Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CRAFT-IT4SD (Craft Revitalization Action for Futureproofing the Transition to Innovative Technologies for Sustainable Development)
Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30
CRAFT-IT4SD facilitates co-creation between traditional crafts, the fashion and textile industry, SMEs and micro companies; we work with local designers, artisans, and artists when testing and innovating with digital tools and platforms, and immersive technologies.
CRAFT-IT4SD holds the ambition to replicate insights, learnings and tangible results leading to a CCSI-driven green transition – informed by results from the EIT CLIMATE KIC and inspired by the New European Bauhaus – in other CCSI ecosystems and thus to contribute to the EIT Culture and Creativity KIC, across its Co-location Centers.
Our ecosystem and design approach leverages co-creation and cross-innovation across ecosystems. Our pilot ecosystems are living labs for experimentation, R & I, and provide expertise, knowledge, and practice to be shared, realising our objectives for a CCSI-driven green transition.
The first pilot iterations shows potentials for impactful cross-innovation:
• when revitalizing local craft legacies and immaterial heritage
• when applying and testing digital tools, services, and platforms with designers, artists, SMEs and micro companies
• when applying data and LCA towards new sustainable business models
• when applying artistic, performative and creative approaches through immersive technologies
Through extensive site visits in pilot ecosystems, CRAFT-IT4SD connects between EU ethics, policy and legal frameworks and how they are supported in regional ecosystems. This provides the basis for good policy recommendations, and for bringing a culture and creativity driven approach to European research and innovation for the Green Transition.
CRAFT-IT4SD demonstrates strong potential impacts in the areas of educational innovation, advanced through the integration of traditional crafts with digital tools, offering new approaches to sustainability education, and lifelong learning across CCSI-sectors and beyond. Cultural preservation has been supported by revitalizing heritage techniques, underpinning circular economy principles, the reuse of materials and inclusive,intergenerational community engagement. The use of NFC tags and digital platforms shows promise in enhancing transparency and storytelling in sustainable fashion.
To ensure further uptake, several key needs have been identified:
• Continued research and validation to expand pilot testing and explore long-term effects of digital storytelling and gamification.
• Access to markets and finance for supporting local entrepreneurs and scaling sustainable craft-tech products.
• Commercialization and IP support to protect and monetise innovations.
• Internationalization efforts to further the project’s objectives by fostering cross-border collaboration and increasing visibility in global sustainability networks.
Finally, alignment with regulatory and standardization frameworks is essential to support the adoption of smart textiles, good data standards, valid and transparent dataflows for digital product passports, and sustainable materials in line with EU policies.