More than 130 people attended the Future of Textiles and Clothing’s fourth annual public conference in Brussels on March 24-25. Visitors included industry representatives from across Europe as well as representatives from the European Commission and international press.

More than 20 national and regional textile innovation programmes and clusters from across the EU were showcased at the conference. These initiatives, many of which have been created over the last few years, complement and replicate on a national and regional level what the European Technology Platform does at EU level.
They network industry and research organisations and engage with relevant public authorities for funding of collaborative research and technology transfer projects, technology roadmapping and foresight studies, education and training actions or international cooperation.

Euratex president, Peter Pfneisl,  said: “What I believe we need, to be even more successful in the future,is the following: better access and clever combination of all possible funding sources for even more such collaborative innovation actions in our sector, especially in the new member states which I find somewhat underrepresented so far; more exchange and collaboration between all existing initiatives across Europe to learn from each other and to avoid unnecessary duplication; a very efficient management of these structures and an effective use of the available financial resources to make sure that for each euro of public money put in, we produce more than one euro in economic outcome; and more communication and promotion of our innovation initiatives among the general public to improve the image of our sector as a knowledge-based, innovative and forward-looking industry."