the starting point in the fibre-program is the paper industry's need to improve the quality of mechanical pulp and to cut down the consumption of energy in the production of mechanical pulp. the fibre research program for 1990 consists of the following projects sub-project 1-1: 'fundamental research into grinding' is aimed at investigating the role of grindstone surface composition and temperature in grinding. another aim is to determine by how much the energy consumed during grinding can be reduced by reducing the peripheral speed of the grindstone without a drop in production rate sub-project 1-2: 'investigating the basic mechanisms of refiner mechanical pulping'. in this work, new methods of characterizing fibres and fibre bundles are developed and applied to generate new information on the mechanism of defibration. sub-project 1-5: 'energy consumption in grinding with different stone materials is aimed at gathering information on the effects of different grit materials. the information is needed in the manufacture of finnish concrete grindstones. part of the pressure grinding project at aabo akademi sub-project 1-6: 'energy consumption as a function of grinding parameters' is part of a wider project investigating pressure grinding at aabo akademi. the target is to create a model for the grinding mechanism. sub-project 1-7: 'enzymes in the production of mechanical pulp' is aimed at reducing energy consumption during the beating of refiner mechanical pulp (rmp) and improving rmp quality by treating the defibrated pulp with enzymes prior to beating sub-project 2-1: 'develo