Ensis: Model for the Future

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Ensis Model for the Future

• IAWS Conference
• 16 November 2006

2
The Story

• Forest industries down-under
• Why a joint venture
• How it operates
• Our successes
• The future

3
Australasian RD landscape

• RD supply fragmented
• Multiple stakeholders
• Strategic engagement
• Industry vs Government investment
• Breadth vs Depth science capability

4
Our external environment
Natural Resources (air, land, water, forests etc)
Manufacturing (timber, composites, pulp paper,
packaging)
Forest Establishment
Forest Management
Primary Processing
Environment
Agribusiness
Manufacturing
The Breadth vs Depth challenge for our science
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Our scale locally
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but not global

• Australasian Forestry Inc (if it existed) is
  about the same size as Weyerhaeuser
• Combined NZ and Australian forest industries RD
  spend about equal to the RD spend of
  International Paper

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and has some distinctive features

• Government ownership of majority of plantations
  (in Aus) but this is changing
• New owners are non-traditional
• Diverse mix of production species
• Broad geographical distribution

• A mandate for expansion in Australia via the
  Plantations 2020 vision
• Pushing the survivability boundaries in some
  regions (lt 600 mm rainfall threshold)

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...and we are challenged

• Australasian forest sector is under stress from
  globalisationand so is the research community
• Organic growth difficult
• science capacity and quality issues across a
  broad value chain
• Growth by partnership was the best choice ? but
  with whom?
• Key issues were alignment of objectives, freedom
  to operate and depth of commitment

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The two partners

• NZ Forest Research Institute Ltd (Scion) - a
  Crown Research Institute
• 340 staff 2 sites
• CSIRO FFP - a business unit of a large statutory
  authority (6500 staff)
• 220 staff 6 sites

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Our mandate

• Ensis is the forestry and allied industries
  science delivery organisation for both CSIRO and
  Scion
• Operationally it acts like a merger combined
  science teams under a single management team
• True 5050 (contributions of staff, resources,
  financial performance) joint venture,
• no project-by-project negotiations
• National interests are protected through
  structure and JV agreement

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Key enablers

• Unincorporated JV
• Staff remain on parent employment contracts
• Assets and IP owned by the parents
• Focus on science delivery, parents to provide
  support services
• Parent science investment processes retained
• Partnership with other RD organisations and
  industry is a critical success factor

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Ensis now

• Fully integrated forestry industries science
  delivery organisation with 6 business units
• Around 350 science delivery staff, almost 400
  personnel (contractors, students, Hon Fellows
  etc)
• A55M turnover, around A26M from external
  sources
• Matrix structure across 8 sites
• A child of its parents but rapidly developing
  its own personality!!

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Strategic business units

• Genetics Breeding better forests for maximum
  returns
• Forests and Environment Management systems for
  sustainable plantations, and protecting
  the environment with forests
• Forest Biosecurity and Protection Minimising
  risks and protecting our forests
• Wood Quality Linking quality to value
• Wood Processing Ensuring the place of wood in a
  modern market
• Papro Optimising processes and products

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Our Current Locations
Cooroy
Perth
Mt Gambier
Rotorua
5400 km
Hobart
Christchurch
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Our successes Ensis Wood Quality

• Enhancing timber quality control
• Instigated a world-first application of aerospace
  technology to enhance timber quality
• Neville Smith Timber adapted the ultrasonic void
  detection technology to detect internal faults in
  dried hardwood boards
• Potential to revolutionise hardwood timber
  processing

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Our successesEnsis Papro

• Developing quality boxes
• The Dynamic Stiffness Tester provides a quick
  and reliable measure corrugated board integrity
  that enables us to control the corrugating and
  converting processes to tolerances not previously
  possible, thus reducing the incidence of box
  failure.
• Adrian Dalgleish,
• Technical Manager, VISY

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Our successes Ensis Wood Processing

• Replacing chemical wood adhesives
• Collaboration between Ensis and Scion.
• Extracting chemicals from pine bark to replace
  synthetic and petroleum-based compounds used in
  building products, packaging, plastics and
  cosmetics.

