Final Report Summary - 2BFUNTEX (BOOSTING COLLABORATION BETWEEN RESEARCH CENTRES AND INDUSTRY TO ENHANCE RAPID INDUSTRIAL UPTAKE OF INNOVATIVE FUNCTIONAL TEXTILE STRUCTURES AND TEXTILE RELATED MATERIALS IN A MONDIAL MARKET)
Executive Summary:
2BFUNTEX is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) launched in 2012 within the European FP7 NMP programme. The objective was to bring together innovation actors in the field of functional textile structures and textile related materials, fostering a multidisciplinary approach between universities, research institutes, industry (especially SMEs) and sector associations. The 2BFUNTEX team (26 partners from 16 countries) aimed to identify technological gaps and eliminate barriers resulting in a faster industrial uptake of functional materials with new functionalities and improved performance. Technological needs were mapped, new joint international research disciplines identified and multidisciplinary teams created. As an industry-oriented approach was envisaged, industry has been involved at all stages which should also contribute to a rapid uptake of innovations by SMEs.
One of the main objectives of 2BFUNTEX was to develop a platform for current and future actions in research, education and technology transfer in the field of functional textile structures and textile related materials to support the textile industry in the most efficient and effective way to transform into a dynamic, innovative, knowledge-driven competitive and sustainable sector. The established Open Innovation Platform www.2bfuntex.eu is the place for both companies to detect new technologies and business opportunities as well as to express their needs, and for research institutions to present their current and future actions in research and education, and their available technologies. Based on the information gathered in the project inventory, researchers and industrials have been invited to participate in research projects aiming to exploit the untapped potential and leading to the development of new industrial products.
Another main objective was to support research and industrial innovation actors, i.e. universities, research institutes along with industry, in their efforts to define joint research projects and actions in the field of functional textile structures and textile related materials. The aim was to set up multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance transfer of the vast knowledge available at universities and research institutes to industry and to favour rapid industrial uptake. Based on the analysis of the technology-innovation gaps, 8 multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) that collaborate along the following specific research topics were identified and set up : antimicrobial textiles, smart textiles, nanotechnologies, flame retardancy, biotechnologies, electrospinning, plasma and sustainable textiles. Each MDT is led by a research and an industrial team leader and will identify tangible gaps between available technologies and medium to long-term industrial needs. All MDTs are also open to researchers and industrial persons from outside the 2BFUNTEX consortium.
During the project, six complexity and foresight workshops were organized to look at scenarios for the future of functional textiles, using also the Systems Thinking methodology. The foresight process finally resulted in concrete Action Planning for the Multidisciplinary Teams.
Training materials for research and industry purposes have been elaborated and implemented, allowing a common language regarding functional textiles, and increasing the number of well-trained people in this field. These training modules can be used in all European universities and research institutes to train their students at different faculties and by sector organisations to train technical people in their SMEs.
In order to promote the 2BFUNTEX Coordination Action and the Open Innovative Platform, 9 large 2BFUNTEX events have been organised (conferences, workshops, brokerage events, ...) and seven 2BFUNTEX newsletters were published and widely disseminated across Europe towards main textile stakeholders, as well as published on the 2BFUNTEX website.
Project Context and Objectives:
The 2BFUNTEX project dealt with closing the gap between research and industry in the field of functional textile structures and textile related materials, also sometimes referred to as advanced or high tech textile materials, such as breathable, heat and cold resistant materials, ultra strong fabrics; providing protection against chemicals, impacts, laceration or used as reinforcement for composite applications, new generation of flame retardant fabrics (intumescent materials, new developments of fibres), optimisation of textile fabrics for acoustic properties,....
2BFUNTEX brought together researchers in different complementary research areas to allow enhanced development of functional textile structures and textile related materials through collaboration at European level between researchers in different universities, research institutes and industry. Involving industry at all stages of the coordination action enhanced the industry oriented approach of the project. The involvement of industry, especially SMEs, in defining research activities aims at enhancing the rapid uptake of innovation by SMEs resulting in overcoming the "European paradox”. Moreover, 2BFUNTEX aimed at increasing the number of well-educated people in textiles and textile related industries to allow for close collaboration with research institutes and to stimulate enhanced uptake of innovation by SMEs. The coordination activities have fostered an environment in textiles and textile related industries that attracts highly skilled people.
The concept of this collaboration network was to encourage interdisciplinary research work to enable the development of functional textile-based structures of tomorrow. The combination of novel materials such as ceramics, metal powder and foam, glass powder and other down-scaled materials into new structural textile-based elements is only possible by the close collaboration between innovation actors from different science areas. Surface modification of textile based materials using modern technologies such as physical vapour deposition, sol-gel coatings, laser cladding, plasma treatment, etc. provide new opportunities only when close collaboration is established between researchers of different disciplines. The combination of flexible, light-weight textile-based material originating from renewable resources used in biomimetic structures together with eco-friendly biotechnology have a successful and convincing potential which can be used and exploited only to its full extent when bringing together the most excellent researchers in Europe and start creating multidisciplinary project teams.
2BFUNTEX brought together a large group of researchers from universities, research institutes and enterprises along with several stakeholders such as sector and industrial organisations. Through their joint experience, it was observed that much effort is invested in the development of new textile-based materials, thus developing new functional materials. However, it was also observed that much research is being duplicated and not enough researchers from different disciplines are collaborating. New opportunities are left untouched or even remain undiscovered because researchers are unaware of one another’s needs. Moreover, because researchers are not actively collaborating, they cannot create synergies and they cannot learn from one another, which hinders the generation of new ideas. As the end-users are not aware of the enormous potential, they are not asking industry to develop new textile structures.
Conclusion, a significant amount of money is being invested in Europe to develop functional materials. However there is a real need to put the results of all activities and policy building together in order to exploit the results, to avoid duplication, to benefit from experience gained and to align future research activities.
Scientific &Technological objectives
2BFUNTEX aims to be the market place for all stakeholders involved in functional textile structures and textile related materials to allow the traditional textile sector to move away from traditional products to speciality products manufactured by advanced flexible high technology, knowledge based new fabrics and specific applications. The objective was to develop a platform for current and future actions in research, education and technology transfer in the field of functional textiles in order to improve the competitiveness of the textile and associated European industries and to support the textile industry in the most efficient and effective way to transform into a dynamic, innovative, knowledge-driven competitive and sustainable sector.
2BFUNTEX main objective was to support research and industrial innovation actors, i.e. universities, research institutes along with industry, in their efforts to define joint research projects and actions in the above mentioned field. The aim was to set up multidisciplinary project teams oriented towards untapping the experienced potential related to functional materials and to enhance transfer of the vast knowledge available at universities and research institutes to industry and to favour rapid industrial uptake.
The overall objectives of 2BFUNTEX comprise :
Objective 1: collecting all relevant information related to ongoing research and activities in the field of functional textile structures and textile related materials using modern detection methodologies.
Collecting information was the first objective of the 2BFUNTEX project. Though a reasonable number of projects related to functional materials was being performed, industrial uptake and collaboration between innovation actors were limited. The project partners were involved in some of the projects but many more projects were on-going although not known to the larger research and industrial world. Moreover, information regarding the projects was not always available to the broader public of industry and end-users. This lack of information resulted in double work, ignorance regarding the potential of functional materials and untapped potential regarding collaboration between different disciplines that need to join together to develop new functional materials.
As the 2BFUNTEX team acknowledged this lack in information but also recognized the difficulties in collecting the information, fulfilling the objective was done by using modern supporting detection methodologies. As such, prior to launching the inventory, innovation management was dealt with from a complexity perspective and so bringing all stakeholders together, i.e. on the one hand the traditionally perceived innovation actors such as researchers, developers, manufacturers (technical and managerial people), distributors, end users (those who decide on purchase and those who actually use the products) and on the other hand stakeholders that influence the decision making process throughout the whole process such as investors, regulators, social actors, etc. The outcome was supposed to reveal bottlenecks and identify opportunities and was used as basis to initiate the collection phase.
The search for projects included European as well as regional and other projects as well as projects from outside the EU. The project inventory includes as well research as industrial projects and project ideas that will be developed in the near future. The information collected includes:
• ongoing/finished projects on national and international level;
• partners involved/contacts;
• technologies to be developed;
• technologies developed (general description);
• applications envisaged;
• status of the project;
• available material (descriptions, movies, demonstrators, roadmaps, presentations, newsletters, etc.);
• conditions of access of materials;
• standardisation issues.
The information encompasses project title, timing, links to additional information (e.g. project website, contact details, etc.). It is presented in a way that is relevant to the different target groups (easy to read, right level of detail, ...).
The inventory also includes the collection of information regarding planned activities, including data and place, topics covered, nature, targeted audience, conditions of participation, etc. All partners are expected to transfer information on upcoming events. Considering the overall size of the networks in which the project partners are active, the information gathered is quite comprehensive.
The search has been performed using accessible information on the internet, but mainly by contacting universities, research institutes and industry personally through questionnaires as well as face-to-face meetings.
All the information collected has been classified in a structured way. Part of the information is non confidential, so that it is accessible to all interested parties. Confidential information is classified in a separate file with restricted accessibility: project partners, EU officers, members of the 2BFUNTEX platform, multidisciplinary team members, ....
Objective 2: detection of synergies and gaps and the creation of project ideas
The 2BFUNTEX team responded to the observed lack in synergy between researchers on the one hand and between industry and researchers on the other hand. The results obtained in the inventory phase have been used to detect current synergies that need to be reinforced, potential synergies that are currently neglected resulting in duplication of work or even resulting major untapped potential and gaps that exist because of complementary partners and disciplines not collaborating together (e.g. materials sciences and environmental engineers). Detection of synergies and gaps has been performed by the individual teams that collect the data and assisted by one of the partners well experienced in identifying these synergies and gaps. The information has been used to create project ideas to be elaborated in tangible project teams and concrete RTD projects to enable the effective technology transfer to industry.
Objective 3: development of an interactive database
Information sharing is one of the key activities to involve more stakeholders, to enhance data collection and to increase general public awareness. 2BFUNTEX has therefore developed a database with full information on activities on functional materials. This is a tool box that interested parties can use to find components that might fit for a certain application of functional materials, status of technology, people involved, contacts, possibilities and limitations. In addition, ongoing projects can use the database as a portal for disseminating information and contacting targeted people.
The outcome is a database with all functionalities that are currently under consideration, parties working on it, status and contacts. It contains technological as well as non-technological information. Efforts have been made to link the database to existing initiatives such as the European Technology Platform for Textiles and Clothing, etc. Further, links are available to other existing networks.
Objective 4: provision of training and education to increase the number of well-trained people that continue their (research) activities in industry and to better train people already employed in industry
Training is considered as transfer of information related to functional materials, its components as well as integration and use aspects. Several universities being involved, education and training is the core competence for many 2BFUNTEX partners. Moreover, one association combining research activities and training activities dedicated to SMEs participated in the project. Knowledge has been shared to allow for a well-balanced training course that can be used both for education and training purposes.
Objective 5: Dissemination activities
Dissemination is considered as transfer of information regarding the 2BFUNTEX project, its activities and results. The results of the project have been disseminated within and outside the consortium. Confidential information has been communicated based on agreed non-disclosure or other agreements to ensure the maximum exchange of such information and materials. Non confidential research reports have been spread among academia and other research centres and networks in order to make them aware of existing technologies or technologies under study. Comprehensive and at the same time concise reports have been issued for industry. Future researchers and technical people have been informed on the available technologies through training and education. Companies have been informed on potential functionalities so that they can consider applications within their product and market ranges. Product information has been spread to potential user groups as well as to a wider public in order to raise awareness of the potential and to increase acceptance of such technologies on a longer term.
Special attention has been paid to bridging the gap between textiles, materials sciences, textile engineering, environmental engineering, green technology/biotechnology, civil engineering, surface engineering, composites, plastics, bio-engineering, chemistry, physics engineering, etc. ... and users (in the protective clothing as one of the PPE lead market segments, transport, automotive, aeronautics, electronics, construction, etc.).
Objective 6: Creation of multidisciplinary teams performing research in the field of functional materials and oriented towards industry aiming at the creation of new business worldwide
The final goal and objective of 2BFUNTEX was to consolidate all information gained in solid collaborations between research and industry resulting in the enhanced identification of new functional materials and rapid translation of research ideas in industrial applications. The research ideas will lead to industrial applications of added value functional materials with new functionalities and improved performance and resulting in creation of new business worldwide. Ideas have been initiated based upon the inventory (objective 1), and subsequently 2BFUNTEX has assisted in the consolidating process of matching synergies and closing gaps by the creation of multidisciplinary project teams collaborating in concrete research projects targeting the effective transfer of novel technologies in the functional textiles industrial sector. Moreover, 2BFUNTEX assisted the discussing process on legal and practical aspects.
Project Results:
,The 2BFUNTEX project was structured in 5 work packages. In the following section the S&T results produced during the projects lifetime are presented per work package.
WP1 : Inventorisation of related projects, technologies and industrial needs & creation of project ideas
The overall objective of this WP was to collect technological as well as non-technological information on functional textile structures and textile related materials. To collect all relevant data, the inventory has been performed at various levels:
• research performed in research institutes, universities, R&D centres in (mostly large) companies, etc.;
• needs detected in companies, from end users and stakeholders;
• compiling existing standards;
• detection of synergies and gaps;
• workshops, (brokerage) events and conferences organised and to be organised;
• funding opportunities already provided and available for research and demonstration projects in this field.
Task 1.1: Innovation management and systems thinking (complexity and foresight)
The 2BFUNTEX innovation model
Within complex innovation systems, innovation can be seen as the change that outperforms the previous practice. In order to lead or sustain with innovations, managers need to concentrate heavily on the innovation network which requires deep understanding of the complexity of innovation. Collaboration is an important source of innovation. Innovations are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected according to their comparative advantages, and operating in a coordinated manner. When a technology goes through a major transformation phase and yields a successful innovation, then it becomes a great learning experience not only for the parent industry but for other industries as well. Big innovations are generally the outcome of interdisciplinary networking among technological sectors along with a combination of implicit and explicit knowledge. Networking is required but network integration (networking of networks) is the key to success for complex innovations in today’s era where diverse technologies are available at its best.
In order to lay the foundation for analysing the 2BFUNTEX innovation approach, two methodologies were introduced and used to tackle the complex system of the 2BFUNTEX environment. Systems thinking was used to reveal the underlying characteristics and relationships of systems, while methods of foresight helped to build medium and long-term visions of development of the science, technology and innovation, its policy, directions and priorities as well as supporting network activities.
The task was workshop based: each workshop brought together the appropriate consortium partners and innovation actors. Each workshop delivered a new enhanced version of the common understanding of interactions and scenarios, including adjusted guidelines for the information survey.
During the project, six complexity and foresight workshops were organized:
1) 7 - 8 February 2012, Ghent, Belgium: The objective was to create a common understanding of the work to be accomplished within the 2BFUNTEX project among the project partners. A first version of the 2BFUNTEX Innovation Model was developed. The results were documented as Deliverable 1.1 ‘Report on first complexity and foresight workshop’.
2) 11 - 12 June 2012, Zadar, Croatia: The aim was to build a common knowledge based on the expected benefits and procedures of a stakeholder-based foresight process among participating partners. Important topics and key stakeholders were identified to be included in the next workshops and events.
3) 7 – 8 January 2013, Eibar, Spain: This workshop focused on exploring potential application scenarios with a clear industry perspective. Six members of the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) presented their insights and voiced their expectations as ‘industry success criteria’ for 2BFUNTEX.
4) 28 - 29 May 2013, Istanbul, Turkey: This workshop aimed at “Action Planning” of three of the eight Multidisciplinary Teams. A special working session on building framework scenarios was conducted.
5) 1 – 2 April 2014, Brussels, Belgium: One of the main tasks in this workshop was to focus on near-to-market technologies that already exist and develop one break-through concept based on these near-market technologies. Another task was to define one great project idea that industrial partners are likely to pick up and that can be funded in Horizon 2020.
6) 27 - 28 January 2015, Tampere, Finland: The focus of this workshop was on “Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) meet the Industry”. MDTs continued to develop joint research project ideas with participating local industry and higher education representatives.
A foresight process was started that finally resulted in concrete Action Planning for Multidisciplinary Teams. In the course of the project a common knowledge based on the expected benefits and procedures of a stakeholder-based foresight process among participating partners was built up. Relevant stakeholders were identified and invited and further input was gained through members of the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB). Science-industry knowledge gaps were identified in key application areas (health, transport, energy/building and safety), with respect to promising developments from a user-perspective, and a STEEP analysis (longer-term socio-cultural, technical, environmental, economic, and political trends) conducted. A common vision of the 2BFUNTEX project led to a strategy for realizing the vision, technology and market scenarios as roadmap and eventually resulted in action plans for MDTs.
A language to better understand complex environments has been developed in MIT and is labelled “Systems Thinking”. This methodology visualizes the interrelations between the many factors that define the behaviour of a complex system. Two important patterns in these interrelations are reinforcing loops and balancing loops. Reinforcing loops are the “engines” that create positive or negative growth. Balancing loops are the “brakes” that limit the growth. In order to understand how to influence a complex environment, the identification of these loops is critical. They contain tipping points, i.e. zones where small actions may cause large effects.
Using the above concepts the tipping points of the 2BFUNTEX innovation ecosystem were identified and explored. Based on this insight, the priorities of the 2BFUNTEX actions were optimized and additional tasks identified.
• The combination of the functional textile market, innovation actors and industry is considered to be a complex adaptive system: many agents interact and influence one another and as a result produce a difficult to predict behaviour.
• Through the technique of systems thinking these interactions are modelled as cause-effect relations. This results in what is called a “causal loop diagram”.
• While developing the causal loop diagram, attention is devoted to discovering interaction archetypes like “limits to growth”, “shifting the burden”, “eroding goals”, “escalation” and “success to the successful”.
• A well-developed causal loop diagram makes it possible – through model interpretation or through model behaviour simulation – to better predict the future behaviour of the complex adaptive system. Candidate strategies can be assessed for their impact using them as driving factors within the model.
• Information gathering: deriving guidelines for information survey: what, how, with which resolution and detail.
Considering the results of the systems thinking, of the foresight workshops and all efforts within the other work packages of the 2BFUNTEX project (e.g. training modules, brokerage events) the final causal loop version resulted. The original three loops of Prototyping, Customer Involvement and Industrial Growth were confirmed. The expected outcomes of the project were defined more precisely. This particularly relates to the foresight process, which is a methodology rather than an outcome. The three major final outcomes of the 2BFUNTEX project ultimately are:
• Outcome 1: the 2BFUNTEX website as Open Innovation Platform
• Outcome 2: Industrial uptake
• Outcome 3: Multidisciplinary Teams
2BFUNTEX Vision and Strategy
Based on the results of the systems thinking and foresight workshops, the vision and strategy for the 2BFUNTEX project was developed by the Steering Group of Work Package leaders. It was subsequently validated by the project partners and complemented by identifying key stakeholders.
Vision
1) We need to narrow the gap between different research areas before we can close the gaps between academic research and industry. The textile sector is a conservative/traditional sector compared to e.g. biotechnology, pharmaceutical industry, etc.. There is a gap between new developments in e.g. chemistry and textiles. We should first narrow this gap, amongst others by inviting experts from other fields to collaborate with us in the multidisciplinary teams.
2) Technologies need to be appraised before they can be transferred to industry. The technologies should be available, transferable and upscalable. We need to find a way to transfer the technologies available in research organisations to industry. For this we need a clear vision on which technologies are available that can be upscaled and transferred to industry on a short term, taking into account the value chain aspect.
3) We need to create awareness, provide state-of-the-art on key technologies. There is a need to educate other sectors how they could use textiles, e.g. provide them with complimentary knowledge by demonstrations of Best Practices or Proof-by-example, etc.
4) Try to match existing technologies with textile industry needs, in order to save time and money. Instead of immediately starting new research to solve the textile industry needs, we should first look which technologies available in other sectors could be useful. This should be done within the multidisciplinary teams. If no appropriate technology is available, new research projects should be started to find a solution for the industrial needs.
5) Creation of a community of experts/contact points on functional textiles (for the whole value chain). The 2BFUNTEX community should be the unique contact place for industry and other stakeholders looking for information on functional textiles.
Strategy
The following measures compose the 2BFUNTEX strategy to realize the vision:
1. Collect the core competences and cross sectoral activities/partners of each 2BFUNTEX partner.
2. Identify transferable technologies, e.g. by looking for proof-by-example and through the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform.
3. Organise educational activities/workshops (also skills developing/trainings, capacity building).
4. Organise brokerage events. Start-up multidisciplinary teams with a focus on specific topics.
5. A community of experts will be the end result of 2BFUNTEX.
Scenarios to Meet Industrial Needs
During the workshops the participants also collected information on interesting markets, sectors and technologies such as:
• Sportswear textiles
• Protective textiles and clothing
• Building and construction textiles
• Light-weight composites (transportation)
• Medical/biomedical textiles
• Chemical industry (esp. as supplier)
• Agricultural textiles
• Home textiles
• Geotextiles
• Industrial laundry
• Filters / nonwovens
• Special / innovative fibre manufacturing
Partners suggested to prioritize transportation textiles and special fibre manufacturing and pointed out strategic trends such as energy saving techniques, biobased or recycled materials and use of nanoparticles in textiles. Finally, ‘grand' societal challenges served as ‘framework’ scenarios to investigate how to tackle these in the different sectors.
