Research School
for
Forest, Landscape and Planning
REFOLANA

Research School for Forest, Landscape and Planning (REFOLANA) is a part of The Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen and is supported by the Danish Ministry for Science, Technology and innovation.

Research school for Forest, Landscape and Planning (REFOLANA) is mainly affiliated to the interdisciplinary research environment at  The centre for Forest, Landscape and Planning, University of Copenhagen.

Research School for Forest, Landscape and Planning (REFOLANA) offers international postgraduate courses to PhD students related to the management continuum from unmanaged forests to urban areas in both developed and developing countries.

Activities 
Activities anticipated during 2006-2010 involves:

• Support to PhD courses in cooperation with national and/or international partners. The plan is to offer at least two courses per year that will attract PhD students from Denmark and abroad.
• Support to a series of national seminars. 
• Nordic summer schools based on an interdisciplinary subject.
• Seminars on research ethics and related topics.
• Networking between PhD supervisors.

National and international cooperation
REFOLANA actively seeks national and international cooperation. Initiatives include coordination of research school activities within NOVA context (Nordic Agricultural universities) as well as cooperation within Denmark.
Development of a joint research training effort within forestry in Nordic and Baltic countries is an example of a present initiative, and a Nordic programme for PhD courses in urban forestry and urban greening is already on track.
Seen from traditional classification, REFOLANA includes projects from quite different research disciplines: Natural sciences, socio-economics and politics.
The uniting feature is the focus on processes and developments in the forest and landscapes. The research school activities are therefore coordinated by a group of six key-supervisors that each covers their scientific backyards.

Many of the PhD projects in REFOLANA are of applied nature, and therefore involve cooperation with many public and private organisations as well as landowners.

Funds and financing
REFOLANA has received funding from the Danish research council since Jan 1st, 2006.
Co-financing of the REFOLANA activities originates from various sources such as Danish Environmental Protection Agency, The Danish Golfers Union, EU, Real Dania Foundation, and cooperation with Risø Research Centre. On a daily basis cooperation also involves many landowners and land users.