INSTITUTE OF WOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The Institute of Wood Science & Technology (IWST) Bangalore, one of the institutes of ICFRE was formed in 1988, on re-organisation of forestry research in the country.
IWST is mandated to conduct research on wood science & Technology as a national objective and focuses its research activities to important forestry research needs of the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa at a regional level.
The IWST provides necessary infrastructure for the training center and hostel facilities for the students inside the campus itself.
The overall responsibility of the whole activities  is vested with the Director of IWST, to run the training and research center effectively and smoothly.

ITALIAN TRADE COMMISSION

The Italian Trade Commission (ICE) established in 1926 to assist the Ministry of Foreign Trade in technical matters is a government agency in Italy having a network of offices worldwide.
The institute supports trade, industrial and technical co-operation and provides economic information on Italy as well as gathers market data at international level in order to keep Italian companies abreast of business opportunities abroad and to assist them in their search for foreign partners.
Furthermore, ICE helps foreign companies to find potential Italian suppliers and partners and tells them how to invest in Italy. ICE has its Head office in Rome, 16 offices in Italy and more then 100 branch offices in over 80 countries in the world.
ICE provides the expenditure for the day to day running of the center including training materials and the salary of the trainers too.

ACIMALL

Italian wood working machinery and tools manufacturers association (ACIMALL) made up of more than 300 relevant companies with 12000 employees for a total turnover of 1.860 million euros in 2007, 80% of which represented by exports.
This is a very concise description of the Italian production of machinery, technology, automation and accessories for the processing of wood and its derivates and industry where ACIMALL is a primary actor as the association which, within the national industry federation, Confindustria, gathers 220 member companies accounting for over 90% of Italian production.
ACIMALL contributed all the machinery from various companies in Italy for the training center and taking care of the maintenance of these machines.
Also contributing to supply free lunch and tea for the students while attending their training course at AWTC.

THE COLLABORATION

Apart from the Training program, the scientists at IWST have access to use the machineries to conduct their research on various aspects of processing various solid wood & panel materials.
This international collaborative effort is expected to:
- provide direct links between the wood working manufacturing industry; R & D Institutes and the Government
- enhance technical levels and competitiveness of Indian wood product manufacturing industry
- develop customized training programmes
- promote and catalyze industry supported applied research
- help in solving technical as well as shop floor problems.
As the Italian wood working machines are among the best, the proposed center has a potential to eventually develop into a research, education and technology transfer center of excellence, through this international partnership.