Cooperation with industry: Dr. Rait Kivi will work at Imavere demo plant for wood-based bio-materials as part of the collaboration between our laboratory and Graanul Biotech

Dr. Rait Kivi from our lab has started a part-time job at Graanul Biotech OÜ wood sugar pilot factory located at Imavere, Estonia. The cooperation aims to optimize the production and refining of wood sugars. Training specialists with work experience in both the research laboratory and the industrial environment is very important for improving cooperation between universities and industry. The initiative is financed by an innovative program from Estonian Research Council that aims to encourage the employment of researchers with a doctoral degree in Estonian private and public sector institutions for applied research and product development projects. This activity is yet another in the series of building ties and strong cooperation between the Wood Chemistry and Bioprocessing Laboratory (WCBL) and Graanul Biotech. The examples of the previous actions include a collaboration framework agreement

https://www.graanulinvest.com/eng/news/105/graanul-invest-and-university-of-tartu-cooperate-to-develop-wood-valorisation-technology

and joint industrial PhD project

https://www.graanulinvest.com/eng/news/130/an-innovative-doctoral-project-of-chemical-and-biotechnological-valorisation-of-wood-will-start-with-collaboration-of-the-university-of-tartu-and-graanul-invest

The WCBL was founded by looglab and other 5 laboratories and was part of the structural changes introduced by H2020 projects SynBioTEC and GasFermTEC, and forms one of the core units of Estonian Centre for Biosustainability (ECB).