I am excited to introduce this special issue of the International Wood Products Journal containing work presented at the conference ‘13th Annual Meeting of the Northern European Network on Wood Science and Engineering’ (WSE) which took place in September 2017 in the historical nineteenth-century buildings of the former Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, now part of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The WSE network was established as a Nordic-Baltic initiative in 2004, and has since then expanded to cover the entire Northern European region. During this period, the WSE network has matured into an invaluable forum for researchers in all aspects of wood science and engineering to meet and share knowledge. This is also reflected in the growing number of participants to the annual meetings with 90 participants joining WSE2017 in Copenhagen. Since the future of wood science depends on constant admission of new, younger researchers to our community, it is worth noting the remarkable job of the WSE network in getting young, talented researchers to present and discuss their work among experienced colleagues. Thus, at the WSE2017 conference, 46 % of the participants were graduate researchers, mainly PhD-students, from all across Northern Europe.

The WSE conferences have a very broad focus on wood science and engineering with relevance to Northern Europe. It is, however, clear that physicochemical modification of both surfaces and bulk wood is currently a major research theme in the Northern European region, along with research into degradation of wood. This is also seen in the selection of work presented in this special issue for which priority was given to papers from graduate researchers.

The success of the WSE network depends not only on the high-quality contributions to the conferences, but also in large parts on the continuous effort to keep the network alive and thriving. In this respect, Dr Erik Larnøy of the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) deserves special mentioning as he has been primus motor for the WSE network since its establishment. Equally important has been the generous funding received over the years from SNS Nordic Forestry Research and the North European Regional Office of the European Forestry Institute (EFINORD). The successful execution of the annual WSE conferences rests on the contributions from numerous people involved in the local organising committee. For the WSE2017 conference, I am particularly thankful for the help with the organisation and logistics from Lisbeth G. Thygesen, Barbro Haar, Tania Fredborg Nielsen, Sophie Füchtner, Sara Piqueras, and Ramunas Digaitis. Lastly, I would like to thank our keynote speakers, Professor Phil D. Evans (University of British Columbia) and Dr. Samuel L. Zelinka (Forest Products Laboratory) for their inspiring lectures.

The next annual WSE conference will take place in Tallinn, Estonia on 2–3 October 2018.