Advanced mathematical and statistical methods are increasingly used to test ecological theories and concepts. As a further challenge, many important relationships between patterns and ecological processes are difficult to investigate experimentally and thus necessitate modelling and simulation to confirm hypotheses and theories. This often requires interdisciplinary work between ecologists, biometricians, programmers and forest scientists. In recent years, mixed research teams have been able to address important questions in forest ecology using a wide range of quantitative methods. The development of new types of models, e.g. individual-based models, have subsequently shed light on questions related to how trees and forests interact. The idea of the working party is to bring people with interest and expertise in these fields together and thus establish a virtual laboratory and platform for active research exchange in quantitative forest ecology.