water cycles. The scientific basis is urgently needed to develop new decision-making tools in order to analyze the impact of management scenarios accompanying transitions of forests in the context of global changes (drought, heat wave, pest, diseases…) and the increased demand for forest and wood products while preserving the other ecosystem services (carbon storage in the ecosystem, soil sustainability, water quality and biodiversity…).

• Challenge 3 (OC3): Interactively investigate forest resources, wood processes, end-products and supply chains towards a circular and agile wood-based bioeconomy in the territory. A sustainable use of bioresource involves the creation of new processes (thermal/chemical/biological), new products (molecules derived from wood and microorganisms/assembled wooden/construction), diversification of the end uses (new source of biomass, energy production), based on existing and future resource. Linking raw material properties (from the forest and impacted by ecosystem functioning) to efficient processes and ‘green’ end-products, developing recycling and upcycling, modeling life cycles and environmental performance of supply chains, developing multicriteria assessment of sustainability, is the main focus of this challenge.

• Challenge 4 (OC4): Imagine, evaluate, model a new set of economic instruments adapted to the risks associated with global changes, for (i) developing new forestry practices and improving multipurpose sustainable forest management in a context of risk and uncertainty (pest, drought), (ii) including forest management in territorial development and European strategies, and (iii) stimulating the forest sector in a local-global bioeconomy perspective. Forest owner and user economic behaviors, payment for environmental services, insurance (hard and soft) instrument, and economic trade-off between increasing harvesting and preserving biodiversity will be investigated.

• Challenge 5 (OC5): Develop integrative researches for forest management and bioeconomy development. Adaptive forest management and sustainable development of forest-based bioeconomy require specific researches in silviculture, resource assessment, life cycle analysis and sustainability impact assessment, long-term monitoring, dynamic forest planning routines, design of new value chains based on innovative products and ecosystem services, and global and territorial forest-based bioeconomy. These researches are based on integrative modeling, specific surveys, field experiments and demonstrators in pilot territories. Often developed in living lab mode or research action, enrolling students, they are directly linked to innovation and provide support for learning by doing.

• Challenge 6 (OC6): Develop research programs for and with citizens that integrate PhD students and professionals. Forest sustainable management and more generally soil functioning, biodiversity, health risk, wood uses for energy or even tree intelligence or legislation are currently the matter of debates and controversies. Citizen science programs boost research/society interactions and position citizens as actors of research programs and active mediators of the achievements. Enrolled PhD students develop their soft skills. Moreover, we believe that involving forest owners and managers, staff of private companies, or policy makers in such programs will be an accelerator of innovation, by providing them skills in problem-solving by scientific approaches. ARTEMIS ambitions to form new generations (college and high school) to the scientific approach and societal challenges, contributing by the way to a renewal in forest and environmental policy sciences.

Thanks to these achievements, and to the involvement of ARTEMIS community in higher education programs(doctoral schools (member of the SIRENA panel and director of SIMPPE), directors of master courses, of “Ecoles d’ingénieur” AgroParisTech and ENSTIB, innovative projects like ORION), ARTEMIS will contribute to the general LUE strategy concerning training by research, valuing the doctorate as a professional degree for executive careers. The ambition of the ARTEMIS program is to be a major international hub for developing forest sustainability scenarii, forest-related bioeconomy and graduate schools. Expanding this overarching objective will require intense collaboration between academia, education, socioeconomic actors, decision-makers and European partners.