In late 2019, Forinvest and the ESB (France’s higher school of timber engineering) launched a national innovation contest called La Canopée in the timber and woodworking sector. La Canopée’s original competition format is built on regional phases where competing researchers, start-ups, and SMBs showcase their ideas. For the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the contest stopped off at Eurobois on 5th February, 2020, and that’s where we met François Vulser, the man behind this initiative.