Frequently asked questions

ExpandFibre was an ambitious R&D collaboration by two significant Finnish companies, Fortum and Metsä Group. From Metsä Group, the participating business units were Metsä Spring Oy, Metsä Fibre Oy and Metsä Board Oyj. From Fortum, the biorefinery programme Bio2X and Fortum Recycling and Waste were the active partners in ExpandFibre. In addition, a multitude of small and large companies, research organisations and other partners were welcomed to join the ExpandFibre innovation ecosystem throughout the lifetime of the programme. In the end of August 2024 there were altogether 103 organisational members in the ecosystem in addition to the leading companies, and 30 ecosystem projects with 4 more expected to still join after receiving funding decisions during the last months of the programme.

The R&D collaboration by Fortum and Metsä had a total budget of 50 M€ out of which 20 M€ was funded by Business Finland. Fortum’s share was 32 M€ (12.8 M€ funding) and Metsä Group’s 18 M€ (7.2 M€). The rest of the funding came from the companies themselves. The funding was used for Metsä’s and Fortum’s own R&D projects within the seven ExpandFibre theme areas. Organisations and projects in the ExpandFibre innovation ecosystem could seek public funding from national (e.g. Business Finland) and European sources. The total project volume of Business Finland funded projects in the ecosystem, including Metsä Group and Fortum’s own programmes, was over 140 M€ with over 70 M€ contribution from Business Finland.

Within ExpandFibre, Fortum and Metsä Group launched both their own and joint projects related to the seven R&D themes, and also sought for complementing ecosystem projects in Finland and abroad. Finnish ecosystem partners could apply for funding from Business Finland for their projects. Other concrete activities of ExpandFibre included various thematic events incl. webinars, seminars and workshops for the Ecosystem members as well as open events for the public. Altogether 20 events were organized during ExpandFibre’s active phase. ExpandFibre also communicated actively on its homepage with over 120 stories published about its member organisations and projects, as well as through its LinkedIn profile. The ExpandFibre Ecosystem members have an exclusive access to the Ecosystem platform for enhanced networking and information sharing among the Ecosystem members.

ExpandFibre was launched in May 2020 and run until August 2024. The ongoing Transition Phase of ExpandFibre, hosted by Metsä Group, is expected to run until the end of 2025.

No, international partners were also welcomed, encompassing 18% of the organizational members in August 2024. No serious innovation ecosystem is built on partners from only one country.

ExpandFibre was expected to produce technology and material innovations related to a multitude of market sectors. Examples of possible end products include clothing, non-woven products such as medical textiles, and packaging for food and other goods. Notably, ExpandFibre was still about research and development. The actual commercialization efforts take place after ExpandFibre has lifted the technology or concept to a needed maturity level.

Metsä Group’s pulp production is based on pulp wood from sustainably managed northern forests. Regardless of whether the wood comes from certified forests, we always know its origin and verify that the wood origin is legal and that the supply chain is acceptable and sustainable. Most of the wood Metsä Group uses comes from family-owned forests of the 103,000 Finnish forest owners who are owner-members of Metsäliitto Cooperative. We use our northern wood sustainably: in Finland, forests grow 40% faster than they are used.

Straw is an agricultural byproduct from the cultivation of cereal crops like wheat. Farmers typically collect and store the straw in bales, which can easily be transported to biorefinery facilities.

R&D carried out in ExpandFibre aimed to contribute to the target of Fortum, Metsä Group and the ecosystem partners to commercialize new bioproducts. As a result, over 70 scientific articles were submitted, 48 thesis works were started and 5 patent applications were submitted in the ecosystem projects (status in August 2024). Metsä Group and Fortum themselves submitted 24 original patent applications and started 15 thesis works. Optimally, this all leads to investments, creation of new jobs and increased exports from Finland

The joining process was shut down in August 2024 when the active phase ended. No new organizational members can join during the Transition Phase.

ExpandFibre was an open innovation Ecosystem, and by joining one did not commit to sharing any confidential information or intellectual property with the other Ecosystem partners. Creation of new knowledge took place primarily in the specific Ecosystem projects, and all intellectual property related agreements were prepared together with the project’s participants prior to project kick-off.