Launch of the A2ForBois project for the forestry and wood industry

The A2ForBois project is the winner of the “Skills and Jobs of the Future” call for projects and has been awarded €21.3 million in funding, including a €12 million grant from the France 2030 program over five years. This partnership brings together Arts et Métiers and other organizations such as the Besançon EPL, FCBA, ONF, Fibois BFC, Institut Agro Dijon, AgroParisTech Nancy, and the Universities of Bourgogne and Franche-Comté. Also involved are the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region, the DRAAF BFC and the Regional Academic Rectorate, companies, forestry cooperatives, and training establishments, representing a consortium of 16 partners.

The A2ForBois project is deploying several levers to boost the attractiveness of the forestry and wood sector. Among these initiatives is the Forest Van, a mobile vehicle that will travel throughout Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Grand Est, and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions to introduce middle school and high school students and teachers in these regions to forestry professions. The project also plans to set up a digital platform bringing together all communication materials to facilitate their distribution to local stakeholders and neighboring areas. Improving the training offer is a major focus.

Technological tools will be integrated, such as digital twins. In addition, educational forest plots will be developed to test new silvicultural methods in practice. The lessons learned from these experiments will then be used in the content provided by training organizations.

The project is structured around 26 actions, organized into five strategic areas. AgroParisTech is involved more specifically in two areas:

• Collectively adapting training
• Transferring RDI (Research, Development, and Innovation) to teaching

The aim is to develop and enrich the courses on offer, implement innovative teaching approaches, and improve the effectiveness and attractiveness of training programs. The institution will be involved in particular by redesigning its own programs in the forestry field, in close collaboration with the other partner institutions in the project, and will mobilize the Forest’InnLab to pilot the creation of a collaborative living lab. This initiative will enable the development, in consultation with all partners and stakeholders, of a shared vision of the skills required in the forestry sector and their future evolution.