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Our successes Ensis Forest Biosecurity and
Protection

• Biological control agent
• A leaf-eating weevil has been identified as a
  sustainable and environmentally-friendly way of
  controlling the weed Buddleja davidii, which was
  introduced to NZ as an ornamental shrub.
• The industry is under constant pressure to
  reduce chemical use and the cleopus initiative
  demonstrates how we are keen to support serious
  efforts to find alternatives,
• Dave Little, Harvesting and
• Marketing Mgr Crown Forestry.

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The futureEnsis Strategic Plan

• Targeting key outcome areas for our future
  science
• Value scenarios
• Forest benefits
• Precision forestry
• Risk management
• Process and product innovation
• Future bioproducts from forest resources
• Sensors and sensing technology
• Worker wellbeing

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The futureEnsis Strategic Plan

• Targeting key outcome areas for our future
  science
• Value scenarios Developing a value-chain model
  for the forest industry to guide Ensis research
  to areas that have maximum impact on industry
  competitiveness
• Forest benefits
• Precision forestry
• Risk management
• Process and product innovation
• Future bioproducts from forest resources
• Sensors and sensing technology
• Worker wellbeing

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The futureEnsis Strategic Plan

• Targeting key outcome areas for our future
  science
• Value scenarios
• Forest benefits Developing the means to value,
  capture and enhance all of the benefits of new
  and existing forests
• Precision forestry
• Risk management
• Process and product innovation
• Future bioproducts from forest resources
• Sensors and sensing technology
• Worker wellbeing

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The futureEnsis Strategic Plan

• Targeting key outcome areas for our future
  science
• Value scenarios
• Forest benefits
• Precision forestry Improving current forest
  management, harvesting and logistics
• Risk management
• Process and product innovation
• Future bioproducts from forest resources
• Sensors and sensing technology
• Worker wellbeing

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The futureEnsis Strategic Plan

• Targeting key outcome areas for our future
  science
• Value scenarios
• Forest benefits
• Precision forestry
• Risk management Developing an integrated risk
  management approach to forest industries,
  particularly targeting new forest owners
• Process and product innovation
• Future bioproducts from forest resources
• Sensors and sensing technology
• Worker wellbeing

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The futureEnsis Strategic Plan

• Targeting key outcome areas for our future
  science
• Value scenarios
• Forest benefits
• Precision forestry
• Risk management
• Process and product innovation Developing new
  and improved high-value products and processes
  for the forest industry
• Future bioproducts from forest resources
• Sensors and sensing technology
• Worker wellbeing

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The futureEnsis Strategic Plan

• Targeting key outcome areas for our future
  science
• Value scenarios
• Forest benefits
• Precision forestry
• Risk management
• Process and product innovation
• Future bioproducts from forest resources
  Positioning the forest industry as a leader in
  the bioeconomy through biofibre, biorefinery and
  advanced material approaches
• Sensors and sensing technology
• Worker wellbeing

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The futureEnsis Strategic Plan

• Targeting key outcome areas for our future
  science
• Value scenarios
• Forest benefits
• Precision forestry
• Risk management
• Process and product innovation
• Future bioproducts from forest resources
• Sensors and sensing technology Developing high
  technology sensors for the forest industry
• Worker wellbeing

27
The futureEnsis Strategic Plan

• Targeting key outcome areas for our future
  science
• Value scenarios
• Forest benefits
• Precision forestry
• Risk management
• Process and product innovation
• Future bioproducts from forest resources
• Sensors and sensing technology
• Worker wellbeing Increasing the technological
  skills, productivity and health of the forest
  industry workforce

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Ensis integration
Forest Biosecurity Protection
Wood Quality
Wood Processing
Environ.
Genetics
Forests
Papro
Products from renewable resources
Risk management
Precision forestry
Forest benefits
Product and process Innovation
Worker wellbeing
Sensors and sensing technology
Value scenarios
Technical services
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Ensis - a future model?

• Consolidation provides similar benefits to RD
  organisations as to commercial enterprises
• creates critical mass
• avoids duplication
• enables synergies
• targets growth
• Other RD examples
• Incipient Forintek, Paprican and Feric
• On-going STFI and PFI
• Failed STFI and KCL (pulping research)

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Ensis - a future model?

• Critical success factors for Ensis
• Enhance world-class science capability
• build strategic partnerships
• Target new technology development
• ideally together with end-user partners
• Maintain relevance to Australasian needs
• economic, environmental and social
• Expand international profile (and business)
• world-scale offerings in niche areas