In order to increase customer involvement, it is necessary to identify the needs of different customer groups, as customers can be different industrial sectors or direct end-users. A matrix was prepared with different types of customers and their specific needs. This information is included in deliverable D1.8 ‘First reports per envisaged area’ and is also available for download on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform as a presentation on ‘Trends and analysis of industrial needs in functional textiles’ given at the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference.
Roadmapping and Action Planning
The next step within the 2BFUNTEX Foresight and Complexity approach was to address societal and industrial needs by roadmapping possible solutions and concrete action planning.
Roadmapping
The 3rd Foresight & Complexity Workshop focussed on exploring potential application scenarios with a clear industry perspective. Six members of the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) presented their insights and voiced their expectations as ‘industry success criteria’ for 2BFUNTEX. They also actively participated in identifying science-industry knowledge gaps in key application areas (health, transport, energy/building and safety) as to promising developments from a user-perspective. This simplified ‘roadmapping’ exercise allowed to identify research gaps as “pathways” for providing promising novel solutions for industrial needs.
Conclusion
Over the course of the 2BUNTEX project, the six 2BFUNTEX Foresight & Complexity workshops served as a face-to-face platform to enhance industry-academia coordination and collaboration. They contributed to a better understanding of state-of-the art research approaches and identification of joint research and development (R&D) ideas with participating industry representatives.
Foresight and complexity methods were instrumental for identifying and supporting the eight 2BFUNTEX Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) in developing their competitive R&D profile e.g. by developing medium- and longer-term critical success factors:
• MDT Nanotechnology
• MDT Electrospinning
• MDT Plasma
• MDT Flame retardancy
• MDT Antimicrobial Textiles
• MDT Sustainable Textiles
• MDT Biotechnologies
• MDT Smart Textiles
Detailed information on the outcomes and impact of the Foresight & Complexity workshops can be found in the deliverable D1.11’Final report on complexity and foresight workshops’ and the respective deliverables from Work Package 5.
Task 1.2: Inventory of research projects, technologies and activities regarding functional textile structures and textile related materials.
AIT performed a bibliometric analysis of published literature to obtain an overview of research in the field of functional textiles. 3,391 publications were analysed covering a period from 1990 until May 2012. In this way topics were identified with their relation to each other, as well as top Organizations, Journals, Cited References and other relevant information on each topic. The identification of the most active research organizations and companies have been helpful in WP5 for putting together multidisciplinary project teams.
AIT also performed an online search in PATSTAT 2012/10 database in the title of applications for a pre-defined set of keywords similar to the publication analysis. 8,982 patents were identified and interlinked on the basis of common terms in the descriptive abstracts in IPC codes. The software BibTechMonTM was applied for structuring the data and visualizing the results based on bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis.
Two reports on the bibliometric analysis of patents and publications have become available for download on the 2BFUNTEX website:
1) General report : published under “Publications” and accessible to all 2BFUNTEX website visitors.
2) Confidential report - Overview and Analysis of Selected Topics : published under “Reports” in the “Partner Download Section”, so only accessible for 2BFUNTEX partners. The confidential report includes more details regarding some topics such as a short description, journals, titles, keywords and organisations and researchers involved. This added information has been used by project partners e.g. to contact the respective organisations involved in the topics of interest or use cited references in research work.
The bibliometric analysis of patents and publications supported the MDTs in selecting and developing their innovation ideas. During the last period, AIT updated the bibliometric analysis of research trends and emerging research fronts based on scientific publications. The update was based on the integration of a novel data set of publications from 2012 to 2015. This work was presented during the 2BFUNTEX final conference in Milan and is available for download on the 2BFUNTEX OIP: http://www.2bfuntex.eu/content/2bfuntex-final-conference-technology-transfer-functional-textile-innovations.
In order to collect research projects, technologies and activities it was decided to create an Open Innovation Platform where each partner, but also all European stakeholders can upload their information during the whole project duration and beyond.
In total 198 projects were registered on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform by the end of the project. We can consider that the database actually covers most of the European projects regarding functional textiles funded through European programmes (since FP7). The database is not exhaustive on national projects because most of them contain confidential agreements and cannot be published before the end of the projects (e.g. in France or Belgium). All the projects submitted are listed in the public deliverable D1.5 ‘List of projects’.
Regarding the technologies database, in total 72 technologies were uploaded by the end of the project. As conclusion: most of the technologies concern textile systems, which is logical as textiles are more and more embedded technologies in more complex structures. Also it is noticed that most of the technologies which are developed in universities are still far from the market and there is still a need for demonstrators to upscale the technologies and to move from lab scale to industrial prototypes.
We can consider that the 2BFUNTEX OIP is also covering almost all the events & activities regarding functional textiles organised at European level. However, most of the pure national events are not yet included.
The first success stories resulting from 2BFUNTEX activities were identified and reported in the public deliverable D1.4 ‘Success Story first presentation’. Some projects emerged during the various 2BFUNTEX project meetings which took place approximately every 6 months.
List of the success stories identified:
• PlasTexTron – AUSTRIA
• Technological Transfer of Cellulose Carbamate Fiber – FINLAND
• UV protective photochromic garments – TURKEY
• Electromagnetic protective children’s wear – TURKEY
• Improving the Abrasion Resistance Performance of Needle punched Nonwoven Automotive Carpets - TURKEY
• Technical adhesive tapes : GERMANY
Task 1.3: Needs for functional textile structures and textile related materials detected in companies having little or no own R&D facilities, end users and stakeholders
In this task it was decided to use the Open Innovation Platform to collect needs of companies & research organisations. A web-based questionnaire has been finalized and included in the Open Innovation Platform to detect industrial needs. However, only 24 industrial needs were submitted on the OIP so far, despite the fact that most of the partners had meetings with companies to identify their needs. In fact most of the companies want to express their needs only under strict confidentiality rules and partners don’t have the right to submit them on the 2BFUNTEX platform.
In order to solve the confidentiality issue, the industrial needs questionnaire was developed in such a way that all information about the company/organisation expressing the need remains confidential and is thus not published. Further, the possibility was offered to ask a third party (e.g. one of the 2BFUNTEX partners) to upload the need. Unfortunately, companies are still not confident to express their needs through the internet.
Therefore, UP-tex has performed a study to identify market trends & industrial needs on functional textiles. Results were presented during the 2BFUNTEX Steering Committee meeting in Warsaw in September 2014 and to the industry during the last 2BFUNTEX workshop in Tampere. The results of this study are included in deliverable D1.8 ‘First reports per envisaged area’ and also available for download on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform.
Task 1.4: Standardization and Ecosustainability
During the first period, the main action in this task was the preparation of a report by IK4-TEKNIKER with a recompilation of the main standards, related to the determination of mechanical, corrosion resistance, environmental compatibility, toxicity and biodegradability properties that should be applied in materials for textile applications. All these standards are relevant testing that are very helpful to evaluate the performance aspects of new textile materials. Also, compatibility tests for the assessment of the toxicity of textile materials with the environment, biodegradability, and the standards needed in the Ecolabel for textiles were collected in the report.
Furthermore, new relevant tests were addressed by the companies participating in the Industrial Advisory group, during the workshop organized in Eibar. They highlighted the need for measurements of the bactericidal properties following the requirements of the tests: AATCC 6538, Centexbel Test, Total Aerobic Microbial Count (TAMC) ISO 11737-1 and Fungal growing tests EN 14119-A2, 2003). Requirements of textile standards have been analysed and abrasion and tear tests protocols were validated for textiles with different chemical composition. Some additional tests have also been identified and set up for textiles, identifying requirements for non-standard test developments. All this material was implemented in the deliverable D1.7 ‘Report on standardisation’.
During the second project period, the public deliverable D1.9 about “Possibilities for eco-design concept in textile materials” has been finalised. To reinforce this activity, some standards related to microbiological tests and ecotoxicological tests have been verified in IK4-TEKNIKER laboratories. IK4-TEKNIKER has continued with the preliminary tests in order to analyse the protocols for antibacterial characterization following the international standard ISO 20743 (Textiles – Determination of antibacterial activity of antibacterial finished products). The activity related with these tests has been focused on practising the seeding and cultivation process of strains with successful results.
Task 1.5: Detection of synergies and gaps
In this subtask, all information that became available through Task 1.2 and Task 1.3 was analysed in detail by UP-tex, CxMI, AIT and UGent. The results were used to set up the first MDTs which were launched in 2013 in Istanbul and Ghent.
UP-tex produced a new roadmap based on a cross matrix between market needs and technologies (see also Task 1.3). An updated version was presented at the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference at ITMA and can be downloaded from the OIP: http://www.2bfuntex.eu/content/2bfuntex-final-conference-technology-transfer-functional-textile-innovations.
This work has been used to prepare deliverable D1.8 ‘First reports per envisaged area’.
Task 1.6: Subsidies already provided and available in future for research and demonstration projects
During the second project period, UP-tex worked on this subject and first reviewed all the action lines available for textiles in the 2014 & 2015 calls. The results have been presented to partners & industry at the 2BFUNTEX@Eurofinish innovation seminar in Ghent (23/10/2013) and were used by the MDTs in 2014.
During the last period, the public deliverable D1.6 “List of relevant subsidies” was submitted, which also includes funding schemes available per country, collected from the partners.
Furthermore, on the Open Innovation Platform links to dedicated websites for research funding are published (like eranetwatch, eureka, eurostars, ERASME, INCOMERA).
Task 1.7: Creation of project ideas
The final aim of WP1 was to identify new project ideas that can ultimately lead to new industrial products. It was foreseen that all information resulting from WP1 and from the work in the MDTs should be compiled and result in a number of project ideas that can be worked out with the different 2BFUNTEX partners and/or with the identified parties during the inventory phase. 2BFUNTEX has assisted this process of idea generation with the methods of complexity and foresight in the 2BFUNTEX workshops.
Thanks to 2BFUNTEX, a large numbers of project ideas were generated during our meetings. Several of these ideas led to projects submitted either at national or European level.
At the end of the project, the deliverable D1.12 ‘Report with overview of project ideas’ was finalised. The work of idea compilation started at the beginning of the project. To do this the partners began to express ideas on the technologies needed for the textile industry during the first workshop. This work increased after the first presentation from UP-tex about industrial needs presented at the workshop held in Eibar, Spain, in January 2013. Then the idea generation continued during various MDT workshops.
As a result:
• 57 ideas were the subject of a detailed description of which 26 have been submitted for funding from European or national programmes after consortia have been formed between 2BFUNTEX partners and external parties (industry, other research organisations,...)
• 56 more ideas generated within the MDTs are still in the maturing phase.
WP2 : Development and maintenance of an interactive database
The objective of this work package was to develop an interactive database comprising the information collected in WP1, allowing updating by the partners involved and allowing automatic information requests to be sent to research institutes, universities, R&D centres in (mostly large) companies, etc. The database should be user-friendly and transparent increasing the potential that as many as possible new parties get connected to the database (via the website to be developed, see WP4 task 4.2). The database should be designed as such to allow using it in WP3 for training purposes (web-based learning) and to allow using it in WP4 for dissemination purposes.
Task 2.1: Development of a database
During the 1st project year the database was designed by UGent, based on the information needs determined in WP1 (projects, technologies), WP3 (training calendar, training materials) and WP4 (event calendar, publication of newsletter, ...). Information about the structure of the database has been reported in deliverables D2.1 ‘Report on design of the database’ and D2.2 ‘Demonstrator of the database’.
The interactive database was incorporated in the 2BFUNTEX website www.2BFUNTEX.eu with the following functionalities :
- uploading information on projects, technologies, trainings, training materials, events and industrial needs.
- consulting all uploaded information
- (basic) search function
- uploading and consulting deliverables, dissemination materials, meeting minutes, reports, etc. in the ‘Partner download’ section (restricted to consortium partners).
Later on the database has been improved taking into account the feedback from the partners and 3 new sections have been added :
- 2 non-restricted sections open to all website visitors :
1) Section on “Publications” : this section includes 2BFUNTEX dissemination materials (public summary, leaflet), public deliverables, the overview report of the bibliometric analysis of patents and publications, success stories on technology transfer, etc.
2) Section on multidisciplinary teams “MDTs” in which the different MDTs are presented: main purpose, concrete break-through concepts for further prototyping, possible partners, needs for industrial collaboration, etc. Further the contact information of the MDT leaders is published and website visitors are invited to join the MDTs and/or to submit a project idea to the MDT leaders.
-1 “MDT downloads” section restricted to MDT members and only accessible after registration on the 2BFUNTEX website. This section is located under the section ‘Partners’ and enables MDT members to upload documents relevant for their MDT.
Further, direct links to the 2BFUNTEX training materials and to the presentations given at the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference are now available on the homepage.
In order to control the quality of the database content all uploaded information is reviewed by a 2BFUNTEX moderator before publication on the website. For each database section, two 2BFUNTEX moderators have been appointed. When new content is uploaded, the two moderators of the related section receive a notification by email with a request to review the new entry and a link to the uploaded information. If important information is missing or some input is not clear, the moderators can inform the authors by email and ask corrections/additions. Items which are not related to functional textiles or textile related materials can be deleted by the moderators.
Authors can always update/edit their inputs via the ‘Own content’ button on the website. A list is given with all inputs from the specific author, who just has to click on the title of the input he wishes to update in order to edit the information previously provided. Further, each page of the 2BFUNTEX site contains a ‘Feedback’ button through which users can give feedback on the website or report any problems.
The interactive 2BFUNTEX database was activated in August 2012 and since then the database content increased steadily. The number of entries uploaded in the different database sections at the end of the project is given below:
- Technologies: 72
- Projects: 198
- Events: 151
- Trainings: 60
- Training materials: 85
- Newsletters: 7
- News items: 25
- Industrial needs: 24
- Partner downloads (restricted): 80
- MDT downloads (restricted): 17
- Registered users: 600.
More statistical information about the 2BFUNTEX website and database can be found in the public deliverable D2.4 ‘Operational database phase 1 (excluding features)’.
Task 2.2: Development of add-ons
Although this was not originally foreseen, easy sharing of content via social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, ...) has been incorporated in the database in an early stage.
Due to some technical difficulties there was a delay in implementing the automatic updating and sending of information in the interactive database. As an intermediary solution it was arranged that the project coordinator can send mass emails to an automatically updated distribution list including all registered users of the 2BFUNTEX website. Specific information was communicated regularly to all 2BFUNTEX members via this mass emailing system, such as calls for papers and invitations for large 2BFUNTEX events, invitations to participate in the 2BFUNTEX Technology Competition, etc.
Furthermore, links to the information on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform are published on the website of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing via an RSS link. The content includes: Latest news, Latest technologies and Latest Projects. The information is published on the ETP Textiles & Clothing website (http://www.textile-platform.eu/) under Project news.
Finally, we succeeded to implement the automatic updating and sending of information in the interactive database. Now a 2BFUNTEX Monthly Digest is transmitted to all registered users in the middle of each month with an overview of all the new information published on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform since the last one. Users who do not wish to receive the 2BFUNTEX Monthly Digest can always opt out of these emails by clicking the unsubscribe button.
More information and an example of the Monthly Digest are available in the public deliverable D2.6 Operational database phase 3.
Task 2.3: Maintenance of database
During the full course of the 2BFUNTEX project, new material has become available that has been added to the database. The data assembled in all work packages and the project results have been uploaded continuously.
Both the database and the website are hosted by UGent and have been maintained throughout the whole project. Whenever problems occurred or were reported by users, they have been solved as soon as possible.
Towards the end of the project, it was agreed that UGent will continue to maintain the 2BFUNTEX database during the year 2016 (without any funding). Then it will be evaluated if there has still been an evolution of the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform (regularly new registered users, additional content uploaded by 2BFUNTEX members, etc.). In case of a positive result, it is foreseen that the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform can be taken over by the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing, which would ensure the sustainability of the website long after the project has ended.
WP3 : Training & Education
The objective of the Training & Education work package was to promote education on functional textile structures and textile related materials in order to obtain well trained people entering the economic market to enhance rapid uptake of functional textile structures and textile related materials and to promote additional research in industry having engaged these well trained people. It was also the aim of this work package to train people in industry to take up the knowledge related to functional textile structures and textile related materials (objective 4 above). The Training & Education has been enforced by exchange of personnel between companies and research institutes/universities and vice versa.
The expected achievements of this objective were:
• general as well as more specific courses and course materials that can be used by all partners (if needed after translation to the country language), as well universities, research institutes as associations;
• training material such as power points, demonstrators, ...;
• guest lectures and workshops;
• well-trained students and well-informed people working in industry.
Task 3.1: Collection of educational materials at different universities, research institutes and companies
In the start phase of the project it was decided to collect all information concerning available training materials through the 2BFUNTEX database. Otherwise, the information collected via other means (e.g. email) would have to be uploaded into the database later on, which would mean a duplication of work. The 2BFUNTEX partners and external parties were invited to upload their training materials to the 2BFUNTEX website, where they are divided in 3 categories:
- Electronic training courses : which are uploaded in the database as attachments (as PDF or PowerPoint documents) and available for use by all registered 2BFUNTEX members.
- Hardcopy : information is given about the training material and where or how it can be found or purchased.
- Demonstrators : information is given about the demonstrator together with contact details.
Deliverable D3.3 ‘Report on training materials found through the inventory’ gives the status at the end of the 3rd project year. It includes an overview of the 79 collected training and educational materials, the type of material (electronic, hard copy, demonstrator), language and target groups, as well as some analysis results. Nearly 40% of the training materials are linked to the topic of functional textiles, while the second largest topic covered technical textiles (ca. 23%). Nearly half of the training materials (44.3%) is prepared for industrial courses, the other part covers university courses (39.2%) and seminars (16.5%). The training materials are mainly presented in electronic form (50%), whereas hard copies represent 40%.
The complete table with information about all 85 training materials collected during the whole duration of the 2BFUNTEX project is available in deliverable D3.6 ‘Reports on trainings, training material and participations’. An analysis of all training materials was made according to their position in the value chain (Polymers/fibres & processes represent the biggest part (25%) and finishing/chemical processes cover 18%), the main markets involved (15% address the Protech market, and 13% the Clothtech market) and their relation to the 2BFUNTEX multidisciplinary team topics (25% of the training materials relate to Nanotechnology/Electrospinning and 18% to Smart textiles, followed by Antimicrobial textiles and Sustainable textiles with 17%).
The training materials database will remain available for uploading of additional training materials by partners as well as external training providers after the end of the project.
Task 3.2: Setting up course materials and production of training materials to be used by the different partners involved
A training and education questionnaire was developed in order to reveal the needs and capabilities for training in the functional textile community. It was distributed at several events and by the 2BFUNTEX partners to their contacts via email. The result of the training needs survey is available in the public deliverable D3.5 ‘Revisions of training and education plan’. As the need for the different topics was more or less equal (all between 5 and 8%), it was decided to develop new training materials related to the topics of the 2BFUNTEX multidisciplinary teams (MDTs). The following six training modules have been prepared by 2BFUNTEX partners:
- Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies (Victoria Dutschk, UTwente, the Netherlands)
- Protective functional textiles (Perrin Akcakoca Kumbasar, EGE University, Turkey)
- Electrospinning of nanofibres (Hale Karakas, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey)
- Sustainable textiles (Antonela Curteza, The "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania)
- Recycling of textile materials (Bojana Voncina, AUTEX/University of Maribor, Slovenia)
- Smart textiles (Lieva Van Langenhove, Ghent University, Belgium)
These 2BFUNTEX training modules are available in the public deliverable D3.4 ‘Training materials’.
The aim of this task was the development of a modular training course to be used both for education and industrial training purposes. The developed training materials are therefore available for use for:
• courses for students at universities,
• courses and workshops for training purposes at research institutes (open to industry),
• workshops in industry for training purposes.
In total 504 BSc, Master and PhD students and industry representatives have benefited from the 2BFUNTEX trainings in 2015. The details on the organised training courses by the 2BFUNTEX partners using the developed training modules are given in deliverable D3.5.
At the start of the project, it was decided to include the web-based learning platform in the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform. Throughout the whole project duration the 2BFUNTEX partners, AUTEX members and external parties were invited to upload training materials and training & education plans to the 2BFUNTEX website. In total 85 training and education materials have been uploaded and 60 training events have been announced in the training calendar in the training materials section of the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform. The developed 2BFUNTEX training modules are published in electronic format in the ‘Training materials’ section of the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform, and thus available to be studied by registered users after logging in via the homepage (http://www.2bfuntex.eu/). Further, some 2BFUNTEX partners have also prepared other web-based learning platforms on which links are provided to the 2BFUNTEX training materials.
The 2BFUNTEX OIP has proven to be a successful tool to find information on planned training courses and available training materials on the topic of functional textile structures and textile related materials. The web-based learning platform incorporated within the 2BFUNTEX OIP will be continued after the end of the 2BFUNTEX project and registered members will be able to upload new training materials and events so that the learning platform will be expanded further.
Task 3.3: Organisation of training and education courses at universities and research institutes and organisation of training courses open to industry, organisations of workshops in textile and textile related companies in the EU member states
During the first project period, the training and education programmes from all 2BFUNTEX partners were collected in preparation of deliverable D3.1 ‘Training and Education Plan’, which was submitted in M6. Once the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform became operational, the 2BFUNTEX partners and external parties were invited to upload their training & education plans which were then published on the 2BFUNTEX website.
The “Training and Education Plan” was updated at regular intervals. The public deliverable D3.5 ‘Revisions of Training & Education plan’ includes all details on the training activities organised by the 2BFUNTEX partners during the whole project duration. In total 177 training events have been reported. However, due to the fact that the number of trainees is not always available, it is not possible to calculate the total number, but it can be assumed that it will certainly be more than 2500 (which was the indicator of success).
