WURC was a centre of excellence in the field of Wood Ultrastructure initiated 1996 by NUTEK (Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development),which has been replaced by VINNOVA (The Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems) since January 2001. The centre was established in co-operation with NUTEK, SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), CTH (Chalmers University of Technology), KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), STFI (Swedish Pulp and Paper Research Institute) six companies from the Swedish pulp and paper industry (AssiDomän AB, Korsnäs AB, Mo och Domsjö AB, SCA AB, StoraEnso AB and Södra Cell AB) and one Swedish company from the chemical industry (Eka Chemicals AB). The centre's main task was to carry out basic research of industrial relevance.