Funding available for building better textile clusters in Europe
17/08/2017
In recent comments, the Brussels-based organisation said there is a need “to engage more intensively” in innovation to succeed in the global market. It added that an “absence of direct competition between local companies” can help drive an open and collaborative innovation environment in regional textile and clothing industry clusters across Europe. To help drive this forward, it has set up a project called RegioTex.
Companies and their regional support organisations must turn innovation efforts and resources into knowledge and market opportunities, it said, suggesting that they should try to achieve this by focusing on areas of business in which each regional cluster has “a particularly strong position compared to competitors elsewhere” and where attractive growth opportunities exist.
It points out that this idea, which it calls ‘smart specialisation’, has been adopted as part of the European Union’s regional policy and, as a result, will have “a significant share of EU regional and structural funds” .
RegioTex has said there is currently a wide gap between European regions that “smartly support their local or regional textile innovation communities and those who hardly recognise their existence”. Consequently, there is huge potential still to be unlocked.
The project aims to establish more and stronger textile innovation clusters across Europe, investment in open textile technology infrastructure, better support services, and better use of the funding available.
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