The WETNet project included 7 partners in 6 countries, all of whom are facing common challenges in their growing wood energy industries. Increased mobility of labour, the need to meet legally-binding EU targets for renewable energy production, and structural issues within the forestry industry combine to create a powerful set of drivers for this project.WETNet, for the first time, collated and distilled state-of-the-art training materials from across a selection of well developed and nascent EU wood energy sectors, and used this as a base on which to consult industry and create a Core Competency list for woodfuel entrepreneurs and workers in the EU. From this, the project produced a ‘best of the best’ training programme. This was piloted with a pool of top-level trainers recruited from each of the partner countries and beyond. The network of top-level trainers resulting from the project will be the primary mechanism used to sustain the outputs and impact of the project post-funding.The partnership assembled for the project has been created to include the key organisations responsible for woodfuel entrepreneurship training in the participating countries, and constitutes a mixture of government departments, vocational training providers and industry representative bodies. EU candidate countries, relatively recent EU members and more established EU states have been included in the partnership to provide a range of experience.The anticipated impacts of the project are an increased likelihood that the EU will meet its renewable energy targets using a higher proportion of locally produced rather than imported wood fuels; the increased mobility of labour across EU woodfuel sectors; higher standards of skills and training in the woodfuel and forestry sectors of participating countries; and individuals that are better equipped to create successful woodfuel businesses that contribute to sustainable economic growth across the European Union.