Task 3.4: Setting up exchange programmes between universities/research institutes and companies and in between universities/research institutes with different study topics
The aim of this task was enhancing the uptake of new technology by SMEs and large companies which is favoured through the exchange of personnel between universities/research institutes and companies. Therefore, a template was created to capture the ‘exchange programmes’ organised by the 2BFUNTEX partners. It was distributed to all partners and their feedback was collected. The template as well as the results are presented in deliverable D3.8 ‘Report 30 exchange programmes’, which shows that actually 76 international and 3 national exchanges have been performed. This exceeds the target of 30 exchanges which was set during project preparation and can therefore be considered a huge success. This deliverable further includes information on several funding sources that have been used for the exchange programmes, and that can be applied for in the future.
WP4 : Dissemination
The objective of the dissemination work package was to create awareness to the broad public regarding functional textile structures and textile related materials as such achieving rapid uptake of those materials in industry. Dissemination of information should enlarge the circle of interested research institutes/universities and companies and should enhance the exchange of information between relevant stakeholders (objective 5 above).
Task 4.1: Setting up a strategic dissemination plan
Disseminating 2BFUNTEX’s goals and results was one of the tools to attract partners in Europe, but also worldwide, and to get in contact with the core group and join information. A concrete action to achieve the highest degree of exploitation and dissemination of the results was the production of a plan for dissemination and exploitation which will identify the target groups, the most appropriate channels to reach these groups and the most effective and efficient actions of the consortium for reaching the different target groups.
The main goal of this Task 4.1 was the drawing up of a manual with all possible dissemination actions and describing the specific dissemination strategy (deliverable D4.1 ‘Strategic dissemination plan’). It comprises all information and links to allow partners to easily double check if they have to take action in case specific initiatives are planned, e.g. a partner who will meet a policy maker needs to find out easily what type of dissemination material to take along, who to inform, what kind of documentation to take along, etc. The strategic dissemination plan was one of the tools in performing the inventories in WP1. It allowed interested parties to share their information and 2BFUNTEX partners to easily get in contact with these groups.
Task 4.2: Designing, setting up and maintenance of an interactive website
During the 1st 6 months of the project UGent has designed and set up the 2BFUNTEX website, which includes the interactive database (see WP2). This website is a central platform with a public area (accessible by everyone without registration) as well as a restricted area, with different levels of restriction:
• area for registered users
• partners’ area
• area for MDT members.
In the public area one can find the following information:
• the co-ordination action as a project (abstract and objectives);
• the consortium : list of project partners with contact details and links to their website;
• a calendar with upcoming events and trainings in the field, with all details on : title, dates, location, event language, contact person, link to event website;
• a list with news items;
• lists of the most recently uploaded technologies and projects (for more details one has to register and login);
• information about the 2BFUNTEX multidisciplinary teams;
• a link to the presentations of the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference
• a link to the 2BFUNTEX training modules (after registration and login);
• links to other (interesting) websites;
• project contact page where people can ask questions.
The public deliverable D4.3 ‘Interactive website’ gives a snapshot of the website functionalities at the time of submission of the deliverable. During the project the website has been further improved and new sections and functionalities have been added. More details can be found on the website www.2BFUNTEX.eu and in deliverables D2.1 ‘Report on design of the database’, D2.2 ‘Demonstrator of the database’ and D2.4 ‘Operational database phase 1’.
By the end of the project already 600 members have registered on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform and the number is still growing. The 2BFUNTEX members are located all over the world (57 countries). Since the launch of the website in 2012, 13653 unique visitors have accessed the website (20736 visits in total).
Task 4.3: Design of logo, banner, signature, flyers, leaflets and publicity materials
Since the existence of the 2BFUNTEX CA should be spread as much as possible, one of the first actions was designing a logo for the 2BFUNTEX initiative. This logo was then used as basis to create a banner to be added amongst others in the email signature of the partners. It was further also used in all developed promotional materials (project flyer, poster, long and short version PowerPoint presentations, press releases, roll-ups, internet links) which have been distributed for dissemination by all partners in national and international events and uploaded in the partner download section. They were regularly updated, mainly before all important 2BFUNTEX events, and spread throughout Europe in order to invite interested partners to visit the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform or contact the consortium. The 2BFUNTEX leaflet and poster were later on translated in several languages by the partners for further distribution in their own country.
Several partners posted a mail to the textile and clothing companies in their region to make them aware of the 2BFUNTEX project. Others informed the textile companies in their regions by presenting a 2BFUNTEX PowerPoint presentation during meetings and/or distributing leaflets. Further, the 2BFUNTEX logo, website link and some basic project information were placed on the own websites of the 2BFUNTEX partners.
Information about the 2BFUNTEX project was also released in editorial parts of journals, in annual reports of partners and in newsletters of partner organisations. Publicity for the 2BFUNTEX project was made via the Autex Research Journal (ARJ). A 1-page advertisement in the Online Journal was included in order to reach a large public. Further, the proceedings of the EMRS Symposium M were made available as a special issue of the ARJ (http://www.autexrj.com/articles/363/425).
A dedicated 2BFUNTEX e-newsletter was developed and in total 7 issues were published and widely disseminated across Europe towards main textile stakeholders, as well as published on the 2BFUNTEX website. The newsletters covered regular project news such as conferences, workshops, meetings, project results, and informed readers on forthcoming events. The topics covered in the different newsletters were:
- Issue 1 - August 2012: information about the 2BFUNTEX objectives and consortium, the kick-off meeting and the 2BFUNTEX session within the AUTEX conference in Zadar (Croatia) in June 2012.
- Issue 2 - February 2013: information on the interactive website, the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) and the 3rd 2BFUNTEX Foresight & Complexity workshop in Eibar (Spain) in January 2013.
- Issue 3 - August 2013: focus on the 2nd IAB meeting, the 4th 2BFUNTEX workshop and the start-up of the 1st Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) in Istanbul (Turkey).
- Issue 4 - February 2014: information about the 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 innovation seminar annex matchmaking event on functional textiles and the start-up of 5 more MDTs in Ghent (Belgium).
- Issue 5 - July 2014: report on the 2BFUNTEX session at the 9th Annual Public Conference of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP T&C) and more information about the 2BFUNTEX MDTs.
- Issue 6 - September 2015: announcement of the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference on 14th November 2015 in Milan, Italy, and the free 2BFUNTEX Technology Competition and report on the 6th 2BFUNTEX workshop in combination with the seminar for the Finnish textile industry in Tampere, Finland.
- Issue 7 - January 2016: information about the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform, a report on the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference and the result of the Technology Competition, and a report on a workshop with focus on knowledge, research and networking held at the Danish Technological Institute in Denmark on 30th November 2015.
This last newsletter was also distributed via the 2BFUNTEX Monthly Digest to all members registered on the 2BFUNTEX OIP.
In the 2nd project year, a brochure ‘2BFUNTEX network’ was developed including information about the project and its objectives, a short presentation of all project partners, descriptions of all MDTs and EUREKA E!-SURF and EEN, co-organisers of the 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 event. It further included many pictures taken at the project meetings in Istanbul and Ghent in 2013. The purpose of this brochure was to advertise the network to an international audience, with the aim to attract new partners to the various multidisciplinary teams. In March 2014, 500 copies of this brochure were printed and distributed at several 2BFUNTEX dissemination events in 2014 and 2015.
Further publicity activities (distribution of flyers, newsletters, oral and poster presentations, ...) are reported in the ‘Dissemination activities’ section on the EC Participant Portal, where information on in total 400 dissemination activities has been uploaded.
Task 4.4: Setting up 2 large scale conferences, exchange workshops and brokerage events in different EU member states and abroad
Large scale conferences have been organised in many different countries and at very high frequency. In many of these, the 2BFUNTEX partners were already involved. It was therefore not the intention to add significantly to this number but to make use of them and/or to create added value. Efforts have been made to concentrate and combine the organisation of events as much as possible in time and location in order to increase participation, find synergies and reduce the number of trips.
The section below presents the events, conferences and workshops that have been organized specifically within the 2BFUNTEX activities either as standalone 2BFUNTEX events or as joint initiatives within the framework of wider events. All these events have been widely promoted via the 2BFUNTEX OIP, by the partners via email to their contact persons and in face-to-face meetings.
• The 2BFUNTEX kick off conference was organised on Wednesday 13th June 2012 in Zadar, Croatia, as a special session of the AUTEX 2012 Conference on “Innovative textiles for high future demands” (from 13 to 15 June 2012). 15 papers on Innovative Functional Textiles were presented there, the majority by 2BFUNTEX partners. With more than 60 participants, the 2BFUNTEX session was one of the most successful sessions of the AUTEX conference. Further, the 2BFUNTEX poster was presented at the AUTEX 2012 poster session and 2BFUNTEX leaflets were distributed to all conference participants.
• The first large scale 2BFUNTEX conference was organised on May 30th and 31st, 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey, as the “International Istanbul Textile Congress 2013 on Innovative and Functional Textiles”, hosted by the Istanbul Technical University (ITU). The conference attracted around 300 participants from research institutes, universities and industry all over the world. The book of abstracts and conference programme were published and distributed to all conference participants together with the full text of the papers on USB sticks. Four parallel sessions were held simultaneously in the 2-day conference. The diversity of the presented topics and the high quality of the papers were recognized and appreciated by the conference participants. Following the 2BFUNTEX conference, the first 2BFUNTEX Brokerage Event and Technoshow was organised on the 1st of June 2013 in Istanbul, supported by the Entreprise Europe Network (EEN). 25 participants from 7 countries took part in the matchmaking event, where companies working on functional textiles had the opportunity to discuss possible future collaborations with researchers and other companies. During the Technoshow industrial applications of added value functional materials with new functionalities and improved performance were presented as prototypes. Books of projects, including projects and technologies uploaded on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform, were printed and distributed to the international participants and industrial visitors. The brokerage event and Technoshow was an international meeting point for the textile industry with academics and researchers from universities, institutes, research & development centres. It was attended by around 100 representatives of which 44 from industry.
• On 23rd October 2013, the 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 Innovation Seminar annex Matchmaking Event on Functional Textiles was organised at the EUROFINISH 2013 Trade Fair in Ghent, Belgium, which attracted 2438 visitors and 160 exhibitors. The 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 event was organised in 3 sessions:
- Innovation seminar : including presentations on research funding opportunities, 2BFUNTEX MDTs, project ideas and technology offers.
- Brainstorm sessions on a limited number of presented early stage research ideas during lunch break.
- Matchmaking via 121 face-to-face meetings.
There were over 60 participants from 17 different countries, and the seminar, brainstorms and matchmaking were really very lively!
• A special 2BFUNTEX session was held at the 9th Annual Public Conference of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP T&C). The Conference was conducted on March 31 – April 1, 2014 in Brussels, Belgium, under the title ‘Effective textile technology transfer from research to industry’. In the 2BFUNTEX session entitled ‘Effective tools for European textile technology transfer’ presentations were held about the 2BFUNTEX objectives and results, the Open Innovation Platform and the MDTs, and 3 examples on how they can be practically used by industry. In total 148 persons attended the ETP T&C conference of which 36 industrial participants, 82 researchers and 30 delegates from EC departments and various associations. At the 2BFUNTEX dissemination stand the project was further promoted with a poster, leaflets and ‘2BFUNTEX network’ brochures. Also, VITO provided a table top presentation of atmospheric plasma technology for textile applications. This industrial proven technology was shown and the operational aspects were discussed with interested attendants of the ETP T&C conference and the 2BFUNTEX workshop (also organised at the conference location).
• A special 2-day 2BFUNTEX session on functional textiles was organized within IITAS 2014 – XIIIth International Izmir Textile and Apparel Symposium on April 2-5, 2014, in Antalya, Turkey, with 660 participants (105 academics, 445 from industry and 110 students) from 19 countries. Announcements of IITAS 2014 and the 2BFUNTEX session were sent by email to ca. 4000 academics and industrialists from all over the world, uploaded into the 2BFUNTEX website and published within several journals. The 2BFUNTEX Session included 20 presentations from 13 countries, and 42 posters were presented in the Poster Session. The final report of IITAS 2014 including the 2BFUNTEX session has been published in Tekstil Isveren, the monthly journal of the Turkish Textile Employers’ Association, Tekstil Teknoloji (a monthly textile magazine) and Textilegence (an online textile magazine).
• The Symposium M on “Functional textiles – from research and development to innovations and industrial uptake” was organised within the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) 2014 Fall Meeting held from 15th to 18th September 2014 at Warsaw University of Technology. More than 1000 researchers attended the E-MRS 2014 Fall meeting conference where 23 Symposia have been organised. The Symposium M lasted three days, from 16th till 18th September and attracted over 70 participants who presented 45 oral and 15 poster presentations. A special session at the beginning of the symposium was dedicated to the 3 projects which cooperated to organise the meeting: 2BFUNTEX, COST Action MP1105 (http://www.flaretex.eu) and COST Action MP1206 (www.electrospinning-cost.eu). The Symposium M provided an international forum to exchange knowledge and experience as well as discuss recent advances in the field of functional textiles. Attendees presented their work in three subjects – flame retardant textiles, electrospinning and other functional textile related materials. It was also a great opportunity to make new contacts and promote technology transfer between academic environment and industry.
• The 6th 2BFUNTEX workshop on 27th and 28th January 2015 in Tampere, Finland, was combined with the ‘Speed up the business by networking’ - seminar for the Finnish Textile industry and trade. Participants in the seminar represented industry (30%) and research (70%). There were all together 93 participants and also a group of university students followed the presentations. The seminar was organized by VTT and FINATEX, the Association of the Finnish Textile and Clothing Industries. 2BFUNTEX was promoted by several oral presentations and by distributing leaflets.
• The AUTEX 2015 Conference held in Bucharest, Romania, from 10th to 12th June 2015 included several 2BFUNTEX sessions and was attended by 240 participants coming from 41 countries. During the conference the 2BFUNTEX project was promoted by means of 1 oral presentation, 1 large poster and 250 flyers. The 2BFUNTEX sessions included:
- 10.06.2015 - 2BFUNTEX Themes: Innovative Functional Textiles, Smart, Functional and Interactive Textiles: 4 oral and 3 poster presentations;
- 11.06.2015 - 2BFUNTEX Themes: Innovative Functional Textiles, Smart, Functional and Interactive Textiles, Textile Economy, Textile Supply Chain Management: 3 oral presentations;
- 12.06.2015 - 2BFUNTEX Themes: Innovative functional Textiles: 6 oral presentations.
• The 2BFUNTEX Final conference on “Technology Transfer of Functional Textile Innovations” took place on Saturday 14th November 2015 at ITMA 2015 in Milan, Italy, following the Final 2BFUNTEX Steering Committee meeting on 13th November 2015, which also took place at the ITMA premises. It was decided to organise the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference in the Research and Innovation Speakers Platform in Exhibition Hall 8 of the ITMA trade fair, so that visitors passing by (which had not registered in advance) also had the opportunity to listen to (some of) the presentations. More than 400 people registered in advance from 71 different countries, among which many from industry. During the conference successful cases of effective technology transfer on functional textiles between research & industry have been presented and the winners of the 2BFUNTEX Technology Competition were announced and asked to present their technology. The full conference programme and more detailed information is given in deliverable D4.10 ‘Closing conference’ and all the presentations are available on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform.
During 2015 a 2BFUNTEX Technology Competition was organised. Researchers or companies with a new technology in the field of functional textiles that they would like to transfer to industry, were invited to upload their technology on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform www.2BFUNTEX.eu. The 2BFUNTEX selection committee then assessed the submitted technologies against three criteria :
- the innovation assessment of the new technology
- the time to market of the innovation
- the potential impact of the technology on the textile sector.
The 2 most promising technologies were selected and the winners were given the opportunity to make a presentation at the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference on Saturday, 14 November 2015 at ITMA 2015 and also received a contribution to their travel expenses. The first winner was a Belgium based company, the EOC group, which has presented a new “Flame-retardant hotmelt for mattress ticking” and the second winner was Ms. Ashayer-Soltani from the National Physical laboratory in UK, who has been selected for the innovative development on “Conductive Textiles: towards true wearable technology”.
Further, the 2BFUNTEX project, its activities and results have been widely disseminated by all partners at several occasions (workshops, conferences, brokerage events, project meetings, networking events, ...) by means of oral or poster presentation, distribution of leaflets and newsletters, etc.. In total 400 dissemination activities have been reported over the whole project duration in the EC Participant Portal, as well as 33 peer reviewed publications and 37 papers in conference/workshop proceedings.
A list of events related to functional textiles was collected from all partners and by the end of the 4th year 151 events have been published on the 2BFUNTEX website.
Moreover, several brokerage events were organised by or participated in by 2BFUNTEX partners to get to know potential partners and to enhance research-industry cooperation. During these brokerage events the participants are able to discuss topics with other experts or interested companies. They get to know each other with the goal of future collaborations. The public deliverable D4.8 ‘First report on brokerage events’ gives an overview of the brokerage events which the 2BFUNTEX partners organized or participated in within the 1st project year. This list has been updated and the final version is included in the public deliverable D4.9 ‘6 monthly reports on participation to/organization of workshops/brokerage events’. By the end of December 2015, 44 brokerage events were reported in 15 different countries with in total 2325 participants, including many SMEs (approx. 53%). Some of the events were large open events, so the number of participants is even higher, but could not be counted.
So, the target to organise at least 32 brokerage events with in total 1000 face-to-face meetings by the end of the project has been clearly fulfilled. But nevertheless, the 2BFUNTEX partners will continue organizing and participating in further brokerage events even after the project.
Task 4.5: Visits to and workshops for SMEs
Over the whole project duration dedicated workshops were organised in the different countries of 2BFUNTEX partners. Some workshops were added directly to a conference to allow participation of as many as possible interested parties. The potential participants of the specific target groups were invited to the workshops with a defined agenda and after the workshops the presentations were mostly distributed to the participants. The workshops enlarged the number of active players in the project and the 2BFUNTEX partners strengthened the links with interested research institutes and universities as well as with SMEs.
The public deliverable D4.7 ‘First report on dedicated workshops’ gives an overview of the dedicated workshops organized by or participated in by the 2BFUNTEX partners within the 1st project year. This list has been updated regularly and the final version is included in the public deliverable D4.9 ‘6 monthly reports on participation to/organization of workshops/brokerage events’. In total 98 workshops were reported in 16 countries with in total 6920 participants, with a participation rate of SMEs of 81% of the participating companies. Specific topics were covered, such as nonwovens, personal protective equipment, innovative functional textiles, bio-textiles, composites, coatings and technical fabrics.
So, the target to organise at least 50 dedicated workshops with 8 to 25 participants by the end of the project has been clearly fulfilled. Moreover, the workshops within the textile industry will not stop with the end of the 2BFUNTEX project, but workshops will also be organised in the future in order to help the companies to implement functional textile innovations.
Further, the 2BFUNTEX partners with strong links to SMEs (KNUTD, KTU, FIT, UP-tex, NWTexNet, DTI, TechniTex and Ecoplus) reported a high number of visits to companies and meetings with industrial representatives where 2BFUNTEX was promoted.
Moreover, within the Istanbul Technical University a Research & Development committee was founded, which aims to improve the relations between the university and the industry.
WP5 : Identification, formation and start-up of multidisciplinary project teams
The objective of this work package was the creation of 6 multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) performing basic research in the field of functional materials and oriented towards industry aiming at the creation of new business worldwide, focusing on the effective transfer of research results to industry (objective 6 above).
Task 5.1: Identification of multidisciplinary project teams that collaborate along a specific research topic
The identification of the research topics for the MDTs was based on the analysis of :
1) Research gaps : from results of
• Inventory (WP1) : industrial needs
• Bibliometric analysis
• Foresight workshops
2) Overview of available expertise :
• Open Innovation Platform
• Bibliometric analysis
in order to define synergies at different levels.
The objective was to define gaps and synergies by matching the medium to long-term industrial needs with the available technologies and expertise and to create new research ideas to close or reduce the gaps.
A technology-innovation matrix was prepared and distributed as a survey to all 2BFUNTEX partners and Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) members (23 members from 11 countries) to identify their research, technological and industrial competences and needs. This information was used to create future project ideas and to select the topics in which many partners/members are interested to focus on in the multidisciplinary teams.
Based on the analysis of the technology-innovation survey 8 multidisciplinary teams that collaborate along the following specific research topics were identified:
• antimicrobial textiles
• smart textiles
• nanotechnologies
• flame retardancy
• biotechnologies
• electrospinning
• plasma
• sustainable textiles.
Deliverable D5.1 'Review potential collaborations for multidisciplinary project teams' describes the methodology used to identify the research topics for the eight 2BFUNTEX multidisciplinary teams and lists the potential collaborations in all the MDTs. It further also gives an overview of the developments within and the results of the collaboration in the MDTs until the end of 2014. In total more than 100 researchers from institutes, universities and industry worldwide are collaborating in the 8 multidisciplinary teams.
Task 5.2: Formation and start-up of multidisciplinary project teams
Following the identification of the topics for the 8 multidisciplinary teams, it was decided to appoint a research leader and a co-leader from industry for each of the teams. First of all 2BFUNTEX partners, IAB members and AUTEX members were invited to express their interest to become an MDT leader, and later on additional co-leaders (especially from industry) were looked for externally. The multidisciplinary team leaders are:
• Nanotechnologies: Victoria Dutschk (UTwente), NL + Jan Mahy (BONAR), NL
• Smart textiles: Lieva Van Langenhove (UGent), BE + Vera De Glas (SIOEN), BE
• Electrospinning: Hale Karakas (TU Istanbul), TR, and Pirjo Heikkilä (VTT), FI + Erich Kny (KEMYK), AT
• Flame retardancy; Outi Härkki (VTT), FI + Pascal Steffanut (CLARIANT), CH
• Biotechnologies: Vincent Nierstrasz (Borås University), SE + Jan Marek (INOTEX), CZ
• Sustainable textiles: Antonela Curteza (TU Iasi), RO + Mihai Lupu (FIT), RO
• Plasma: Maude Jimenez (Lille University), FR, and Bert Verheyde (VITO), BE + Frank Förster (Softal Corona & Plasma GmbH), DE
• Antimicrobial textiles: Amaya Igartua (TEKNIKER), ES, and Brian McCarthy (TechniTex), UK + John Ellis (DEVAN), UK.
