The important climatic, environmental, socio-economic and land-use changes taking place at global, regional and local levels, pose new challenges for meeting the multifunctional demands on European forest resources, and for their sustainable management. In the European Union the formulation of forest policies is in the competence of the Member States and although the Treaties of the EU make no provision for a common forest policy there are a high number of EU policies and directives affecting European forests and the forest-based sector. Thus the current forest policy environment is fragmented, complex and sometimes contradictory. Furthermore, European forests consist of a wide diversity of forest ecosystems and tree species which provide different goods and services that are affected differently by climate and land-use changes. Therefore, a proper understanding of such regional differences is needed for the creation of mutual understanding on sustainable forest management (SFM) and multifunctional forestry, providing a solid basis for policy decisions.In this complex context, research-based information and knowledge should be the basis for developing adaptive management tools and models, new innovation frameworks and coherent policies to ensure implementation of SFM and thus the multifunctional role of European forests.However, European forest research is – with only a few exceptions - still fragmented and enhanced co-operation and coordination of research activities carried out at regional and national levels is urgently needed. In this context, reinforcing scientific cooperation on European forests through a transnational ERA-NET, which will also build new cooperation arrangements with EU neighbourhood regions, will reduce fragmentation and maximise the impact of research activities on SFM and multifunctional forestry.