Information note - No. 64 

The Forestry Research Co-ordination Committee met on 15 November 2005 at Forestry Commission, Silvan House, Edinburgh.

Expenditure on forestry and tree-related research

Total expenditure on forestry and tree-related research in the UK, collated by FRCC, amounted to c. £27.6 Million in the year ending March 2005 (Table 1).  This represents a small decrease on the previous year (2003/04) but is slightly greater in real terms than the annual expenditures between 1996 and 2000.  The number of organisations who contributed to the database is slightly down for 2004/05 but, at 490 for 2004/05, the total number of projects included is similar to the numbers in recent years.  The data show year to year variation for a number of reasons including differences in the annual spend of the various funding organisations (Table 2) reflecting changes of research priorities, and a trend in recent years for greater integration of forestry with other rural, social and environmental issues.  This trend has resulted in a broader definition of projects being entered into the FRCC Collation.

The slight decrease in 2004/05 research spend compared to 2003/04 results from less expenditure on forestry research by the EU and the UK conservation bodies.  For the conservation bodies this is part of the usual year to year variation, while for the EU there is a trend of less expenditure on forestry research which reflects the priorities of Framework Programme 6.  Analysis of the data by subject area (Table 3) flags up the same reduced expenditure on Conservation in 2004/05 relative to 2003/04.  Expenditure was also slightly down on Wood Utilisation & Processing and on Tree Biology.  2004/05 expenditure on Tropical forestry and Arboriculture had increased.  However, changes in the priorities of forestry research are better reflected in the keyword analysis of the database (Table 4).

In recent years more research has been done on biodiversity and on the social benefits of forestry (socio-economics).  In 2004/05 there was once again emphasis on the dissemination of research findings.  Marketing has entered the top ten keywords, perhaps at the expense of Timber Properties and Pulping.  Climate Change research has continued to be important.  The keywords Agroforestry and Forest Planning are particularly associated with tropical projects.  Tree Breeding and Habitats are amongst a close grouping of keywords with about £1.0M of expenditure associated with them.  Other keywords with about this value of funding are:  Molecular genetics, Short rotation coppice, Land use, Soils, Water quality/quantity, Landscape ecology, Physiology and Yield forecasting.  Data regarding geographical relevance of projects showed that of the 490 projects, 218 were identified as having global relevance, 42 were European and the rest were principally of country interest (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland). 

FRCC are now engaged in the 2005/06 Collation of UK forestry research and the next meeting of the Committee will be in November 2006.

February 2006

Table 1
Total expenditure on forestry research by FRCC organisation over the last 10 years.  Annual costs are shown as actual expenditure in the year.  The numbers of organisations who submitted data in each year are also shown.

Table 2
Estimated expenditure on forestry research by FRCC member organisations in the last four years (£K, actual expenditure in the year)

DARDNI: Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Northern Ireland.
Defra: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
DFID:  Department for International Development
DTI: Department of Trade and Industry.
EA: Environment Agency
FC: Forestry Commission
CON: Nature conservation bodies:  CCW, English Nature & Scottish Natural Heritage.
NERC: Natural Environment Research Council.
BBSRC: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
SEERAD: Scottish Executive Environment & Rural Affairs Department.
SFIC: Scottish Forestry Industries Cluster
SFT: Scottish Forestry Trust
EU: European Union.
Others: Many other sponsoring organisations inc. other universities, EPSRC, Commercial, ODPM, etc.

Table 3
Estimates of costs by subject area for 01/02, 02/03, 03/04 and 04/05
(£000s in £s 01/02, 02/03, 03/04 and 04/05)

Table 4
Costs by main keyword (£000s in £s 02/03, 03/04 and 04/05).
Note -projects have a number of keywords so that project costs may be shown more than once.