During the 4th 2BFUNTEX Foresight & Complexity workshop in Istanbul, Turkey, on 28 and 29 May 2013, the first three multidisciplinary teams have been started up, namely the MDTs on Electrospinning, Smart Textiles and Antimicrobial Textiles. The other 5 MDTs were successfully started up in Ghent on 22 and 24 October 2013, where the first 3 teams also held a 2nd meeting. Project ideas and potential collaborations were discussed at an early stage. Possible project ideas from industrial partners were evaluated and teams were formed for the development of selected project ideas in all MDTs.
Deliverable D5.4 ‘Kick off meetings of multidisciplinary teams’ describes the start-up of the 8 MDTs, including meeting agenda and minutes, and shows the participation of partners in the different general MDT meetings, which were combined with 2BFUNTEX workshops and Steering Committee meetings.
Each MDT has identified tangible gaps between available technologies and industrial needs and developed ideas for potential collaborative projects. In the multidisciplinary teams, there are professionals from different disciplines who discuss research directions and jointly develop demonstrators based on products and know-how of the members as well as prepare joint projects. Teams meet face-to-face or by teleconference on a regular basis and are focussed on project building on specific topics.
Some of the main issues of MDTs work were developing tools for effective transfer of research results/prototypes to the industry and implementation of project ideas. In total 57 project ideas were proposed by the different MDTs and suitable funding channels (Eureka, Horizon 2020,...) were monitored for current and future applications for innovative project proposals. They are listed below per MDT.
- MDT Smart textiles: Aromatherapy in sleep, Anti bed bugs, anti dust mites mattresses, Mattresses with adjusted hardness, Mattresses with indicator on microbes present, Smart car seats, Heated parts of the dress - medical application, Smart jeans, Personal coach services – sport wear, Intensive communication – eldery people, Intelligent orthesis, Smart conductive fabrics, Standards in smart textiles.
- MDT Nanotechnologies: Nanocapsules (flow reactor), Functional inks, Electroluminiscence textiles, Nanocarriers in drug delivery, Sol-gel nanoparticles, Conductive fibers.
- MDT Electrospinning: Filters for airplanes, Chitosan nanofibres, Nano spider, Filters for pollen and dust, Smart filter sensing (CO2).
- MDT Flame Retardancy: Regulations in flame retardant (FR) textiles, Standardisation in FR textiles, Testing, renewal of some testing methods, Biobased FR fibres, Semi-biobased fibres (Cell/PAN FR fibres), FR fibres in composites, FR fibres in biobased composites (car industry).
- MDT Sustainable textiles: Recycling of carbon fibres in cars, Volatile organic chemical free textile materials, Self healing roof, Green roof – detection of water leak, Toxicity of degradated product in decomposting, Eco-friendly resins, Recycling of aramids, Composite recycling.
- MDT Plasma: Biomedical applications, Filtration, Protective clothing, Nanocoating for reduced water uptake, Sizing of glass fibres, Improving of fibre adhesives.
- MDT Antimicrobial textiles: Repellent functionality of textiles, Antimicrobial nanofilters, Natural products delivered from plants, Needs for standards, Testing revision, Products for hospitals (cost, durable, antimicrobial, FR), Electrospun membranes for wound dressing.
- MDT Biotechnologies: Development of sustainable value chain, Test for recycled materials, More effective biotechnologies, Combination of biotechnology with other technologies (plasma), New applications of biobased materials.
Some of these ideas have already been successfully turned into a project proposal and others will need further exploring. More information is available in deliverable D1.12 ‘Report with overview of project ideas’. Indicator of success was the identification of 50 ideas during the project; which has been well exceeded. D1.12 shows that 26 project proposals were submitted, so the other indicator of success, 10 submitted project applications, was also successfully achieved.
Task 5.3: Development of a toolkit for multidisciplinary project teams
As there was not much robust knowledge on multidisciplinary research in an open innovation mode in the textile sector available yet, there was a need for adequate support in developing multidisciplinary project ideas and teams. Informed by 2BFUNTEX experience, a practical Tool Kit was developed which aims to support the formation and start-up of multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) to collaborate in joint large research projects with a strong involvement of industry.
The 2BFUNTEX Tool Kit:
- shows strategies and tools for dealing with broader and future-oriented research and innovation issues challenged by complexity and uncertainty, as well as management and networking tools to enhance MDT capability to bring down analysis from global challenges to research issues and finally to successful collaboration for innovation;
- contains guidelines, based on the experience and insights gathered in the 2BFUNTEX project, and provides good practice techniques and tools enriched with 2BFUNTEX examples and templates for present and future MDTs.
- is organized along the following steps which were identified as being of key importance for setting-up open innovation-oriented MDTs (yet not necessarily always implemented in this order):
o ORIENTATION, DIRECTION & IDEA GENERATION - anticipating the future & identifying common ground
- Emerging Research Fronts & Market Trends
- Exploration of Gaps and Synergies – Technology-Innovation Matrix
- Vision & Strategy
- Industry Success Criteria
o NETWORKING & PARTNERS
- Finding the right partners & relevant info (brokerage events)
- Building future scenarios
- Co-creating vision & strategy
o COLLABORATION
- Finding problems & solutions – Design Thinking
- Collaboration tools & agreements
- Meeting guidelines and practices
o ASSESSMENT of team performance
The public deliverable 5.5 'Toolkit for Multidisciplinary Teams' was distributed among the 2BFUNTEX MDT leaders from academia and industry for their information and subsequent utilization. It has been developed on the basis of our joint work in 2BFUNTEX in the past years and will hopefully assist in future collaborations. The Toolkit is also publicly available on the 2BFUNTEX website.
Further, the Letter of Intent (deliverable D5.2) for collaboration within the MDTs was prepared and distributed to all MDT leaders. It is available for use by all MDTs and especially meant to involve external partners in the preparation of project proposals. It is not a legally binding document but the aim is to guarantee confidentiality, even if partners withdraw from the project.
Finally, deliverable 5.3 ‘Formal Agreements for collaboration in multidisciplinary project teams’ includes the template of the Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement which has been prepared by the 2BFUNTEX MDT coordinator in order to help the 2BFUNTEX MDTs to solve the confidentiality issue. It can be used by the 2BFUNTEX MDT partners, as well as universities, institutes, SMEs or other companies and agents outside the 2BFUNTEX consortium. It needs to be emphasised that some parts of the Agreement can be adapted to every specific context to enable the exchange of knowledge, experiences and materials.
Potential Impact:
2BFUNTEX established a European portal (SPOC-single point of contact) and Open Innovation Platform which all interested parties can address when they need anything in the area of functional textile structures and textile related materials. The 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform brings relevant activities (research projects, courses, workshops, ...) from different innovation actors (research institutes, universities, industry, associations, policy makers) together and makes them available to a wider audience. Thus, 2BFUNTEX coordinates and assists the innovation activities in the field of functional materials to create maximum awareness and assists innovation actors in actively collaborating together to increase the number of valuable projects with enhanced industrial uptake. The 2BFUNTEX OIP will continue after the project and remain available to all stakeholders in the field of functional textiles to upload and consult information.
The final aim of the project was to assist the process of creating new project ideas and creating multidisciplinary teams where SMEs can find contact persons skilled as well in research as in industrial applicability of their research results. 2BFUNTEX has brought together all actors in the field, i.e. fostering a multidisciplinary approach between universities, research institutes, SMEs and sector associations, in 8 multidisciplinary teams that will continue to identify technological gaps as well as eliminate practical barriers which will result in a faster industrial uptake of innovative functional textile structures and textile related materials. SMEs will be further involved in the multidisciplinary teams to allow researchers to better orient their joint efforts towards industrial applications. Additionally, the SMEs will be able to adapt their methods of production, management and distribution in an early stage. Thus it is expected that 2BFUNTEX will boost the coordination of research and the uptake of new products and processes by industry.
Furthermore, the 2BFUNTEX project incorporated an important training and education work package where training materials regarding functional textile materials have been elaborated. These can be used in all European universities and research institutes to train their students at different faculties and by sector organisations to train technical people in their SMEs. These materials allow a common language regarding functional textile structures and textile related materials and will increase the number of well-trained people in the field. It is expected that better training and better collaboration will lead to real innovation processes in industry.
The “potential impact” of the 2BFUNTEX project as result or positive effect also with regard to the future and sustainability can be identified out from the different work packages.
WP1: Inventorisation of related projects, technologies & industrial needs & creation of project ideas + WP2 Development and maintenance of an interactive database
Especially the newly created and installed platform is an important tool to present technologies developed in Europe in an Open Innovation Platform (OIP) which is publicly accessible. This is helpful to spread research results to a high number of stakeholders and to establish new contacts for the transfer of research into practice. To keep the platform updated also after the project end further input of technology offers and information on projects will be done by the partners and other 2BFUNTEX members. So the developed platform will remain useful after the project to get information on research results and events offered by other institutions and companies and to gain knowledge on new technologies in the field of functional textiles. Further contacts to European research institutions and enterprises can be established to deepen a European-wide cooperation. All 2BFUNTEX partners are committed to support and use the 2BFUNTEX OIP after the end of the project.
WP3: Training & Education
A main outcome was the creation of training materials for different subjects related to functional textiles (Electrospinning of nanofibres, Nanomaterials and nanotechnologies, Protective functional textiles, Recycling of textile materials, Sustainable textiles and Smart textiles). All these comprehensive course modules are helpful for most partners both for the own project work to get knowledge on special technologies, but also to train academic and industrial project partners or companies they are working with. Since the 2BFUNTEX training modules will remain available for download on the 2BFUNTEX OIP, they can be further used by 2BFUNTEX partners as well as external parties in the years to come.
WP4: Dissemination
The objective of the dissemination activities is to create awareness to the broad public regarding functional textile structures and textile related materials to achieve and push a rapid uptake of those materials in industry. The dissemination of project information helped to enlarge the number of interested research institutions and companies and to enhance the exchange of information with relevant stakeholders. New contacts could be established as well as new project ideas were found. With the help of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles & Clothing, the 2BFUNTEX partners will continue to disseminate results of activities started in the 2BFUNTEX project.
WP5: Identification, formation and start-up of multidisciplinary project teams (MDTs)
Although many submitted proposals were unfortunately not selected for funding, one main outcome for the MDT members was to get in contact with other research institutions and companies, to work together and establish contacts for further collaboration and projects. Synergies have been identified and the knowledge on functional textiles and their experts throughout Europe could be enlarged, and further project ideas were found. The collaboration between the 2BFUNTEX partners and MDT members will be continued beyond the end of the project.
Besides the global potential impact mentioned above, several 2BFUNTEX partners have reported some specific impacts for their organisations and on national or regional level.
• The 2BFUNTEX project has a great impact on the Finnish textile research and reorientation of the industry towards emerging new technologies, which are greatly related to cellulosic and recyclable raw materials. The project has led to cooperation of VTT with DWoC design world of cellulose, which is a national large technology opening in Finland, enhancing these inventions.
• From 2012 to 2015 KNUTD has constantly informed the Ukrainian enterprises of textile, clothing, shoe and leather industries about the objectives and progress of the 2BFUNTEX project. This resulted in the creation on 22nd December 2015 of a cluster of enterprises-producers of textiles, clothing, leather, footwear; high educational institutions and some others (Light Industry Cluster) with the aim to find partners for cooperative research work. The expected impact of the formed cluster consists of the possibility to restore the production of textiles, especially the organization of new innovative textiles, clothing, footwear etc. manufacturing in Ukraine. The experience of European companies and the results of scientific research in the EU and in Ukrainian universities can and will be used for the development of innovative products. The data accumulated during the 2BFUNTEX project are being transferred to the respective companies. This gives the possibility to make the first step to provide employment (provide jobs) primarily for women.
• Thanks to the 2BFUNTEX project UCCI has established links with major Ukrainian textile and sewing companies, universities and foreign partners. The companies got acquainted with the UCCI activities and services and representatives of textile producers have taken part in the UCCI Industrial Committees sessions. In general it was also a very useful experience for UCCI in participation in international projects. The vast majority of textile companies in Ukraine have recognized that the replacement of traditional textiles by special textile materials allowed providing higher productivity and efficiency. A matchmaking process between scientists, producers and consumers has been fulfilled. Ukrainian regions received qualified persons, who will facilitate the modern development of the textile industry.
• The 2BFUNTEX project provided higher awareness of functional textile related research and development activities in the Turkish textile industry. New collaborations were formed by the networking activities during organized conferences and workshops. Turkish textile companies had an opportunity to gain information about the most recent projects on functional textiles through the 2BFUNTEX website and dissemination activities. The 2BFUNTEX project acted as a platform for the creation of new project ideas in a multidisciplinary approach. The Turkish partner universities held meetings with companies and academics from other universities. These meetings promoted the creation of new project ideas as well as an increase in the collaborative activities between industry and university. Through the 2BFUNTEX project, a lot of national research projects including industrial participation on functional textiles were started.
SMEs are the main constituents of the textile industry of Turkey. Functional textile materials are a relatively new subject for SMEs and they face the difficulties with production methods of functional textiles, uptake of the new products and market access. Through the 2BFUNTEX website, SMEs obtained an opportunity to present their current project ideas and to reach skilled contact persons. This will help the SMEs of Turkey to produce high added value functional textile materials which contribute to the national economy. With the help of 2BFUNTEX, the project development capacity of Turkish SMEs will increase in time. After the end of the project, the Turkish 2BFUNTEX partners will continue to promote the use of the 2BFUNTEX website by companies and other industrial partners.
• During the 2BFUNTEX project, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) had the possibility to introduce its own scientific potential and to get to know the scientific potential and needs of other project partners. KTU established relations and interchanged new project ideas with partners in and out the frame of the 2BFUNTEX project and created multidisciplinary project teams with research partners from Riga Technical University, Latvian Wood Institute (Latvia), Vitebsk State University (Belarus) and Empa Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Switzerland). During the 2BFUNTEX project, KTU initiated and carried out two bilateral research projects (with partners from Belarus and Switzerland), took part in the preparation of a new proposal for Horizon2020 with partners from Latvia, UK, Italy, Estonia and Germany, initiated and carried out three research projects, supported by the Lithuanian government, with Lithuanian textile companies, promoting additional research and transferring research results to the industry. This will have a significant impact on the competitiveness of the Lithuanian textile industry in the European and world market. Further, KTU has published results of scientific investigations, related to functional textiles and performed during the 2BFUNTEX project, in scientific journals, cited in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database, in such way enhancing the visibility of the university. KTU also prepared educational materials related with functional textiles and conducted university courses (in Lithuanian language) with the purpose to obtain well-trained and competitive young specialists in textile engineering.
• The 2BFUNTEX project is a network that brings together EU project results, technologies and training courses on functional textiles. Technologies related to textiles are often combined with nanotechnologies (encapsulation and microencapsulation of chemical compounds, nanoparticles), with sensors and electronics, with chemistry including antimicrobial textiles, with durability (abrasion, erosion, adhesion, washability, hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity), surface treatments to induce certain properties. Since properties of textiles give more and more possibilities when combining with functions and advanced properties, specifications of final products can more and more include textiles in their configuration due to their light weight and because they are easily wearable. The participation in this network, facilitates the knowledge of the more skilled researchers in these technologies, and facilitates the creation of projects with a high technological level, with the possibility to transfer the technologies to the industrial network. The participation of IK4-TEKNIKER in the 2BFUNTEX network has also facilitated connections with companies and RTD centres.
• Through the several discussions with both academic partners and industrial companies, VITO has initiated some projects on the plasma functionalization of non-woven materials, technical textiles and fibres. The benefit of a dry plasma functionalization of these materials to achieve improved surface properties will be further investigated in the next years.
• The potential impact of the 2BFUNTEX project for WUT is enhancing knowledge about textile industry in Europe and awareness of textile materials, technological needs and research possibilities. The National Centre for Research and Development in Poland established the INNOTEXTILE sectoral programme to finance industrial research and development work on innovative solutions for the textile industry. The programme INNOTEXTILE is a result of a positively assessed feasibility study submitted to the National Centre for Research and Development by the Association of Employers in the Clothing and Textile Industry “PIOT”. The NRDC budget intended for financing projects under the programme is PLN 60 million. INNOTEXTILE aims at companies or consortia of companies.
• In the Netherlands, the 2BFUNTEX project has supported the Chair of the Engineering of Fibrous Smart Materials (EFSM) group of the University of Twente to consolidate the link between the university and the local industry, both on research and innovation, as on education issues. Further, an open innovation hub ‘Textiles in Twente’ was created.
• The potential impact of the 2BFUNTEX project for the Romanian partners, TUIASI and FIT, consists mainly in boosting the organisation’s international visibility, thus making its accomplishments known outside the country, especially when it comes to the projects, technologies or publications that were developed. Also, the aim is to start new project proposals at an international level. Such an impact has a national dimension too because it mentions Romania when presenting the accomplishments and actions developed within the project. The potential impact of the 2BFUNTEX project on the Romanian textile/fashion industry consists mainly in acquiring better visibility at an international level and also the potential to become more involved in international projects, even as initiators of project proposals.
• AIT together with Ecoplus organised a high-profile open innovation stakeholder workshop at the GLOBART Academy in Krems/Lower Austria on 25-26 September 2015 with more than 50 stakeholders. The relevance of textile research and innovation in (Lower) Austria was discussed and promising ideas and measures to boost innovation in the textile sector were developed. Austrian Federal Minister of Employment Hundsdorfer as well as leading public authority representatives from the Province of Lower Austria participated in this high-profile event. One of the main findings was that new public support mechanisms and instruments are needed to support the textile industry in the area for multidisciplinary collaboration and the necessary technological infrastructure to face the trends of digitalisation.
• Also in Austria, companies of the Plastics Cluster, the Smart Textiles Platform and the Mechatronics Cluster have been brought together to get to know each other and to build the PlasTexTron® network of competences in order to enable cooperation between innovative companies across sectors and borders and create room for innovation. The aim of the textile network, which has already become a well-known brand among PlasTexTron® is to establish contacts between companies in the plastics, textile and mechatronics industries in order to initiate projects and jointly implement new product ideas and innovations. With the existing Smart Textiles Platform in Vorarlberg there is already a close contact. The implementation of a textile network in eastern Austria is secured for the next two years. The 2BFUNTEX partner Ecoplus, the Business Agency of Lower Austria and the Chamber of Commerce Austria / Lower Austria, group Textile Industry, will finance the organization of the textile network.
• Concerning the Czech SME SVÚM a.s. the participation in the 2BFUNTEX project strongly improved and strengthened the position of SVUM in the field of its main activities – research and testing. SVUM found numerous new contacts in Czech Republic and in the EU and became an even more respected institution in the field of functional textiles and composites made using textiles and textile fabrics. Participation in the project also positively affected the position of SVUM in the preparation of new research and development projects on both national and European levels to the effect that SVUM is an even more welcome and respected project partner. It concerns particularly programmes of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic and research and development programmes of the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade. With the use of some 2BFUNTEX results and database, three new project proposals connected with the application of advanced functional textiles and fabrics were elaborated with participation of SVUM as a main partner. The projects concern conveyors and the use of functional textiles and textile fabrics in railway bogies and suspensions, making the vehicles environmentally friendly from the viewpoint of low noise and low track forces. The socio-economic impact of the projects will be great, as conveyors and particularly railway transport concern a large amount of transported materials and the use of the advanced textiles and composites makes the transport environmentally friendly. Promotion of the 2BFUNTEX project, its database and multidisciplinary teams within Czech universities, including young scientists, within various industrial sectors starting with transport over aircraft industry and dedicated organisations involved in textile industry in Czech Republic resulted in further interests in the 2BFUNTEX project, which has a potential to make the use of various textiles both more extensive and intensive.
• In Italy, the textile industry is one of the most important sectors of manufacturing (~11% of added value). Emerging countries push Italian textile industry towards innovation (product and/or process). The weight of textile industry in Italy on GDP was 3% in 1990s and now is 1.7%. Despite the revenue is growing since 2009 by 6 billion euros, the number of workers has decreased from 1.1 million in 1992 to 405 thousands at the end of 2015 (source: Sistema Moda Italia, SMI). In this context, innovation plays a crucial role in maintaining this sector and relations between specialized R&D centres and industry must be promoted and financially supported. The 2BFUNTEX project has contributed to speed up this process by mapping technological needs and existing knowledge applicable to textile innovation. Emerging research topics (e.g. non releasing antimicrobial textile finishing, electrically active coating) and innovative processes (e.g. electrospinning) were identified and presented to the industry in order to create new opportunities for the generation of new products. The road of the textile industry towards innovation has just began, but it will require several years to become durable thanks to systematic cooperation between academia and industry at European level with the tools developed by the 2BFUNTEX project (i.e. Multi-Disciplinary Teams, Open Innovation Platform).
