Australian Forest and Wood Innovations’ Board Communiqué
May 2025
AFWI’s second Board meeting of 2025 was held in Hobart on 27 May 2025.
AFWI Operations
The Board reviewed the draft AFWI Strategic Plan 2025-2030, progress to date, and discussed AFWI’s transformative research and investments to be shaped by national goals, along with deep stakeholder engagement to guide strategic project directions.
The Strategic Plan will be further refined to align with the Commonwealth’s forthcoming National Timber Fibre Strategy.
The development of an AFWI Dashboard was also endorsed by the Board.
National Open Call (NOC) Round Two & Research Centre Projects:
The AFWI Research Advisory Committee (RAC) completed their review of the 34 NOC Round Two Expressions of Interest (EOI) that were received. 26 of these projects were invited to submit a full application. AFWI provided feedback to all applicants ahead of final submissions on 11 July 2025. After the RAC reviews full applications, recommendations for NOC Round 2 funding will be presented to the Board for endorsement.
To ensure consistent evaluation, Conditional (Matched) funding proposals from the three AFWI Research Centres hosted at the University of Melbourne, University of Sunshine Coast, and University of Tasmania may also be submitted on 11 July 2025.
Next Board Meeting:
The next AFWI Board meeting is scheduled for 22 September 2025.
Bob Gordon
Chair, Australian Forest and Wood Innovations Board
