Ph. BOURDEAU, Director, Commission of the European Communities, Directorate-General for Science, Research and Development Opening address K. -H. NARJES, Vice-President of the Commission of the European Communities 3 INTRODUCTION Ph. Bourdeau Director Directorate-General for Science, Research and Development This seminar is in many ways similar to the one which we organized here in Brussels in February 1982 to present to European industry the results of the first EC R&D programme on the Recycling of Paper and Board. That seminar was in fact something of an experiment, being the first one of its kind that we had organized. At the time it was favourably received and we have since had ample proof of its success from the number of practical applications of the techniques developed during the first programme and which were presented at the seminar. The first programme on the Recycling of Paper and Board, which ran from 1978 to 1981, aroused considerable interest. It was consequently followed by a more ambitious programme launched in 1982 and which terminated officially in 1985 - although some of the contracts in fact ran until 1986. This second programme covered the complete wood chain with research carried out on wood production; wood harvest, storage and transport; wood, as a material; wood processing without modification of its basic structure; processing of wood and related organic materials into fibre products; wood as a source of chemicals.