The European Forest Institute (EFI) is an international organisation established by European States. EFI
conducts research and provides policy advice on forest-related issues, and facilitates and stimulates forest
research-related networking. EFI’s headquarters is located in Joensuu, Finland. EFI has regional offices
across Europe and also a FLEGT office in Kula Lumpur, Malaysia. (http://www.efi.int)
The Foundation for European Forest Research (FEFR) offers a Ph.D. Researcher’s post on the following
research topic at the European Forest Institute (EFI) in Joensuu, Finland.
Research topic
The research will be under the general topic ‘The Outlook for European Forest Products Markets and
Trade’. The markets for pulp and paper products, wood products (sawnwood, panels), as well as woodbased bioenergy are facing structural changes for a number of reasons, such as the globalization of
markets, declining demand for communication paper products, growing interest in the use of wood
products for construction, and renewable energy policies. How are these changes going to impact on the
European forest products markets and trade flows in Europe, and what are the major regional differences
of these impacts in Europe?
The Ph.D. research will be under the above general theme. A more focused research topic will be decided
together with EFI, the researcher, and the university to which the Ph.D. thesis is submitted. Thus, the work
can focus, for example, on any of the major forest products sector: pulp and paper; wood products; or
wood bioenergy. The emphasis is on analysing and assessing the long-term changes in any of these
markets, and their impacts on trade flows (products and wood raw material) in Europe.
The research work carried out should be part of a Ph.D. thesis, or form the whole Ph.D. thesis. The
applicant shall state beside the research plan how s/he plans to obtain the Ph.D. degree, and how the
research relates to the degree. The research position is particularly suitable for those planning a Ph.D. in
forest economics, forest products marketing, forest policy, natural resource economics, or economics. The
Foundation and EFI can help the candidate to make contact with the University of Eastern Finland to
explore the Ph.D. opportunities there, if the candidate should wish