• The 2BFUNTEX CSA cooperation was an efficient tool for improvement of integration of INOTEX into the international multidisciplinary system of innovations for the textile sector. Modern and upcoming innovations – of emerging technologies and added value functional textiles including respect of actual environmental criteria - must be based on an intensive multidisciplinarity. The 2BFUNTEX integration supported the internationalization of the work of INOTEX as well as possible European activity profiles – in the area of MDT Bio profile (implementation of BioTEX R&D roadmap into the ETP 1- Sustainable resources and ETP2 – efficient cleaner processing technologies). Using the 2BFUNTEX links and ETP experiences INOTEX was accepted as an innovation lead partner for creating Regional innovation strategy (RiS3) of HKr (+ PU and LBC) regions. The 24th IFATCC world congress to be organized in Czech Republic in June 2016 can be considered as one of the post 2BFUNTEX actions – a platform of innovation trends.
• Through industry-targeted courses on textile technology and functional textiles, DTI has contributed to the transfer of knowledge on textiles from research institutions to the Danish Textile industry, which consists mainly of SMEs. By increasing the level of knowledge and education in the textile industry, interest and ability to participate in textile innovation is heightened. The textile industry in Denmark has been moving from local to international and often ex-European production, but through innovation, value added products can be created that foster a local production environment. By holding a workshop on functional textiles and their growth potential in Denmark, DTI has promoted networking between companies, research institutions and academic researchers, as well as increasing awareness of the commercial opportunities available through innovation. This workshop was very well received and has raised the general profile of DTI, which is beginning to attract partners for innovation projects. It has also generated interest for participation in innovation activities. A similar effect has been seen from one-on-one contacts with Danish SMEs with the aim of establishing requirements and desires for research collaborations.
DTI has participated in multidisciplinary research projects involving both the research institute DTI alone, and DTI in collaboration with university and industrial partners. Through this participation, DTI has gained both new knowledge and networks, and contributed to bringing research at universities, research institutions and industry closer together. Through participation in 2BFUNTEX meetings and events, DTI has seen a significant increase in its network of potential partners for future research projects, which will have a large impact on their future opportunities for international projects.
• The 2BFUNTEX project has enabled TechniTex to undertake – at scale – a series of industrial and academic visits. It has exposed the textile companies to the range of R&D that has and is taking place in the EU but outside of the UK. It has also exposed them to the funding opportunities that are available via Horizon 2020 – which will hopefully result in greater participation in EU funding streams by the UK textiles and clothing sectors. The project has highlighted the range of expertise and skills available to the UK textile and clothing sectors from the 2BFUNTEX partners and participants.
In summary, the 2BFUNTEX project has been successful related to knowledge enhancement in the field of functional textiles and on how to improve a rapid transfer of research ideas and technologies into industry and practice. The Open Innovation Platform (OIP) is a very helpful tool not only to present the own research results but also to find new ideas and partners for future projects and collaboration. Furthermore, one main outcome of the project is the high number of contacts established with other European research institutions and enterprises from various technical fields and the set-up of new business connections.
Dissemination activities
The objective of the dissemination work package was to create awareness to the broad public regarding functional textile structures and textile related materials as such achieving rapid uptake of those materials in industry. Dissemination of information via the 2BFUNTEX OIP and the many other dissemination activities (conferences, workshops, e-newsletters, etc.) has enlarged the circle of interested research institutes/universities and companies and enhanced the exchange of information between relevant stakeholders.
The specific objectives of the 2BFUNTEX dissemination activities were:
- Developing a dissemination strategy (deliverable D4.1);
- Raising awareness of the project among the community and stakeholders in the EU member states;
- Ensuring effective dissemination of the project goals and results to the target users;
- Ensuring good communication within the European textile community;
- Ensuring the dissemination of project results at conferences, public events, and among the networks of the consortium members;
- Ensuring the success of the databases implemented in the web portal;
- Ensuring the success of the multidisciplinary teams;
- Ensuring the dissemination of project results in universities, especially about training materials available.
Several tools were set up in order to foster dissemination of the 2BFUNTEX activities and results:
- A web-based Open Innovation Platform (www.2BFUNTEX.eu): by the end of the project already 600 members have registered worldwide (from 57 countries).
- Newsletters: 7 issues of the 2BFUNTEX e-newsletter were published on the 2BFUNTEX website and distributed widely by all partners across Europe towards main textile stakeholders and the last one also via the 2BFUNTEX Monthly Digest to all registered members. The newsletters covered regular project news such as conferences, workshops, meetings, project results, and informed readers on forthcoming events.
- Disseminations tools (PowerPoints, Posters, leaflets...): these have been regularly updated, mainly before all important 2BFUNTEX events and are uploaded in the Partner download section of the 2BFUNTEX website and thus available for use by all partners.
- Social media presence was established on Google+ and LinkedIn. Furthermore, easy sharing of content via social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, ...) has been incorporated in the 2BFUNTEX database.
- A brochure ‘2BFUNTEX network’: including information about the project and its objectives, a short presentation of all project partners and descriptions of all MDTs. The purpose of this brochure was to advertise the network to an international audience, with the aim to attract new partners to the various multidisciplinary teams. 500 copies of this brochure were printed and distributed at several 2BFUNTEX dissemination events in 2014 and 2015.
The section below presents the events, conferences and workshops that have been organized specifically within the 2BFUNTEX activities either as standalone 2BFUNTEX events or as joint initiatives within the framework of wider events. All these events have been widely promoted via the 2BFUNTEX OIP, by the partners via email to their contact persons and in face-to-face meetings.
• The 2BFUNTEX kick off conference was organised on Wednesday 13th June 2012 in Zadar, Croatia, as a special session of the AUTEX 2012 Conference on “Innovative textiles for high future demands” (from 13 to 15 June 2012). With more than 60 participants, the 2BFUNTEX session was one of the most successful sessions of the AUTEX conference.
• The first large scale 2BFUNTEX conference was organised on May 30th and 31st, 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey, as the “International Istanbul Textile Congress 2013 on Innovative and Functional Textiles”. The conference attracted around 300 participants from research institutes, universities and industry all over the world. Following the 2BFUNTEX conference, the first 2BFUNTEX Brokerage Event and Technoshow was organised on the 1st of June 2013 in Istanbul, supported by the Entreprise Europe Network (EEN). 25 participants from 7 countries took part in the matchmaking event, where companies working on functional textiles had the opportunity to discuss possible future collaborations with researchers and other companies. During the Technoshow industrial applications of added value functional materials with new functionalities and improved performance were presented as prototypes. The brokerage event and Technoshow was an international meeting point for the textile industry with academics and researchers from universities, institutes, research & development centres. It was attended by around 100 representatives of which 44 from industry.
• On 23rd October 2013 the 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 Innovation Seminar annex Matchmaking Event on Functional Textiles was organised at the EUROFINISH 2013 Trade Fair in Ghent, Belgium, which attracted 2438 visitors and 160 exhibitors. The 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 event was attended by over 60 participants from 17 different countries and organised in 3 sessions:
- Innovation seminar : including presentations on research funding opportunities, 2BFUNTEX MDTs, project ideas and technology offers.
- Brainstorm sessions on a limited number of presented early stage research ideas during lunch break.
- Matchmaking via 121 face-to-face meetings.
• A special 2BFUNTEX session was held at the 9th Annual Public Conference of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP T&C) which was conducted on March 31 – April 1, 2014 in Brussels, Belgium. During the half-day 2BFUNTEX session, with as topic ‘Effective tools for European textile technology transfer’, presentations were held about the 2BFUNTEX objectives and results, the Open Innovation Platform and the MDTs, as well as 3 examples on how they can be practically used by industry. In total 148 persons attended the ETP T&C conference of which 36 industrial participants, 82 researchers and 30 delegates from EC departments and various associations.
• A special 2-day 2BFUNTEX session on functional textiles was organized within IITAS 2014 – XIIIth International Izmir Textile and Apparel Symposium on April 2-5, 2014, in Antalya, Turkey, with 660 participants (105 academics, 445 from industry and 110 students) from 19 countries.
• The Symposium M on “Functional textiles – from research and development to innovations and industrial uptake” was organised within the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) 2014 Fall Meeting held from 15th to 18th September 2014 at Warsaw University of Technology. More than 1000 researchers attended the E-MRS 2014 Fall meeting conference where 23 Symposia have been organised. The Symposium M lasted three days, from 16th till 18th September and attracted over 70 participants who presented 45 oral and 15 poster presentations. A special session at the beginning of the symposium was dedicated to the 3 projects which cooperated to organise the meeting: 2BFUNTEX, COST Action MP1105 (http://www.flaretex.eu) and COST Action MP1206 (www.electrospinning-cost.eu). The Symposium M provided an international forum to exchange knowledge and experience as well as discuss recent advances in the field of functional textiles. Attendees presented their work in three subjects – flame retardant textiles, electrospinning and other functional textile related materials. It was also a great opportunity to make new contacts and promote technology transfer between academic environment and industry.
• The 6th 2BFUNTEX workshop on 27th and 28th January 2015 in Tampere, Finland, was combined with the ‘Speed up the business by networking’ - seminar for the Finnish Textile industry and trade. Participants in the seminar represented industry (30%) and research (70%). There were all together 93 participants and also a group of university students followed the presentations. The seminar was organized by VTT and FINATEX, the Association of the Finnish Textile and Clothing Industries.
• The AUTEX 2015 Conference held in Bucharest, Romania, from 10th to 12th June 2015 included several 2BFUNTEX sessions and was attended by 240 participants coming from 41 countries.
• The 2BFUNTEX Final conference on “Technology Transfer of Functional Textile Innovations” took place on Saturday 14th November 2015 at ITMA 2015 in Milan, Italy. More than 400 people were registered from 71 different countries, among which many from industry. During the conference successful cases of effective technology transfer on functional textiles between research & industry have been presented and the winners of the 2BFUNTEX Technology Competition were announced and asked to present their technology. The full conference programme and all the presentations are available on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform.
Further, the 2BFUNTEX project, its activities and results have been widely disseminated by all partners at several occasions (workshops, conferences, brokerage events, ...) by means of oral or poster presentation, distribution of leaflets and newsletters, etc.. In total 400 dissemination activities have been reported over the whole project duration in the EC Participant Portal, as well as 33 peer reviewed publications and 37 papers in conference/workshop proceedings.
Deliverable D4.9 ‘Report on participation to/organization of workshops/brokerage events’ gives an overview of the dedicated workshops and brokerage events organised by or participated in by the 2BFUNTEX partners over the whole project duration. In total 98 workshops were reported in 16 countries with in total 6920 participants, with a participation rate of SMEs of 81% of the participating companies. Specific topics were covered, such as nonwovens, personal protective equipment, innovative functional textiles, bio-textiles, composites, coatings and technical fabrics. Furthermore, 44 brokerage events were reported in 15 different countries with in total 2325 participants, including many SMEs (approx. 53%). Some of the events were large open events, so the number of participants is even higher, but could not be counted. Further, the 2BFUNTEX partners with strong links to SMEs reported a high number of visits to companies and meetings with industrial representatives where 2BFUNTEX was promoted.
Exploitation of results
The main result of the 2BFUNTEX project is the creation of an Open Innovation Platform (OIP) on functional textiles (www.2BFUNTEX.eu). UGent will continue to maintain the 2BFUNTEX database during the year 2016 (without any funding). Meanwhile, negotiations are under way so that the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing can take over the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform, which would ensure the sustainability of the website long after the project has ended.
Peaks in registrations by new members on the OIP have been noticed after the organisation of large dissemination events by 2BFUNTEX, which shows the importance of promotion at such events to enlarge the 2BFUNTEX community. Therefore, it is foreseen that the 2BFUNTEX OIP will be further promoted by the partners at future events (via oral and poster presentations and leaflet distribution). Moreover, the workshops within the textile industry will not stop with the end of the 2BFUNTEX project, but workshops will also be organised in the future in order to help the companies to implement functional textile innovations.
One of the main objectives of the 2BFUNTEX MDTs was to find project ideas to submit proposals, e.g. within the new Framework Programme HORIZON2020. Many ideas have been generated and some have already been successfully turned into a project proposal, while others still need further exploring. It is expected that the collaboration in the 2BFUNTEX MDTs will be continued beyond the end of the project. The deliverables prepared during the 2BFUNTEX project (such as D5.5 Toolkit for MDTs, D5.2 Letter of Intent and D5.3 Formal agreements for collaboration in MDTs) will be further used to support the MDTs in setting up new research collaborations. This will also be done by participating in future brokerage events, since face-to-face meetings are the best way to find new project partners.
The 2BFUNTEX results have been exploited and widely disseminated inside and outside the consortium. The consortium was composed of representatives from industry, the academic world, research institutes and industrial associations. Further, in terms of the geographical dimension, different EU member states (14) are represented together with 4 partners from an associated country (Turkey) and two partners from an International Cooperation Partner Country (ICPC) (Ukraine). By having partners coming from main industrial districts in Europe and from different types of organizations, we had the opportunity to use to a maximum extent the channels for dissemination and exploitation of the project results.
List of Websites:
URL : http://www.2bfuntex.eu/
Email : info@2bfuntex.eu
2BFUNTEX is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) launched in 2012 within the European FP7 NMP programme. The objective was to bring together innovation actors in the field of functional textile structures and textile related materials, fostering a multidisciplinary approach between universities, research institutes, industry (especially SMEs) and sector associations. The 2BFUNTEX team (26 partners from 16 countries) aimed to identify technological gaps and eliminate barriers resulting in a faster industrial uptake of functional materials with new functionalities and improved performance. Technological needs were mapped, new joint international research disciplines identified and multidisciplinary teams created. As an industry-oriented approach was envisaged, industry has been involved at all stages which should also contribute to a rapid uptake of innovations by SMEs.
One of the main objectives of 2BFUNTEX was to develop a platform for current and future actions in research, education and technology transfer in the field of functional textile structures and textile related materials to support the textile industry in the most efficient and effective way to transform into a dynamic, innovative, knowledge-driven competitive and sustainable sector. The established Open Innovation Platform www.2bfuntex.eu is the place for both companies to detect new technologies and business opportunities as well as to express their needs, and for research institutions to present their current and future actions in research and education, and their available technologies. Based on the information gathered in the project inventory, researchers and industrials have been invited to participate in research projects aiming to exploit the untapped potential and leading to the development of new industrial products.
Another main objective was to support research and industrial innovation actors, i.e. universities, research institutes along with industry, in their efforts to define joint research projects and actions in the field of functional textile structures and textile related materials. The aim was to set up multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance transfer of the vast knowledge available at universities and research institutes to industry and to favour rapid industrial uptake. Based on the analysis of the technology-innovation gaps, 8 multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) that collaborate along the following specific research topics were identified and set up : antimicrobial textiles, smart textiles, nanotechnologies, flame retardancy, biotechnologies, electrospinning, plasma and sustainable textiles. Each MDT is led by a research and an industrial team leader and will identify tangible gaps between available technologies and medium to long-term industrial needs. All MDTs are also open to researchers and industrial persons from outside the 2BFUNTEX consortium.
During the project, six complexity and foresight workshops were organized to look at scenarios for the future of functional textiles, using also the Systems Thinking methodology. The foresight process finally resulted in concrete Action Planning for the Multidisciplinary Teams.
Training materials for research and industry purposes have been elaborated and implemented, allowing a common language regarding functional textiles, and increasing the number of well-trained people in this field. These training modules can be used in all European universities and research institutes to train their students at different faculties and by sector organisations to train technical people in their SMEs.
In order to promote the 2BFUNTEX Coordination Action and the Open Innovative Platform, 9 large 2BFUNTEX events have been organised (conferences, workshops, brokerage events, ...) and seven 2BFUNTEX newsletters were published and widely disseminated across Europe towards main textile stakeholders, as well as published on the 2BFUNTEX website.
Project Context and Objectives:
The 2BFUNTEX project dealt with closing the gap between research and industry in the field of functional textile structures and textile related materials, also sometimes referred to as advanced or high tech textile materials, such as breathable, heat and cold resistant materials, ultra strong fabrics; providing protection against chemicals, impacts, laceration or used as reinforcement for composite applications, new generation of flame retardant fabrics (intumescent materials, new developments of fibres), optimisation of textile fabrics for acoustic properties,....
2BFUNTEX brought together researchers in different complementary research areas to allow enhanced development of functional textile structures and textile related materials through collaboration at European level between researchers in different universities, research institutes and industry. Involving industry at all stages of the coordination action enhanced the industry oriented approach of the project. The involvement of industry, especially SMEs, in defining research activities aims at enhancing the rapid uptake of innovation by SMEs resulting in overcoming the "European paradox”. Moreover, 2BFUNTEX aimed at increasing the number of well-educated people in textiles and textile related industries to allow for close collaboration with research institutes and to stimulate enhanced uptake of innovation by SMEs. The coordination activities have fostered an environment in textiles and textile related industries that attracts highly skilled people.
The concept of this collaboration network was to encourage interdisciplinary research work to enable the development of functional textile-based structures of tomorrow. The combination of novel materials such as ceramics, metal powder and foam, glass powder and other down-scaled materials into new structural textile-based elements is only possible by the close collaboration between innovation actors from different science areas. Surface modification of textile based materials using modern technologies such as physical vapour deposition, sol-gel coatings, laser cladding, plasma treatment, etc. provide new opportunities only when close collaboration is established between researchers of different disciplines. The combination of flexible, light-weight textile-based material originating from renewable resources used in biomimetic structures together with eco-friendly biotechnology have a successful and convincing potential which can be used and exploited only to its full extent when bringing together the most excellent researchers in Europe and start creating multidisciplinary project teams.
2BFUNTEX brought together a large group of researchers from universities, research institutes and enterprises along with several stakeholders such as sector and industrial organisations. Through their joint experience, it was observed that much effort is invested in the development of new textile-based materials, thus developing new functional materials. However, it was also observed that much research is being duplicated and not enough researchers from different disciplines are collaborating. New opportunities are left untouched or even remain undiscovered because researchers are unaware of one another’s needs. Moreover, because researchers are not actively collaborating, they cannot create synergies and they cannot learn from one another, which hinders the generation of new ideas. As the end-users are not aware of the enormous potential, they are not asking industry to develop new textile structures.
Conclusion, a significant amount of money is being invested in Europe to develop functional materials. However there is a real need to put the results of all activities and policy building together in order to exploit the results, to avoid duplication, to benefit from experience gained and to align future research activities.
Scientific &Technological objectives
2BFUNTEX aims to be the market place for all stakeholders involved in functional textile structures and textile related materials to allow the traditional textile sector to move away from traditional products to speciality products manufactured by advanced flexible high technology, knowledge based new fabrics and specific applications. The objective was to develop a platform for current and future actions in research, education and technology transfer in the field of functional textiles in order to improve the competitiveness of the textile and associated European industries and to support the textile industry in the most efficient and effective way to transform into a dynamic, innovative, knowledge-driven competitive and sustainable sector.
2BFUNTEX main objective was to support research and industrial innovation actors, i.e. universities, research institutes along with industry, in their efforts to define joint research projects and actions in the above mentioned field. The aim was to set up multidisciplinary project teams oriented towards untapping the experienced potential related to functional materials and to enhance transfer of the vast knowledge available at universities and research institutes to industry and to favour rapid industrial uptake.
The overall objectives of 2BFUNTEX comprise :
Objective 1: collecting all relevant information related to ongoing research and activities in the field of functional textile structures and textile related materials using modern detection methodologies.
Collecting information was the first objective of the 2BFUNTEX project. Though a reasonable number of projects related to functional materials was being performed, industrial uptake and collaboration between innovation actors were limited. The project partners were involved in some of the projects but many more projects were on-going although not known to the larger research and industrial world. Moreover, information regarding the projects was not always available to the broader public of industry and end-users. This lack of information resulted in double work, ignorance regarding the potential of functional materials and untapped potential regarding collaboration between different disciplines that need to join together to develop new functional materials.
As the 2BFUNTEX team acknowledged this lack in information but also recognized the difficulties in collecting the information, fulfilling the objective was done by using modern supporting detection methodologies. As such, prior to launching the inventory, innovation management was dealt with from a complexity perspective and so bringing all stakeholders together, i.e. on the one hand the traditionally perceived innovation actors such as researchers, developers, manufacturers (technical and managerial people), distributors, end users (those who decide on purchase and those who actually use the products) and on the other hand stakeholders that influence the decision making process throughout the whole process such as investors, regulators, social actors, etc. The outcome was supposed to reveal bottlenecks and identify opportunities and was used as basis to initiate the collection phase.
The search for projects included European as well as regional and other projects as well as projects from outside the EU. The project inventory includes as well research as industrial projects and project ideas that will be developed in the near future. The information collected includes:
• ongoing/finished projects on national and international level;
• partners involved/contacts;
• technologies to be developed;
• technologies developed (general description);
• applications envisaged;
• status of the project;
• available material (descriptions, movies, demonstrators, roadmaps, presentations, newsletters, etc.);
• conditions of access of materials;
• standardisation issues.
The information encompasses project title, timing, links to additional information (e.g. project website, contact details, etc.). It is presented in a way that is relevant to the different target groups (easy to read, right level of detail, ...).
The inventory also includes the collection of information regarding planned activities, including data and place, topics covered, nature, targeted audience, conditions of participation, etc. All partners are expected to transfer information on upcoming events. Considering the overall size of the networks in which the project partners are active, the information gathered is quite comprehensive.
The search has been performed using accessible information on the internet, but mainly by contacting universities, research institutes and industry personally through questionnaires as well as face-to-face meetings.
All the information collected has been classified in a structured way. Part of the information is non confidential, so that it is accessible to all interested parties. Confidential information is classified in a separate file with restricted accessibility: project partners, EU officers, members of the 2BFUNTEX platform, multidisciplinary team members, ....
