The oak chain. An idea for an innovating project for adding value to secondary quality hardwood, from the école chercheur 2015 #Pluribois du GDR sciences du bois

Deriving value from hardwoods is a national priority in the French national policy for forestry and the forestbased industry. This article presents a summary of a multi-disciplinary workshop held in May 2015 at the Groupement de Recherches en sciences du bois (GdR 3544 « Bois »). The results of this work were presented at the REGEFOR 2015 Workshops. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the current system for processing oak and the problems that must be solved to better utilise it are analysed. The conclusion presents the dream of a territorial system of innovation that would enable project leaders to link up with our research centres and R&D, and get expert support as well as access to raw material. This ideal system that targets a mass market in the wooden construction sector is connected to the economy and technology but also to art, history, education and touris