Plan for promoting the demonstrated systems and technologies for further development D6.4

This report is the output of the task 6.4 to approach a Plan for promoting the demonstrated systems and technologies for further deployment. In the first part, there is a summary of the assessment of the machinery demonstrated in the framework of the INFRES project. Some of the main advantages of the innovations are the cost reduction in comparison with conventional systems, in addition to improved productivity and increased supply. Besides this, a couple of innovations showed fuel savings compared to previous supply chains. Moreover, other improvements have been observed, but without a quantitative assessment. Finally, as a conclusion, certain innovations are successful only when they are used in the conditions they were designed for. elaborated, and the plan was then submitted for assessment by several experts. The application of the most important measures to overcome the barriers that manufacturers face when developing an innovation is mainly in the hands of the manufacturers themselves, and partly in the hands of policy makers who may contribute through the development of appropriate financing instruments or compensations for high?risk investments in SME's. In the case of measures proposed to overcome the barriers that manufacturers face during the implementation or use phase, the application of the measures is in the hands of a balanced mix of the main stakeholders, including forest companies and manufacturers. It means that both have to work, sometimes together, to overcome the detected barriers. In the third part, any of the future scenarios anticipates an increase in woody biomass demand. The growth of the biorefinery sector will change the landscape of the forest biomass requirements by 2030. Indeed, feedstocks such as forest residues and stumps can be easily used by this sector. Besides this, the increase and improvement of the machinery used in the forest biomass supply chains, together with the optimization of the whole chains, take some time. As a consequence, it is a challenge for Europe to reach high enough competitiveness and innovation levels so as to cover the demand needs in the best way, with its own resources, seeking a positive impact on all EU regions and on European machinery manufacturers. Finally, the fourth part concludes that if technological and logistical innovations are not implemented in forest biomass supply chains, then energy and environmental targets in the EU will not be reached.