Integrate+

The kick-off meeting took place in Nogent-sur-Vernisson, France. 27-28 March 2014
Around 20 participants from the different partner institutions came togehter to discuss the project set-up and the next steps.

On 27 March, the group discussed co-authorship and the distribution of different work tasks. The final list of micro-habitats could then be used for the purposes of the Integrate+ project. On invitation of the project team the workshop participants stayed until the afternoon to advise how to attribute ecological value to the identified structures in the demo sites.

Further the Integrate+ team presented the project logic and structure, partner involvement, and how to proceed with the demonstration sites / Marteloscopes. In the following an intensive and fruitful discussion developed on the project contents and on the potential tasks of the partners and, in particular on the Marteloscope approach. Tommi Suominen (EFI IT team) gave a short introduction on the mobile application and I+ software development.

The next day in Fontainebleau Integrate+ had its officially and rather informally kick-off. The day included also field visits to some of the strict forest reserves with plenty opportunities to discuss our approach on-site as well as indoor presentations and discussions on more technical issues for the establishment of the demo sites.

L`Ermitage de Franchard provided a stimulating environment for Tommi to present the I+ software development in more detail with constructive (future) user feedback from the participants (from practice and research). Main concern was the usability of the software on different devices with different formats. Ideally, the programme could be downloaded and used also via mobile phones. Priority will still be the development of a robust tool with high usability before any “Bring Your Own Device” developments will be further investigated. The integration of forest growth models was also intensively discussed. Marc Fuhr (Irstea Grenoble) presented a growth model that is already applied in his M-scopes in southern France and offered his collaboration for Integrate+.Finally the research and development component was discussed, following the idea to combine several small research components such as MSc and PhD projects under the umbrella of Integrate+.