Besides teaching and research, another important task at the institute is the transfer of knowledge. Transfer means a target-group-specific preparation of content/knowledge in from of conferences, workshops and seminars on national and international level. These events can be divided into the following areas:

Aimed as platform to discuss specific topics in timber research, the Graz timber conference (“Grazer Holzbau Fachtagungen” – GraHFT) was established in 1995. Later on, the half-day Graz timber workshops (“Grazer Holzbau Workshop” – GraHWS) and the Graz timber seminars (“Grazer Holzbau Seminar” – GraHSE) were created to provide a well-rounded package. All mentioned events are hosted by the institute and at least the half of the presentations is held by its staff.

In addition to the events taking place in Graz, the institute is also responsible for program and content of other conferences. The half-day timber conference in Klagenfurt (Klagenfurter Holzbau-Fachtagung – KlaHFT), which was held in 2014 for the first time in the frame of the biannual International wood fair in Carinthia, is worth highlighting in this context. Organizers are the Klagenfurter Messe Betriebs GmbH, the chamber of civil engineers of Styria and Carinthia as well as the Institute of Timber Engineering and Wood Technology. Focus of both conferences held so far (2014 and 2016) were intersections of timber engineering with building physics and services.

IHF Garmisch

Between 2009 and 2015, the “Internationale Holzbau-Forum” (IHF), which is a well-known industry meeting, organized a half-day prologue about connection technique in collaboration with the Institute of Timber Engineering and Wood Technology. The institute was responsible for the program and the moderation of the successful prologue, which was held seven times all in all.

South, Southeast and Eastern Europe

 Since 2001, the institute has been involved in market-oriented transfer activities organized by proHolz Austria. This comprises courses and conferences for architects and engineers in the countries Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain and Serbia. Currently, the focus is set on the markets in Slovenia and Croatia, where a so-called “masterclass” was created in cooperation with the Universities of Marburg and Zagreb. In respect to the transfer of knowledge with Italy, which has been active for more than 15 years, the collaboration with A. Bernasconi, professor at the heig-vd (Haute Ecole d'Ingénierie et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud) in Yverdon-les-Bains and co-owner of Borlini & Zanini SA in Mendrisio and Lugano is worth pointing out.

Overseas

The transfer activities of the institute in oversea-regions rose due to the growing interest in “Cross Laminated Timber (CLT)”. In 2010, focus was set on Canada. Between 2013 and 2016, Japan followed and currently there are increased activities in the USA, China and Australia.

Miscellaneous

The institute is an active member of COST-action and acts as co-organizer of COST conferences. The institute hosted the CIB-conference in 1999, the COST-CLT conference in 2013 as well as the INTER-Meeting in 2016.