Objective 2: detection of synergies and gaps and the creation of project ideas
The 2BFUNTEX team responded to the observed lack in synergy between researchers on the one hand and between industry and researchers on the other hand. The results obtained in the inventory phase have been used to detect current synergies that need to be reinforced, potential synergies that are currently neglected resulting in duplication of work or even resulting major untapped potential and gaps that exist because of complementary partners and disciplines not collaborating together (e.g. materials sciences and environmental engineers). Detection of synergies and gaps has been performed by the individual teams that collect the data and assisted by one of the partners well experienced in identifying these synergies and gaps. The information has been used to create project ideas to be elaborated in tangible project teams and concrete RTD projects to enable the effective technology transfer to industry.
Objective 3: development of an interactive database
Information sharing is one of the key activities to involve more stakeholders, to enhance data collection and to increase general public awareness. 2BFUNTEX has therefore developed a database with full information on activities on functional materials. This is a tool box that interested parties can use to find components that might fit for a certain application of functional materials, status of technology, people involved, contacts, possibilities and limitations. In addition, ongoing projects can use the database as a portal for disseminating information and contacting targeted people.
The outcome is a database with all functionalities that are currently under consideration, parties working on it, status and contacts. It contains technological as well as non-technological information. Efforts have been made to link the database to existing initiatives such as the European Technology Platform for Textiles and Clothing, etc. Further, links are available to other existing networks.
Objective 4: provision of training and education to increase the number of well-trained people that continue their (research) activities in industry and to better train people already employed in industry
Training is considered as transfer of information related to functional materials, its components as well as integration and use aspects. Several universities being involved, education and training is the core competence for many 2BFUNTEX partners. Moreover, one association combining research activities and training activities dedicated to SMEs participated in the project. Knowledge has been shared to allow for a well-balanced training course that can be used both for education and training purposes.
Objective 5: Dissemination activities
Dissemination is considered as transfer of information regarding the 2BFUNTEX project, its activities and results. The results of the project have been disseminated within and outside the consortium. Confidential information has been communicated based on agreed non-disclosure or other agreements to ensure the maximum exchange of such information and materials. Non confidential research reports have been spread among academia and other research centres and networks in order to make them aware of existing technologies or technologies under study. Comprehensive and at the same time concise reports have been issued for industry. Future researchers and technical people have been informed on the available technologies through training and education. Companies have been informed on potential functionalities so that they can consider applications within their product and market ranges. Product information has been spread to potential user groups as well as to a wider public in order to raise awareness of the potential and to increase acceptance of such technologies on a longer term.
Special attention has been paid to bridging the gap between textiles, materials sciences, textile engineering, environmental engineering, green technology/biotechnology, civil engineering, surface engineering, composites, plastics, bio-engineering, chemistry, physics engineering, etc. ... and users (in the protective clothing as one of the PPE lead market segments, transport, automotive, aeronautics, electronics, construction, etc.).
Objective 6: Creation of multidisciplinary teams performing research in the field of functional materials and oriented towards industry aiming at the creation of new business worldwide
The final goal and objective of 2BFUNTEX was to consolidate all information gained in solid collaborations between research and industry resulting in the enhanced identification of new functional materials and rapid translation of research ideas in industrial applications. The research ideas will lead to industrial applications of added value functional materials with new functionalities and improved performance and resulting in creation of new business worldwide. Ideas have been initiated based upon the inventory (objective 1), and subsequently 2BFUNTEX has assisted in the consolidating process of matching synergies and closing gaps by the creation of multidisciplinary project teams collaborating in concrete research projects targeting the effective transfer of novel technologies in the functional textiles industrial sector. Moreover, 2BFUNTEX assisted the discussing process on legal and practical aspects.
Project Results:
,The 2BFUNTEX project was structured in 5 work packages. In the following section the S&T results produced during the projects lifetime are presented per work package.
WP1 : Inventorisation of related projects, technologies and industrial needs & creation of project ideas
The overall objective of this WP was to collect technological as well as non-technological information on functional textile structures and textile related materials. To collect all relevant data, the inventory has been performed at various levels:
• research performed in research institutes, universities, R&D centres in (mostly large) companies, etc.;
• needs detected in companies, from end users and stakeholders;
• compiling existing standards;
• detection of synergies and gaps;
• workshops, (brokerage) events and conferences organised and to be organised;
• funding opportunities already provided and available for research and demonstration projects in this field.
Task 1.1: Innovation management and systems thinking (complexity and foresight)
The 2BFUNTEX innovation model
Within complex innovation systems, innovation can be seen as the change that outperforms the previous practice. In order to lead or sustain with innovations, managers need to concentrate heavily on the innovation network which requires deep understanding of the complexity of innovation. Collaboration is an important source of innovation. Innovations are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected according to their comparative advantages, and operating in a coordinated manner. When a technology goes through a major transformation phase and yields a successful innovation, then it becomes a great learning experience not only for the parent industry but for other industries as well. Big innovations are generally the outcome of interdisciplinary networking among technological sectors along with a combination of implicit and explicit knowledge. Networking is required but network integration (networking of networks) is the key to success for complex innovations in today’s era where diverse technologies are available at its best.
In order to lay the foundation for analysing the 2BFUNTEX innovation approach, two methodologies were introduced and used to tackle the complex system of the 2BFUNTEX environment. Systems thinking was used to reveal the underlying characteristics and relationships of systems, while methods of foresight helped to build medium and long-term visions of development of the science, technology and innovation, its policy, directions and priorities as well as supporting network activities.
The task was workshop based: each workshop brought together the appropriate consortium partners and innovation actors. Each workshop delivered a new enhanced version of the common understanding of interactions and scenarios, including adjusted guidelines for the information survey.
During the project, six complexity and foresight workshops were organized:
1) 7 - 8 February 2012, Ghent, Belgium: The objective was to create a common understanding of the work to be accomplished within the 2BFUNTEX project among the project partners. A first version of the 2BFUNTEX Innovation Model was developed. The results were documented as Deliverable 1.1 ‘Report on first complexity and foresight workshop’.
2) 11 - 12 June 2012, Zadar, Croatia: The aim was to build a common knowledge based on the expected benefits and procedures of a stakeholder-based foresight process among participating partners. Important topics and key stakeholders were identified to be included in the next workshops and events.
3) 7 – 8 January 2013, Eibar, Spain: This workshop focused on exploring potential application scenarios with a clear industry perspective. Six members of the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) presented their insights and voiced their expectations as ‘industry success criteria’ for 2BFUNTEX.
4) 28 - 29 May 2013, Istanbul, Turkey: This workshop aimed at “Action Planning” of three of the eight Multidisciplinary Teams. A special working session on building framework scenarios was conducted.
5) 1 – 2 April 2014, Brussels, Belgium: One of the main tasks in this workshop was to focus on near-to-market technologies that already exist and develop one break-through concept based on these near-market technologies. Another task was to define one great project idea that industrial partners are likely to pick up and that can be funded in Horizon 2020.
6) 27 - 28 January 2015, Tampere, Finland: The focus of this workshop was on “Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) meet the Industry”. MDTs continued to develop joint research project ideas with participating local industry and higher education representatives.
A foresight process was started that finally resulted in concrete Action Planning for Multidisciplinary Teams. In the course of the project a common knowledge based on the expected benefits and procedures of a stakeholder-based foresight process among participating partners was built up. Relevant stakeholders were identified and invited and further input was gained through members of the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB). Science-industry knowledge gaps were identified in key application areas (health, transport, energy/building and safety), with respect to promising developments from a user-perspective, and a STEEP analysis (longer-term socio-cultural, technical, environmental, economic, and political trends) conducted. A common vision of the 2BFUNTEX project led to a strategy for realizing the vision, technology and market scenarios as roadmap and eventually resulted in action plans for MDTs.
A language to better understand complex environments has been developed in MIT and is labelled “Systems Thinking”. This methodology visualizes the interrelations between the many factors that define the behaviour of a complex system. Two important patterns in these interrelations are reinforcing loops and balancing loops. Reinforcing loops are the “engines” that create positive or negative growth. Balancing loops are the “brakes” that limit the growth. In order to understand how to influence a complex environment, the identification of these loops is critical. They contain tipping points, i.e. zones where small actions may cause large effects.
Using the above concepts the tipping points of the 2BFUNTEX innovation ecosystem were identified and explored. Based on this insight, the priorities of the 2BFUNTEX actions were optimized and additional tasks identified.
• The combination of the functional textile market, innovation actors and industry is considered to be a complex adaptive system: many agents interact and influence one another and as a result produce a difficult to predict behaviour.
• Through the technique of systems thinking these interactions are modelled as cause-effect relations. This results in what is called a “causal loop diagram”.
• While developing the causal loop diagram, attention is devoted to discovering interaction archetypes like “limits to growth”, “shifting the burden”, “eroding goals”, “escalation” and “success to the successful”.
• A well-developed causal loop diagram makes it possible – through model interpretation or through model behaviour simulation – to better predict the future behaviour of the complex adaptive system. Candidate strategies can be assessed for their impact using them as driving factors within the model.
• Information gathering: deriving guidelines for information survey: what, how, with which resolution and detail.
Considering the results of the systems thinking, of the foresight workshops and all efforts within the other work packages of the 2BFUNTEX project (e.g. training modules, brokerage events) the final causal loop version resulted. The original three loops of Prototyping, Customer Involvement and Industrial Growth were confirmed. The expected outcomes of the project were defined more precisely. This particularly relates to the foresight process, which is a methodology rather than an outcome. The three major final outcomes of the 2BFUNTEX project ultimately are:
• Outcome 1: the 2BFUNTEX website as Open Innovation Platform
• Outcome 2: Industrial uptake
• Outcome 3: Multidisciplinary Teams
2BFUNTEX Vision and Strategy
Based on the results of the systems thinking and foresight workshops, the vision and strategy for the 2BFUNTEX project was developed by the Steering Group of Work Package leaders. It was subsequently validated by the project partners and complemented by identifying key stakeholders.
Vision
1) We need to narrow the gap between different research areas before we can close the gaps between academic research and industry. The textile sector is a conservative/traditional sector compared to e.g. biotechnology, pharmaceutical industry, etc.. There is a gap between new developments in e.g. chemistry and textiles. We should first narrow this gap, amongst others by inviting experts from other fields to collaborate with us in the multidisciplinary teams.
2) Technologies need to be appraised before they can be transferred to industry. The technologies should be available, transferable and upscalable. We need to find a way to transfer the technologies available in research organisations to industry. For this we need a clear vision on which technologies are available that can be upscaled and transferred to industry on a short term, taking into account the value chain aspect.
3) We need to create awareness, provide state-of-the-art on key technologies. There is a need to educate other sectors how they could use textiles, e.g. provide them with complimentary knowledge by demonstrations of Best Practices or Proof-by-example, etc.
4) Try to match existing technologies with textile industry needs, in order to save time and money. Instead of immediately starting new research to solve the textile industry needs, we should first look which technologies available in other sectors could be useful. This should be done within the multidisciplinary teams. If no appropriate technology is available, new research projects should be started to find a solution for the industrial needs.
5) Creation of a community of experts/contact points on functional textiles (for the whole value chain). The 2BFUNTEX community should be the unique contact place for industry and other stakeholders looking for information on functional textiles.
Strategy
The following measures compose the 2BFUNTEX strategy to realize the vision:
1. Collect the core competences and cross sectoral activities/partners of each 2BFUNTEX partner.
2. Identify transferable technologies, e.g. by looking for proof-by-example and through the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform.
3. Organise educational activities/workshops (also skills developing/trainings, capacity building).
4. Organise brokerage events. Start-up multidisciplinary teams with a focus on specific topics.
5. A community of experts will be the end result of 2BFUNTEX.
Scenarios to Meet Industrial Needs
During the workshops the participants also collected information on interesting markets, sectors and technologies such as:
• Sportswear textiles
• Protective textiles and clothing
• Building and construction textiles
• Light-weight composites (transportation)
• Medical/biomedical textiles
• Chemical industry (esp. as supplier)
• Agricultural textiles
• Home textiles
• Geotextiles
• Industrial laundry
• Filters / nonwovens
• Special / innovative fibre manufacturing
Partners suggested to prioritize transportation textiles and special fibre manufacturing and pointed out strategic trends such as energy saving techniques, biobased or recycled materials and use of nanoparticles in textiles. Finally, ‘grand' societal challenges served as ‘framework’ scenarios to investigate how to tackle these in the different sectors.
In order to increase customer involvement, it is necessary to identify the needs of different customer groups, as customers can be different industrial sectors or direct end-users. A matrix was prepared with different types of customers and their specific needs. This information is included in deliverable D1.8 ‘First reports per envisaged area’ and is also available for download on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform as a presentation on ‘Trends and analysis of industrial needs in functional textiles’ given at the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference.
Roadmapping and Action Planning
The next step within the 2BFUNTEX Foresight and Complexity approach was to address societal and industrial needs by roadmapping possible solutions and concrete action planning.
Roadmapping
The 3rd Foresight & Complexity Workshop focussed on exploring potential application scenarios with a clear industry perspective. Six members of the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) presented their insights and voiced their expectations as ‘industry success criteria’ for 2BFUNTEX. They also actively participated in identifying science-industry knowledge gaps in key application areas (health, transport, energy/building and safety) as to promising developments from a user-perspective. This simplified ‘roadmapping’ exercise allowed to identify research gaps as “pathways” for providing promising novel solutions for industrial needs.
Conclusion
Over the course of the 2BUNTEX project, the six 2BFUNTEX Foresight & Complexity workshops served as a face-to-face platform to enhance industry-academia coordination and collaboration. They contributed to a better understanding of state-of-the art research approaches and identification of joint research and development (R&D) ideas with participating industry representatives.
Foresight and complexity methods were instrumental for identifying and supporting the eight 2BFUNTEX Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) in developing their competitive R&D profile e.g. by developing medium- and longer-term critical success factors:
• MDT Nanotechnology
• MDT Electrospinning
• MDT Plasma
• MDT Flame retardancy
• MDT Antimicrobial Textiles
• MDT Sustainable Textiles
• MDT Biotechnologies
• MDT Smart Textiles
Detailed information on the outcomes and impact of the Foresight & Complexity workshops can be found in the deliverable D1.11’Final report on complexity and foresight workshops’ and the respective deliverables from Work Package 5.
Task 1.2: Inventory of research projects, technologies and activities regarding functional textile structures and textile related materials.
AIT performed a bibliometric analysis of published literature to obtain an overview of research in the field of functional textiles. 3,391 publications were analysed covering a period from 1990 until May 2012. In this way topics were identified with their relation to each other, as well as top Organizations, Journals, Cited References and other relevant information on each topic. The identification of the most active research organizations and companies have been helpful in WP5 for putting together multidisciplinary project teams.
AIT also performed an online search in PATSTAT 2012/10 database in the title of applications for a pre-defined set of keywords similar to the publication analysis. 8,982 patents were identified and interlinked on the basis of common terms in the descriptive abstracts in IPC codes. The software BibTechMonTM was applied for structuring the data and visualizing the results based on bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis.
Two reports on the bibliometric analysis of patents and publications have become available for download on the 2BFUNTEX website:
1) General report : published under “Publications” and accessible to all 2BFUNTEX website visitors.
2) Confidential report - Overview and Analysis of Selected Topics : published under “Reports” in the “Partner Download Section”, so only accessible for 2BFUNTEX partners. The confidential report includes more details regarding some topics such as a short description, journals, titles, keywords and organisations and researchers involved. This added information has been used by project partners e.g. to contact the respective organisations involved in the topics of interest or use cited references in research work.
The bibliometric analysis of patents and publications supported the MDTs in selecting and developing their innovation ideas. During the last period, AIT updated the bibliometric analysis of research trends and emerging research fronts based on scientific publications. The update was based on the integration of a novel data set of publications from 2012 to 2015. This work was presented during the 2BFUNTEX final conference in Milan and is available for download on the 2BFUNTEX OIP: http://www.2bfuntex.eu/content/2bfuntex-final-conference-technology-transfer-functional-textile-innovations.
In order to collect research projects, technologies and activities it was decided to create an Open Innovation Platform where each partner, but also all European stakeholders can upload their information during the whole project duration and beyond.
In total 198 projects were registered on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform by the end of the project. We can consider that the database actually covers most of the European projects regarding functional textiles funded through European programmes (since FP7). The database is not exhaustive on national projects because most of them contain confidential agreements and cannot be published before the end of the projects (e.g. in France or Belgium). All the projects submitted are listed in the public deliverable D1.5 ‘List of projects’.
Regarding the technologies database, in total 72 technologies were uploaded by the end of the project. As conclusion: most of the technologies concern textile systems, which is logical as textiles are more and more embedded technologies in more complex structures. Also it is noticed that most of the technologies which are developed in universities are still far from the market and there is still a need for demonstrators to upscale the technologies and to move from lab scale to industrial prototypes.
We can consider that the 2BFUNTEX OIP is also covering almost all the events & activities regarding functional textiles organised at European level. However, most of the pure national events are not yet included.
The first success stories resulting from 2BFUNTEX activities were identified and reported in the public deliverable D1.4 ‘Success Story first presentation’. Some projects emerged during the various 2BFUNTEX project meetings which took place approximately every 6 months.
List of the success stories identified:
• PlasTexTron – AUSTRIA
• Technological Transfer of Cellulose Carbamate Fiber – FINLAND
• UV protective photochromic garments – TURKEY
• Electromagnetic protective children’s wear – TURKEY
• Improving the Abrasion Resistance Performance of Needle punched Nonwoven Automotive Carpets - TURKEY
• Technical adhesive tapes : GERMANY
Task 1.3: Needs for functional textile structures and textile related materials detected in companies having little or no own R&D facilities, end users and stakeholders
In this task it was decided to use the Open Innovation Platform to collect needs of companies & research organisations. A web-based questionnaire has been finalized and included in the Open Innovation Platform to detect industrial needs. However, only 24 industrial needs were submitted on the OIP so far, despite the fact that most of the partners had meetings with companies to identify their needs. In fact most of the companies want to express their needs only under strict confidentiality rules and partners don’t have the right to submit them on the 2BFUNTEX platform.
In order to solve the confidentiality issue, the industrial needs questionnaire was developed in such a way that all information about the company/organisation expressing the need remains confidential and is thus not published. Further, the possibility was offered to ask a third party (e.g. one of the 2BFUNTEX partners) to upload the need. Unfortunately, companies are still not confident to express their needs through the internet.
Therefore, UP-tex has performed a study to identify market trends & industrial needs on functional textiles. Results were presented during the 2BFUNTEX Steering Committee meeting in Warsaw in September 2014 and to the industry during the last 2BFUNTEX workshop in Tampere. The results of this study are included in deliverable D1.8 ‘First reports per envisaged area’ and also available for download on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform.
Task 1.4: Standardization and Ecosustainability
During the first period, the main action in this task was the preparation of a report by IK4-TEKNIKER with a recompilation of the main standards, related to the determination of mechanical, corrosion resistance, environmental compatibility, toxicity and biodegradability properties that should be applied in materials for textile applications. All these standards are relevant testing that are very helpful to evaluate the performance aspects of new textile materials. Also, compatibility tests for the assessment of the toxicity of textile materials with the environment, biodegradability, and the standards needed in the Ecolabel for textiles were collected in the report.
Furthermore, new relevant tests were addressed by the companies participating in the Industrial Advisory group, during the workshop organized in Eibar. They highlighted the need for measurements of the bactericidal properties following the requirements of the tests: AATCC 6538, Centexbel Test, Total Aerobic Microbial Count (TAMC) ISO 11737-1 and Fungal growing tests EN 14119-A2, 2003). Requirements of textile standards have been analysed and abrasion and tear tests protocols were validated for textiles with different chemical composition. Some additional tests have also been identified and set up for textiles, identifying requirements for non-standard test developments. All this material was implemented in the deliverable D1.7 ‘Report on standardisation’.
During the second project period, the public deliverable D1.9 about “Possibilities for eco-design concept in textile materials” has been finalised. To reinforce this activity, some standards related to microbiological tests and ecotoxicological tests have been verified in IK4-TEKNIKER laboratories. IK4-TEKNIKER has continued with the preliminary tests in order to analyse the protocols for antibacterial characterization following the international standard ISO 20743 (Textiles – Determination of antibacterial activity of antibacterial finished products). The activity related with these tests has been focused on practising the seeding and cultivation process of strains with successful results.
Task 1.5: Detection of synergies and gaps
In this subtask, all information that became available through Task 1.2 and Task 1.3 was analysed in detail by UP-tex, CxMI, AIT and UGent. The results were used to set up the first MDTs which were launched in 2013 in Istanbul and Ghent.
UP-tex produced a new roadmap based on a cross matrix between market needs and technologies (see also Task 1.3). An updated version was presented at the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference at ITMA and can be downloaded from the OIP: http://www.2bfuntex.eu/content/2bfuntex-final-conference-technology-transfer-functional-textile-innovations.
This work has been used to prepare deliverable D1.8 ‘First reports per envisaged area’.
Task 1.6: Subsidies already provided and available in future for research and demonstration projects
During the second project period, UP-tex worked on this subject and first reviewed all the action lines available for textiles in the 2014 & 2015 calls. The results have been presented to partners & industry at the 2BFUNTEX@Eurofinish innovation seminar in Ghent (23/10/2013) and were used by the MDTs in 2014.
During the last period, the public deliverable D1.6 “List of relevant subsidies” was submitted, which also includes funding schemes available per country, collected from the partners.
Furthermore, on the Open Innovation Platform links to dedicated websites for research funding are published (like eranetwatch, eureka, eurostars, ERASME, INCOMERA).
