Knowledge Building for a Bio-Products Economy
In September of 2011 SNCIRE filed a project application with the federal government's Community Development Program. The proposed project is called "Knowledge Building for a Bio-Products Economy".
SNCIRE is continually seeking ways to diversify and strengthen our resource economy. One trend that is emerging globally in forestry is the creation of "bio-products" such as forest biomass conversion into energy and chemicals, non-timber forest products, bio-pharmaceuticals, etc. With multiple innovative uses of our region's natural resources, we could ensure long-term sustainability for the region.
The project would address several knowledge gaps and barriers to sustainable development:
- - Market intelligence on the bio-product potential of the region's resources;
- - Technical properties of the region's wood in relation to promising bio-products; and
- - Estimates of the cost of extracting and delivering wood fibre to proposed processing facilities.
The project has the support of the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine, the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), FP Innovations, and Forestry Innovation Investment (FII). The National Research Council - Industrial Research Assistance Program may also become a partner.
Regional economic development stakeholders would also be involved, initially through participation in a steering committee that would monitor and guide the project to ensure it produces results they can use, and then - as information becomes available from the UNBC and FP Innovations research - by using the information and tools to attract investors and new operators.
We will keep you up to date regarding this funding application and proposed project as news becomes available.