RAIZ – Forest and Paper Research Institute is a private non-profit organization recognized as an Research and Technology Organization of the Portuguese Scientific and Technological System, which develops research, consulting, specialized services and training on forest, pulp and paper and forest-based bio refineries areas of expertise.

RAIZ was created in 1996 as an association and its associates currently are The Navigator Company, the University of Coimbra, the University of Aveiro and University of Lisbon (School of Agriculture).

RAIZ activity is mainly financed by The Navigator Company and other private entities and by national and European public funds for R&D. It has a competitive nature and it developed in a perspective of producing and transforming knowledge into products, technology and services, in order to optimize, in a cost/ benefit perspective, the competitive advantages of the forestry and industrial ranks of the pulp and paper industry and the Company’s, guaranteeing its business sustainability.

The operation is developed by a staff of 52 researchers and technicians, plus an average of 25 R&D fellows, currently divided into two sites (Quinta de São Francisco, Eixo / Aveiro, and Herdade de Espirra, Pegões), in close articulation with the operational branches (forestry and industry) and corporate areas of the Company, and involving a vast network of universities and R&D centers, both national and foreign.