Task 1.7: Creation of project ideas
The final aim of WP1 was to identify new project ideas that can ultimately lead to new industrial products. It was foreseen that all information resulting from WP1 and from the work in the MDTs should be compiled and result in a number of project ideas that can be worked out with the different 2BFUNTEX partners and/or with the identified parties during the inventory phase. 2BFUNTEX has assisted this process of idea generation with the methods of complexity and foresight in the 2BFUNTEX workshops.
Thanks to 2BFUNTEX, a large numbers of project ideas were generated during our meetings. Several of these ideas led to projects submitted either at national or European level.
At the end of the project, the deliverable D1.12 ‘Report with overview of project ideas’ was finalised. The work of idea compilation started at the beginning of the project. To do this the partners began to express ideas on the technologies needed for the textile industry during the first workshop. This work increased after the first presentation from UP-tex about industrial needs presented at the workshop held in Eibar, Spain, in January 2013. Then the idea generation continued during various MDT workshops.
As a result:
• 57 ideas were the subject of a detailed description of which 26 have been submitted for funding from European or national programmes after consortia have been formed between 2BFUNTEX partners and external parties (industry, other research organisations,...)
• 56 more ideas generated within the MDTs are still in the maturing phase.
WP2 : Development and maintenance of an interactive database
The objective of this work package was to develop an interactive database comprising the information collected in WP1, allowing updating by the partners involved and allowing automatic information requests to be sent to research institutes, universities, R&D centres in (mostly large) companies, etc. The database should be user-friendly and transparent increasing the potential that as many as possible new parties get connected to the database (via the website to be developed, see WP4 task 4.2). The database should be designed as such to allow using it in WP3 for training purposes (web-based learning) and to allow using it in WP4 for dissemination purposes.
Task 2.1: Development of a database
During the 1st project year the database was designed by UGent, based on the information needs determined in WP1 (projects, technologies), WP3 (training calendar, training materials) and WP4 (event calendar, publication of newsletter, ...). Information about the structure of the database has been reported in deliverables D2.1 ‘Report on design of the database’ and D2.2 ‘Demonstrator of the database’.
The interactive database was incorporated in the 2BFUNTEX website www.2BFUNTEX.eu with the following functionalities :
- uploading information on projects, technologies, trainings, training materials, events and industrial needs.
- consulting all uploaded information
- (basic) search function
- uploading and consulting deliverables, dissemination materials, meeting minutes, reports, etc. in the ‘Partner download’ section (restricted to consortium partners).
Later on the database has been improved taking into account the feedback from the partners and 3 new sections have been added :
- 2 non-restricted sections open to all website visitors :
1) Section on “Publications” : this section includes 2BFUNTEX dissemination materials (public summary, leaflet), public deliverables, the overview report of the bibliometric analysis of patents and publications, success stories on technology transfer, etc.
2) Section on multidisciplinary teams “MDTs” in which the different MDTs are presented: main purpose, concrete break-through concepts for further prototyping, possible partners, needs for industrial collaboration, etc. Further the contact information of the MDT leaders is published and website visitors are invited to join the MDTs and/or to submit a project idea to the MDT leaders.
-1 “MDT downloads” section restricted to MDT members and only accessible after registration on the 2BFUNTEX website. This section is located under the section ‘Partners’ and enables MDT members to upload documents relevant for their MDT.
Further, direct links to the 2BFUNTEX training materials and to the presentations given at the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference are now available on the homepage.
In order to control the quality of the database content all uploaded information is reviewed by a 2BFUNTEX moderator before publication on the website. For each database section, two 2BFUNTEX moderators have been appointed. When new content is uploaded, the two moderators of the related section receive a notification by email with a request to review the new entry and a link to the uploaded information. If important information is missing or some input is not clear, the moderators can inform the authors by email and ask corrections/additions. Items which are not related to functional textiles or textile related materials can be deleted by the moderators.
Authors can always update/edit their inputs via the ‘Own content’ button on the website. A list is given with all inputs from the specific author, who just has to click on the title of the input he wishes to update in order to edit the information previously provided. Further, each page of the 2BFUNTEX site contains a ‘Feedback’ button through which users can give feedback on the website or report any problems.
The interactive 2BFUNTEX database was activated in August 2012 and since then the database content increased steadily. The number of entries uploaded in the different database sections at the end of the project is given below:
- Technologies: 72
- Projects: 198
- Events: 151
- Trainings: 60
- Training materials: 85
- Newsletters: 7
- News items: 25
- Industrial needs: 24
- Partner downloads (restricted): 80
- MDT downloads (restricted): 17
- Registered users: 600.
More statistical information about the 2BFUNTEX website and database can be found in the public deliverable D2.4 ‘Operational database phase 1 (excluding features)’.
Task 2.2: Development of add-ons
Although this was not originally foreseen, easy sharing of content via social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, ...) has been incorporated in the database in an early stage.
Due to some technical difficulties there was a delay in implementing the automatic updating and sending of information in the interactive database. As an intermediary solution it was arranged that the project coordinator can send mass emails to an automatically updated distribution list including all registered users of the 2BFUNTEX website. Specific information was communicated regularly to all 2BFUNTEX members via this mass emailing system, such as calls for papers and invitations for large 2BFUNTEX events, invitations to participate in the 2BFUNTEX Technology Competition, etc.
Furthermore, links to the information on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform are published on the website of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing via an RSS link. The content includes: Latest news, Latest technologies and Latest Projects. The information is published on the ETP Textiles & Clothing website (http://www.textile-platform.eu/) under Project news.
Finally, we succeeded to implement the automatic updating and sending of information in the interactive database. Now a 2BFUNTEX Monthly Digest is transmitted to all registered users in the middle of each month with an overview of all the new information published on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform since the last one. Users who do not wish to receive the 2BFUNTEX Monthly Digest can always opt out of these emails by clicking the unsubscribe button.
More information and an example of the Monthly Digest are available in the public deliverable D2.6 Operational database phase 3.
Task 2.3: Maintenance of database
During the full course of the 2BFUNTEX project, new material has become available that has been added to the database. The data assembled in all work packages and the project results have been uploaded continuously.
Both the database and the website are hosted by UGent and have been maintained throughout the whole project. Whenever problems occurred or were reported by users, they have been solved as soon as possible.
Towards the end of the project, it was agreed that UGent will continue to maintain the 2BFUNTEX database during the year 2016 (without any funding). Then it will be evaluated if there has still been an evolution of the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform (regularly new registered users, additional content uploaded by 2BFUNTEX members, etc.). In case of a positive result, it is foreseen that the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform can be taken over by the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing, which would ensure the sustainability of the website long after the project has ended.
WP3 : Training & Education
The objective of the Training & Education work package was to promote education on functional textile structures and textile related materials in order to obtain well trained people entering the economic market to enhance rapid uptake of functional textile structures and textile related materials and to promote additional research in industry having engaged these well trained people. It was also the aim of this work package to train people in industry to take up the knowledge related to functional textile structures and textile related materials (objective 4 above). The Training & Education has been enforced by exchange of personnel between companies and research institutes/universities and vice versa.
The expected achievements of this objective were:
• general as well as more specific courses and course materials that can be used by all partners (if needed after translation to the country language), as well universities, research institutes as associations;
• training material such as power points, demonstrators, ...;
• guest lectures and workshops;
• well-trained students and well-informed people working in industry.
Task 3.1: Collection of educational materials at different universities, research institutes and companies
In the start phase of the project it was decided to collect all information concerning available training materials through the 2BFUNTEX database. Otherwise, the information collected via other means (e.g. email) would have to be uploaded into the database later on, which would mean a duplication of work. The 2BFUNTEX partners and external parties were invited to upload their training materials to the 2BFUNTEX website, where they are divided in 3 categories:
- Electronic training courses : which are uploaded in the database as attachments (as PDF or PowerPoint documents) and available for use by all registered 2BFUNTEX members.
- Hardcopy : information is given about the training material and where or how it can be found or purchased.
- Demonstrators : information is given about the demonstrator together with contact details.
Deliverable D3.3 ‘Report on training materials found through the inventory’ gives the status at the end of the 3rd project year. It includes an overview of the 79 collected training and educational materials, the type of material (electronic, hard copy, demonstrator), language and target groups, as well as some analysis results. Nearly 40% of the training materials are linked to the topic of functional textiles, while the second largest topic covered technical textiles (ca. 23%). Nearly half of the training materials (44.3%) is prepared for industrial courses, the other part covers university courses (39.2%) and seminars (16.5%). The training materials are mainly presented in electronic form (50%), whereas hard copies represent 40%.
The complete table with information about all 85 training materials collected during the whole duration of the 2BFUNTEX project is available in deliverable D3.6 ‘Reports on trainings, training material and participations’. An analysis of all training materials was made according to their position in the value chain (Polymers/fibres & processes represent the biggest part (25%) and finishing/chemical processes cover 18%), the main markets involved (15% address the Protech market, and 13% the Clothtech market) and their relation to the 2BFUNTEX multidisciplinary team topics (25% of the training materials relate to Nanotechnology/Electrospinning and 18% to Smart textiles, followed by Antimicrobial textiles and Sustainable textiles with 17%).
The training materials database will remain available for uploading of additional training materials by partners as well as external training providers after the end of the project.
Task 3.2: Setting up course materials and production of training materials to be used by the different partners involved
A training and education questionnaire was developed in order to reveal the needs and capabilities for training in the functional textile community. It was distributed at several events and by the 2BFUNTEX partners to their contacts via email. The result of the training needs survey is available in the public deliverable D3.5 ‘Revisions of training and education plan’. As the need for the different topics was more or less equal (all between 5 and 8%), it was decided to develop new training materials related to the topics of the 2BFUNTEX multidisciplinary teams (MDTs). The following six training modules have been prepared by 2BFUNTEX partners:
- Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies (Victoria Dutschk, UTwente, the Netherlands)
- Protective functional textiles (Perrin Akcakoca Kumbasar, EGE University, Turkey)
- Electrospinning of nanofibres (Hale Karakas, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey)
- Sustainable textiles (Antonela Curteza, The "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania)
- Recycling of textile materials (Bojana Voncina, AUTEX/University of Maribor, Slovenia)
- Smart textiles (Lieva Van Langenhove, Ghent University, Belgium)
These 2BFUNTEX training modules are available in the public deliverable D3.4 ‘Training materials’.
The aim of this task was the development of a modular training course to be used both for education and industrial training purposes. The developed training materials are therefore available for use for:
• courses for students at universities,
• courses and workshops for training purposes at research institutes (open to industry),
• workshops in industry for training purposes.
In total 504 BSc, Master and PhD students and industry representatives have benefited from the 2BFUNTEX trainings in 2015. The details on the organised training courses by the 2BFUNTEX partners using the developed training modules are given in deliverable D3.5.
At the start of the project, it was decided to include the web-based learning platform in the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform. Throughout the whole project duration the 2BFUNTEX partners, AUTEX members and external parties were invited to upload training materials and training & education plans to the 2BFUNTEX website. In total 85 training and education materials have been uploaded and 60 training events have been announced in the training calendar in the training materials section of the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform. The developed 2BFUNTEX training modules are published in electronic format in the ‘Training materials’ section of the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform, and thus available to be studied by registered users after logging in via the homepage (http://www.2bfuntex.eu/). Further, some 2BFUNTEX partners have also prepared other web-based learning platforms on which links are provided to the 2BFUNTEX training materials.
The 2BFUNTEX OIP has proven to be a successful tool to find information on planned training courses and available training materials on the topic of functional textile structures and textile related materials. The web-based learning platform incorporated within the 2BFUNTEX OIP will be continued after the end of the 2BFUNTEX project and registered members will be able to upload new training materials and events so that the learning platform will be expanded further.
Task 3.3: Organisation of training and education courses at universities and research institutes and organisation of training courses open to industry, organisations of workshops in textile and textile related companies in the EU member states
During the first project period, the training and education programmes from all 2BFUNTEX partners were collected in preparation of deliverable D3.1 ‘Training and Education Plan’, which was submitted in M6. Once the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform became operational, the 2BFUNTEX partners and external parties were invited to upload their training & education plans which were then published on the 2BFUNTEX website.
The “Training and Education Plan” was updated at regular intervals. The public deliverable D3.5 ‘Revisions of Training & Education plan’ includes all details on the training activities organised by the 2BFUNTEX partners during the whole project duration. In total 177 training events have been reported. However, due to the fact that the number of trainees is not always available, it is not possible to calculate the total number, but it can be assumed that it will certainly be more than 2500 (which was the indicator of success).
Task 3.4: Setting up exchange programmes between universities/research institutes and companies and in between universities/research institutes with different study topics
The aim of this task was enhancing the uptake of new technology by SMEs and large companies which is favoured through the exchange of personnel between universities/research institutes and companies. Therefore, a template was created to capture the ‘exchange programmes’ organised by the 2BFUNTEX partners. It was distributed to all partners and their feedback was collected. The template as well as the results are presented in deliverable D3.8 ‘Report 30 exchange programmes’, which shows that actually 76 international and 3 national exchanges have been performed. This exceeds the target of 30 exchanges which was set during project preparation and can therefore be considered a huge success. This deliverable further includes information on several funding sources that have been used for the exchange programmes, and that can be applied for in the future.
WP4 : Dissemination
The objective of the dissemination work package was to create awareness to the broad public regarding functional textile structures and textile related materials as such achieving rapid uptake of those materials in industry. Dissemination of information should enlarge the circle of interested research institutes/universities and companies and should enhance the exchange of information between relevant stakeholders (objective 5 above).
Task 4.1: Setting up a strategic dissemination plan
Disseminating 2BFUNTEX’s goals and results was one of the tools to attract partners in Europe, but also worldwide, and to get in contact with the core group and join information. A concrete action to achieve the highest degree of exploitation and dissemination of the results was the production of a plan for dissemination and exploitation which will identify the target groups, the most appropriate channels to reach these groups and the most effective and efficient actions of the consortium for reaching the different target groups.
The main goal of this Task 4.1 was the drawing up of a manual with all possible dissemination actions and describing the specific dissemination strategy (deliverable D4.1 ‘Strategic dissemination plan’). It comprises all information and links to allow partners to easily double check if they have to take action in case specific initiatives are planned, e.g. a partner who will meet a policy maker needs to find out easily what type of dissemination material to take along, who to inform, what kind of documentation to take along, etc. The strategic dissemination plan was one of the tools in performing the inventories in WP1. It allowed interested parties to share their information and 2BFUNTEX partners to easily get in contact with these groups.
Task 4.2: Designing, setting up and maintenance of an interactive website
During the 1st 6 months of the project UGent has designed and set up the 2BFUNTEX website, which includes the interactive database (see WP2). This website is a central platform with a public area (accessible by everyone without registration) as well as a restricted area, with different levels of restriction:
• area for registered users
• partners’ area
• area for MDT members.
In the public area one can find the following information:
• the co-ordination action as a project (abstract and objectives);
• the consortium : list of project partners with contact details and links to their website;
• a calendar with upcoming events and trainings in the field, with all details on : title, dates, location, event language, contact person, link to event website;
• a list with news items;
• lists of the most recently uploaded technologies and projects (for more details one has to register and login);
• information about the 2BFUNTEX multidisciplinary teams;
• a link to the presentations of the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference
• a link to the 2BFUNTEX training modules (after registration and login);
• links to other (interesting) websites;
• project contact page where people can ask questions.
The public deliverable D4.3 ‘Interactive website’ gives a snapshot of the website functionalities at the time of submission of the deliverable. During the project the website has been further improved and new sections and functionalities have been added. More details can be found on the website www.2BFUNTEX.eu and in deliverables D2.1 ‘Report on design of the database’, D2.2 ‘Demonstrator of the database’ and D2.4 ‘Operational database phase 1’.
By the end of the project already 600 members have registered on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform and the number is still growing. The 2BFUNTEX members are located all over the world (57 countries). Since the launch of the website in 2012, 13653 unique visitors have accessed the website (20736 visits in total).
Task 4.3: Design of logo, banner, signature, flyers, leaflets and publicity materials
Since the existence of the 2BFUNTEX CA should be spread as much as possible, one of the first actions was designing a logo for the 2BFUNTEX initiative. This logo was then used as basis to create a banner to be added amongst others in the email signature of the partners. It was further also used in all developed promotional materials (project flyer, poster, long and short version PowerPoint presentations, press releases, roll-ups, internet links) which have been distributed for dissemination by all partners in national and international events and uploaded in the partner download section. They were regularly updated, mainly before all important 2BFUNTEX events, and spread throughout Europe in order to invite interested partners to visit the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform or contact the consortium. The 2BFUNTEX leaflet and poster were later on translated in several languages by the partners for further distribution in their own country.
Several partners posted a mail to the textile and clothing companies in their region to make them aware of the 2BFUNTEX project. Others informed the textile companies in their regions by presenting a 2BFUNTEX PowerPoint presentation during meetings and/or distributing leaflets. Further, the 2BFUNTEX logo, website link and some basic project information were placed on the own websites of the 2BFUNTEX partners.
Information about the 2BFUNTEX project was also released in editorial parts of journals, in annual reports of partners and in newsletters of partner organisations. Publicity for the 2BFUNTEX project was made via the Autex Research Journal (ARJ). A 1-page advertisement in the Online Journal was included in order to reach a large public. Further, the proceedings of the EMRS Symposium M were made available as a special issue of the ARJ (http://www.autexrj.com/articles/363/425).
A dedicated 2BFUNTEX e-newsletter was developed and in total 7 issues were published and widely disseminated across Europe towards main textile stakeholders, as well as published on the 2BFUNTEX website. The newsletters covered regular project news such as conferences, workshops, meetings, project results, and informed readers on forthcoming events. The topics covered in the different newsletters were:
- Issue 1 - August 2012: information about the 2BFUNTEX objectives and consortium, the kick-off meeting and the 2BFUNTEX session within the AUTEX conference in Zadar (Croatia) in June 2012.
- Issue 2 - February 2013: information on the interactive website, the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) and the 3rd 2BFUNTEX Foresight & Complexity workshop in Eibar (Spain) in January 2013.
- Issue 3 - August 2013: focus on the 2nd IAB meeting, the 4th 2BFUNTEX workshop and the start-up of the 1st Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) in Istanbul (Turkey).
- Issue 4 - February 2014: information about the 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 innovation seminar annex matchmaking event on functional textiles and the start-up of 5 more MDTs in Ghent (Belgium).
- Issue 5 - July 2014: report on the 2BFUNTEX session at the 9th Annual Public Conference of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP T&C) and more information about the 2BFUNTEX MDTs.
- Issue 6 - September 2015: announcement of the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference on 14th November 2015 in Milan, Italy, and the free 2BFUNTEX Technology Competition and report on the 6th 2BFUNTEX workshop in combination with the seminar for the Finnish textile industry in Tampere, Finland.
- Issue 7 - January 2016: information about the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform, a report on the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference and the result of the Technology Competition, and a report on a workshop with focus on knowledge, research and networking held at the Danish Technological Institute in Denmark on 30th November 2015.
This last newsletter was also distributed via the 2BFUNTEX Monthly Digest to all members registered on the 2BFUNTEX OIP.
In the 2nd project year, a brochure ‘2BFUNTEX network’ was developed including information about the project and its objectives, a short presentation of all project partners, descriptions of all MDTs and EUREKA E!-SURF and EEN, co-organisers of the 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 event. It further included many pictures taken at the project meetings in Istanbul and Ghent in 2013. The purpose of this brochure was to advertise the network to an international audience, with the aim to attract new partners to the various multidisciplinary teams. In March 2014, 500 copies of this brochure were printed and distributed at several 2BFUNTEX dissemination events in 2014 and 2015.
Further publicity activities (distribution of flyers, newsletters, oral and poster presentations, ...) are reported in the ‘Dissemination activities’ section on the EC Participant Portal, where information on in total 400 dissemination activities has been uploaded.
Task 4.4: Setting up 2 large scale conferences, exchange workshops and brokerage events in different EU member states and abroad
Large scale conferences have been organised in many different countries and at very high frequency. In many of these, the 2BFUNTEX partners were already involved. It was therefore not the intention to add significantly to this number but to make use of them and/or to create added value. Efforts have been made to concentrate and combine the organisation of events as much as possible in time and location in order to increase participation, find synergies and reduce the number of trips.
The section below presents the events, conferences and workshops that have been organized specifically within the 2BFUNTEX activities either as standalone 2BFUNTEX events or as joint initiatives within the framework of wider events. All these events have been widely promoted via the 2BFUNTEX OIP, by the partners via email to their contact persons and in face-to-face meetings.
• The 2BFUNTEX kick off conference was organised on Wednesday 13th June 2012 in Zadar, Croatia, as a special session of the AUTEX 2012 Conference on “Innovative textiles for high future demands” (from 13 to 15 June 2012). 15 papers on Innovative Functional Textiles were presented there, the majority by 2BFUNTEX partners. With more than 60 participants, the 2BFUNTEX session was one of the most successful sessions of the AUTEX conference. Further, the 2BFUNTEX poster was presented at the AUTEX 2012 poster session and 2BFUNTEX leaflets were distributed to all conference participants.
