Directors' Forum
The IUFRO Directors' Forum (DF) discusses management related issues of IUFRO member organisations. It brings together heads of forest research institutes and deans of forest faculties and provides a platform for the exchange and development of views on the management of forest research and strategic research priorities.
In general, the DF aims to discuss challenges and opportunities related to the management of forest research, such as: organization, funding and financing, personnel, agenda setting, and other topics of strategic relevance. Resource availability (funding and personnel) are core topics concerning the work of any research manager, also in the field of forest research. It is quite stunning to find out, that many problems and challenges of directors and deans are in principle very similar. For this reason, we see added value in the IUFRO Directors' Forum meeting and fostering mutual exchange. Another set of themes relates to organizational issues, e.g. how to organize an institute as a whole, how to organize dissemination, reporting, documentation etc. Other questions of high interest are who decides what kind of research projects will be funded, and how to maintain scientific freedom vs. political pressures.