• The first large scale 2BFUNTEX conference was organised on May 30th and 31st, 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey, as the “International Istanbul Textile Congress 2013 on Innovative and Functional Textiles”, hosted by the Istanbul Technical University (ITU). The conference attracted around 300 participants from research institutes, universities and industry all over the world. The book of abstracts and conference programme were published and distributed to all conference participants together with the full text of the papers on USB sticks. Four parallel sessions were held simultaneously in the 2-day conference. The diversity of the presented topics and the high quality of the papers were recognized and appreciated by the conference participants. Following the 2BFUNTEX conference, the first 2BFUNTEX Brokerage Event and Technoshow was organised on the 1st of June 2013 in Istanbul, supported by the Entreprise Europe Network (EEN). 25 participants from 7 countries took part in the matchmaking event, where companies working on functional textiles had the opportunity to discuss possible future collaborations with researchers and other companies. During the Technoshow industrial applications of added value functional materials with new functionalities and improved performance were presented as prototypes. Books of projects, including projects and technologies uploaded on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform, were printed and distributed to the international participants and industrial visitors. The brokerage event and Technoshow was an international meeting point for the textile industry with academics and researchers from universities, institutes, research & development centres. It was attended by around 100 representatives of which 44 from industry.
• On 23rd October 2013, the 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 Innovation Seminar annex Matchmaking Event on Functional Textiles was organised at the EUROFINISH 2013 Trade Fair in Ghent, Belgium, which attracted 2438 visitors and 160 exhibitors. The 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 event was organised in 3 sessions:
- Innovation seminar : including presentations on research funding opportunities, 2BFUNTEX MDTs, project ideas and technology offers.
- Brainstorm sessions on a limited number of presented early stage research ideas during lunch break.
- Matchmaking via 121 face-to-face meetings.
There were over 60 participants from 17 different countries, and the seminar, brainstorms and matchmaking were really very lively!
• A special 2BFUNTEX session was held at the 9th Annual Public Conference of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP T&C). The Conference was conducted on March 31 – April 1, 2014 in Brussels, Belgium, under the title ‘Effective textile technology transfer from research to industry’. In the 2BFUNTEX session entitled ‘Effective tools for European textile technology transfer’ presentations were held about the 2BFUNTEX objectives and results, the Open Innovation Platform and the MDTs, and 3 examples on how they can be practically used by industry. In total 148 persons attended the ETP T&C conference of which 36 industrial participants, 82 researchers and 30 delegates from EC departments and various associations. At the 2BFUNTEX dissemination stand the project was further promoted with a poster, leaflets and ‘2BFUNTEX network’ brochures. Also, VITO provided a table top presentation of atmospheric plasma technology for textile applications. This industrial proven technology was shown and the operational aspects were discussed with interested attendants of the ETP T&C conference and the 2BFUNTEX workshop (also organised at the conference location).
• A special 2-day 2BFUNTEX session on functional textiles was organized within IITAS 2014 – XIIIth International Izmir Textile and Apparel Symposium on April 2-5, 2014, in Antalya, Turkey, with 660 participants (105 academics, 445 from industry and 110 students) from 19 countries. Announcements of IITAS 2014 and the 2BFUNTEX session were sent by email to ca. 4000 academics and industrialists from all over the world, uploaded into the 2BFUNTEX website and published within several journals. The 2BFUNTEX Session included 20 presentations from 13 countries, and 42 posters were presented in the Poster Session. The final report of IITAS 2014 including the 2BFUNTEX session has been published in Tekstil Isveren, the monthly journal of the Turkish Textile Employers’ Association, Tekstil Teknoloji (a monthly textile magazine) and Textilegence (an online textile magazine).
• The Symposium M on “Functional textiles – from research and development to innovations and industrial uptake” was organised within the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) 2014 Fall Meeting held from 15th to 18th September 2014 at Warsaw University of Technology. More than 1000 researchers attended the E-MRS 2014 Fall meeting conference where 23 Symposia have been organised. The Symposium M lasted three days, from 16th till 18th September and attracted over 70 participants who presented 45 oral and 15 poster presentations. A special session at the beginning of the symposium was dedicated to the 3 projects which cooperated to organise the meeting: 2BFUNTEX, COST Action MP1105 (http://www.flaretex.eu) and COST Action MP1206 (www.electrospinning-cost.eu). The Symposium M provided an international forum to exchange knowledge and experience as well as discuss recent advances in the field of functional textiles. Attendees presented their work in three subjects – flame retardant textiles, electrospinning and other functional textile related materials. It was also a great opportunity to make new contacts and promote technology transfer between academic environment and industry.
• The 6th 2BFUNTEX workshop on 27th and 28th January 2015 in Tampere, Finland, was combined with the ‘Speed up the business by networking’ - seminar for the Finnish Textile industry and trade. Participants in the seminar represented industry (30%) and research (70%). There were all together 93 participants and also a group of university students followed the presentations. The seminar was organized by VTT and FINATEX, the Association of the Finnish Textile and Clothing Industries. 2BFUNTEX was promoted by several oral presentations and by distributing leaflets.
• The AUTEX 2015 Conference held in Bucharest, Romania, from 10th to 12th June 2015 included several 2BFUNTEX sessions and was attended by 240 participants coming from 41 countries. During the conference the 2BFUNTEX project was promoted by means of 1 oral presentation, 1 large poster and 250 flyers. The 2BFUNTEX sessions included:
- 10.06.2015 - 2BFUNTEX Themes: Innovative Functional Textiles, Smart, Functional and Interactive Textiles: 4 oral and 3 poster presentations;
- 11.06.2015 - 2BFUNTEX Themes: Innovative Functional Textiles, Smart, Functional and Interactive Textiles, Textile Economy, Textile Supply Chain Management: 3 oral presentations;
- 12.06.2015 - 2BFUNTEX Themes: Innovative functional Textiles: 6 oral presentations.
• The 2BFUNTEX Final conference on “Technology Transfer of Functional Textile Innovations” took place on Saturday 14th November 2015 at ITMA 2015 in Milan, Italy, following the Final 2BFUNTEX Steering Committee meeting on 13th November 2015, which also took place at the ITMA premises. It was decided to organise the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference in the Research and Innovation Speakers Platform in Exhibition Hall 8 of the ITMA trade fair, so that visitors passing by (which had not registered in advance) also had the opportunity to listen to (some of) the presentations. More than 400 people registered in advance from 71 different countries, among which many from industry. During the conference successful cases of effective technology transfer on functional textiles between research & industry have been presented and the winners of the 2BFUNTEX Technology Competition were announced and asked to present their technology. The full conference programme and more detailed information is given in deliverable D4.10 ‘Closing conference’ and all the presentations are available on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform.
During 2015 a 2BFUNTEX Technology Competition was organised. Researchers or companies with a new technology in the field of functional textiles that they would like to transfer to industry, were invited to upload their technology on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform www.2BFUNTEX.eu. The 2BFUNTEX selection committee then assessed the submitted technologies against three criteria :
- the innovation assessment of the new technology
- the time to market of the innovation
- the potential impact of the technology on the textile sector.
The 2 most promising technologies were selected and the winners were given the opportunity to make a presentation at the 2BFUNTEX Final Conference on Saturday, 14 November 2015 at ITMA 2015 and also received a contribution to their travel expenses. The first winner was a Belgium based company, the EOC group, which has presented a new “Flame-retardant hotmelt for mattress ticking” and the second winner was Ms. Ashayer-Soltani from the National Physical laboratory in UK, who has been selected for the innovative development on “Conductive Textiles: towards true wearable technology”.
Further, the 2BFUNTEX project, its activities and results have been widely disseminated by all partners at several occasions (workshops, conferences, brokerage events, project meetings, networking events, ...) by means of oral or poster presentation, distribution of leaflets and newsletters, etc.. In total 400 dissemination activities have been reported over the whole project duration in the EC Participant Portal, as well as 33 peer reviewed publications and 37 papers in conference/workshop proceedings.
A list of events related to functional textiles was collected from all partners and by the end of the 4th year 151 events have been published on the 2BFUNTEX website.
Moreover, several brokerage events were organised by or participated in by 2BFUNTEX partners to get to know potential partners and to enhance research-industry cooperation. During these brokerage events the participants are able to discuss topics with other experts or interested companies. They get to know each other with the goal of future collaborations. The public deliverable D4.8 ‘First report on brokerage events’ gives an overview of the brokerage events which the 2BFUNTEX partners organized or participated in within the 1st project year. This list has been updated and the final version is included in the public deliverable D4.9 ‘6 monthly reports on participation to/organization of workshops/brokerage events’. By the end of December 2015, 44 brokerage events were reported in 15 different countries with in total 2325 participants, including many SMEs (approx. 53%). Some of the events were large open events, so the number of participants is even higher, but could not be counted.
So, the target to organise at least 32 brokerage events with in total 1000 face-to-face meetings by the end of the project has been clearly fulfilled. But nevertheless, the 2BFUNTEX partners will continue organizing and participating in further brokerage events even after the project.
Task 4.5: Visits to and workshops for SMEs
Over the whole project duration dedicated workshops were organised in the different countries of 2BFUNTEX partners. Some workshops were added directly to a conference to allow participation of as many as possible interested parties. The potential participants of the specific target groups were invited to the workshops with a defined agenda and after the workshops the presentations were mostly distributed to the participants. The workshops enlarged the number of active players in the project and the 2BFUNTEX partners strengthened the links with interested research institutes and universities as well as with SMEs.
The public deliverable D4.7 ‘First report on dedicated workshops’ gives an overview of the dedicated workshops organized by or participated in by the 2BFUNTEX partners within the 1st project year. This list has been updated regularly and the final version is included in the public deliverable D4.9 ‘6 monthly reports on participation to/organization of workshops/brokerage events’. In total 98 workshops were reported in 16 countries with in total 6920 participants, with a participation rate of SMEs of 81% of the participating companies. Specific topics were covered, such as nonwovens, personal protective equipment, innovative functional textiles, bio-textiles, composites, coatings and technical fabrics.
So, the target to organise at least 50 dedicated workshops with 8 to 25 participants by the end of the project has been clearly fulfilled. Moreover, the workshops within the textile industry will not stop with the end of the 2BFUNTEX project, but workshops will also be organised in the future in order to help the companies to implement functional textile innovations.
Further, the 2BFUNTEX partners with strong links to SMEs (KNUTD, KTU, FIT, UP-tex, NWTexNet, DTI, TechniTex and Ecoplus) reported a high number of visits to companies and meetings with industrial representatives where 2BFUNTEX was promoted.
Moreover, within the Istanbul Technical University a Research & Development committee was founded, which aims to improve the relations between the university and the industry.
WP5 : Identification, formation and start-up of multidisciplinary project teams
The objective of this work package was the creation of 6 multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) performing basic research in the field of functional materials and oriented towards industry aiming at the creation of new business worldwide, focusing on the effective transfer of research results to industry (objective 6 above).
Task 5.1: Identification of multidisciplinary project teams that collaborate along a specific research topic
The identification of the research topics for the MDTs was based on the analysis of :
1) Research gaps : from results of
• Inventory (WP1) : industrial needs
• Bibliometric analysis
• Foresight workshops
2) Overview of available expertise :
• Open Innovation Platform
• Bibliometric analysis
in order to define synergies at different levels.
The objective was to define gaps and synergies by matching the medium to long-term industrial needs with the available technologies and expertise and to create new research ideas to close or reduce the gaps.
A technology-innovation matrix was prepared and distributed as a survey to all 2BFUNTEX partners and Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) members (23 members from 11 countries) to identify their research, technological and industrial competences and needs. This information was used to create future project ideas and to select the topics in which many partners/members are interested to focus on in the multidisciplinary teams.
Based on the analysis of the technology-innovation survey 8 multidisciplinary teams that collaborate along the following specific research topics were identified:
• antimicrobial textiles
• smart textiles
• nanotechnologies
• flame retardancy
• biotechnologies
• electrospinning
• plasma
• sustainable textiles.
Deliverable D5.1 'Review potential collaborations for multidisciplinary project teams' describes the methodology used to identify the research topics for the eight 2BFUNTEX multidisciplinary teams and lists the potential collaborations in all the MDTs. It further also gives an overview of the developments within and the results of the collaboration in the MDTs until the end of 2014. In total more than 100 researchers from institutes, universities and industry worldwide are collaborating in the 8 multidisciplinary teams.
Task 5.2: Formation and start-up of multidisciplinary project teams
Following the identification of the topics for the 8 multidisciplinary teams, it was decided to appoint a research leader and a co-leader from industry for each of the teams. First of all 2BFUNTEX partners, IAB members and AUTEX members were invited to express their interest to become an MDT leader, and later on additional co-leaders (especially from industry) were looked for externally. The multidisciplinary team leaders are:
• Nanotechnologies: Victoria Dutschk (UTwente), NL + Jan Mahy (BONAR), NL
• Smart textiles: Lieva Van Langenhove (UGent), BE + Vera De Glas (SIOEN), BE
• Electrospinning: Hale Karakas (TU Istanbul), TR, and Pirjo Heikkilä (VTT), FI + Erich Kny (KEMYK), AT
• Flame retardancy; Outi Härkki (VTT), FI + Pascal Steffanut (CLARIANT), CH
• Biotechnologies: Vincent Nierstrasz (Borås University), SE + Jan Marek (INOTEX), CZ
• Sustainable textiles: Antonela Curteza (TU Iasi), RO + Mihai Lupu (FIT), RO
• Plasma: Maude Jimenez (Lille University), FR, and Bert Verheyde (VITO), BE + Frank Förster (Softal Corona & Plasma GmbH), DE
• Antimicrobial textiles: Amaya Igartua (TEKNIKER), ES, and Brian McCarthy (TechniTex), UK + John Ellis (DEVAN), UK.
During the 4th 2BFUNTEX Foresight & Complexity workshop in Istanbul, Turkey, on 28 and 29 May 2013, the first three multidisciplinary teams have been started up, namely the MDTs on Electrospinning, Smart Textiles and Antimicrobial Textiles. The other 5 MDTs were successfully started up in Ghent on 22 and 24 October 2013, where the first 3 teams also held a 2nd meeting. Project ideas and potential collaborations were discussed at an early stage. Possible project ideas from industrial partners were evaluated and teams were formed for the development of selected project ideas in all MDTs.
Deliverable D5.4 ‘Kick off meetings of multidisciplinary teams’ describes the start-up of the 8 MDTs, including meeting agenda and minutes, and shows the participation of partners in the different general MDT meetings, which were combined with 2BFUNTEX workshops and Steering Committee meetings.
Each MDT has identified tangible gaps between available technologies and industrial needs and developed ideas for potential collaborative projects. In the multidisciplinary teams, there are professionals from different disciplines who discuss research directions and jointly develop demonstrators based on products and know-how of the members as well as prepare joint projects. Teams meet face-to-face or by teleconference on a regular basis and are focussed on project building on specific topics.
Some of the main issues of MDTs work were developing tools for effective transfer of research results/prototypes to the industry and implementation of project ideas. In total 57 project ideas were proposed by the different MDTs and suitable funding channels (Eureka, Horizon 2020,...) were monitored for current and future applications for innovative project proposals. They are listed below per MDT.
- MDT Smart textiles: Aromatherapy in sleep, Anti bed bugs, anti dust mites mattresses, Mattresses with adjusted hardness, Mattresses with indicator on microbes present, Smart car seats, Heated parts of the dress - medical application, Smart jeans, Personal coach services – sport wear, Intensive communication – eldery people, Intelligent orthesis, Smart conductive fabrics, Standards in smart textiles.
- MDT Nanotechnologies: Nanocapsules (flow reactor), Functional inks, Electroluminiscence textiles, Nanocarriers in drug delivery, Sol-gel nanoparticles, Conductive fibers.
- MDT Electrospinning: Filters for airplanes, Chitosan nanofibres, Nano spider, Filters for pollen and dust, Smart filter sensing (CO2).
- MDT Flame Retardancy: Regulations in flame retardant (FR) textiles, Standardisation in FR textiles, Testing, renewal of some testing methods, Biobased FR fibres, Semi-biobased fibres (Cell/PAN FR fibres), FR fibres in composites, FR fibres in biobased composites (car industry).
- MDT Sustainable textiles: Recycling of carbon fibres in cars, Volatile organic chemical free textile materials, Self healing roof, Green roof – detection of water leak, Toxicity of degradated product in decomposting, Eco-friendly resins, Recycling of aramids, Composite recycling.
- MDT Plasma: Biomedical applications, Filtration, Protective clothing, Nanocoating for reduced water uptake, Sizing of glass fibres, Improving of fibre adhesives.
- MDT Antimicrobial textiles: Repellent functionality of textiles, Antimicrobial nanofilters, Natural products delivered from plants, Needs for standards, Testing revision, Products for hospitals (cost, durable, antimicrobial, FR), Electrospun membranes for wound dressing.
- MDT Biotechnologies: Development of sustainable value chain, Test for recycled materials, More effective biotechnologies, Combination of biotechnology with other technologies (plasma), New applications of biobased materials.
Some of these ideas have already been successfully turned into a project proposal and others will need further exploring. More information is available in deliverable D1.12 ‘Report with overview of project ideas’. Indicator of success was the identification of 50 ideas during the project; which has been well exceeded. D1.12 shows that 26 project proposals were submitted, so the other indicator of success, 10 submitted project applications, was also successfully achieved.
Task 5.3: Development of a toolkit for multidisciplinary project teams
As there was not much robust knowledge on multidisciplinary research in an open innovation mode in the textile sector available yet, there was a need for adequate support in developing multidisciplinary project ideas and teams. Informed by 2BFUNTEX experience, a practical Tool Kit was developed which aims to support the formation and start-up of multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) to collaborate in joint large research projects with a strong involvement of industry.
The 2BFUNTEX Tool Kit:
- shows strategies and tools for dealing with broader and future-oriented research and innovation issues challenged by complexity and uncertainty, as well as management and networking tools to enhance MDT capability to bring down analysis from global challenges to research issues and finally to successful collaboration for innovation;
- contains guidelines, based on the experience and insights gathered in the 2BFUNTEX project, and provides good practice techniques and tools enriched with 2BFUNTEX examples and templates for present and future MDTs.
- is organized along the following steps which were identified as being of key importance for setting-up open innovation-oriented MDTs (yet not necessarily always implemented in this order):
o ORIENTATION, DIRECTION & IDEA GENERATION - anticipating the future & identifying common ground
- Emerging Research Fronts & Market Trends
- Exploration of Gaps and Synergies – Technology-Innovation Matrix
- Vision & Strategy
- Industry Success Criteria
o NETWORKING & PARTNERS
- Finding the right partners & relevant info (brokerage events)
- Building future scenarios
- Co-creating vision & strategy
o COLLABORATION
- Finding problems & solutions – Design Thinking
- Collaboration tools & agreements
- Meeting guidelines and practices
o ASSESSMENT of team performance
The public deliverable 5.5 'Toolkit for Multidisciplinary Teams' was distributed among the 2BFUNTEX MDT leaders from academia and industry for their information and subsequent utilization. It has been developed on the basis of our joint work in 2BFUNTEX in the past years and will hopefully assist in future collaborations. The Toolkit is also publicly available on the 2BFUNTEX website.
Further, the Letter of Intent (deliverable D5.2) for collaboration within the MDTs was prepared and distributed to all MDT leaders. It is available for use by all MDTs and especially meant to involve external partners in the preparation of project proposals. It is not a legally binding document but the aim is to guarantee confidentiality, even if partners withdraw from the project.
Finally, deliverable 5.3 ‘Formal Agreements for collaboration in multidisciplinary project teams’ includes the template of the Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement which has been prepared by the 2BFUNTEX MDT coordinator in order to help the 2BFUNTEX MDTs to solve the confidentiality issue. It can be used by the 2BFUNTEX MDT partners, as well as universities, institutes, SMEs or other companies and agents outside the 2BFUNTEX consortium. It needs to be emphasised that some parts of the Agreement can be adapted to every specific context to enable the exchange of knowledge, experiences and materials.
Potential Impact:
2BFUNTEX established a European portal (SPOC-single point of contact) and Open Innovation Platform which all interested parties can address when they need anything in the area of functional textile structures and textile related materials. The 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform brings relevant activities (research projects, courses, workshops, ...) from different innovation actors (research institutes, universities, industry, associations, policy makers) together and makes them available to a wider audience. Thus, 2BFUNTEX coordinates and assists the innovation activities in the field of functional materials to create maximum awareness and assists innovation actors in actively collaborating together to increase the number of valuable projects with enhanced industrial uptake. The 2BFUNTEX OIP will continue after the project and remain available to all stakeholders in the field of functional textiles to upload and consult information.
The final aim of the project was to assist the process of creating new project ideas and creating multidisciplinary teams where SMEs can find contact persons skilled as well in research as in industrial applicability of their research results. 2BFUNTEX has brought together all actors in the field, i.e. fostering a multidisciplinary approach between universities, research institutes, SMEs and sector associations, in 8 multidisciplinary teams that will continue to identify technological gaps as well as eliminate practical barriers which will result in a faster industrial uptake of innovative functional textile structures and textile related materials. SMEs will be further involved in the multidisciplinary teams to allow researchers to better orient their joint efforts towards industrial applications. Additionally, the SMEs will be able to adapt their methods of production, management and distribution in an early stage. Thus it is expected that 2BFUNTEX will boost the coordination of research and the uptake of new products and processes by industry.
Furthermore, the 2BFUNTEX project incorporated an important training and education work package where training materials regarding functional textile materials have been elaborated. These can be used in all European universities and research institutes to train their students at different faculties and by sector organisations to train technical people in their SMEs. These materials allow a common language regarding functional textile structures and textile related materials and will increase the number of well-trained people in the field. It is expected that better training and better collaboration will lead to real innovation processes in industry.
The “potential impact” of the 2BFUNTEX project as result or positive effect also with regard to the future and sustainability can be identified out from the different work packages.
WP1: Inventorisation of related projects, technologies & industrial needs & creation of project ideas + WP2 Development and maintenance of an interactive database
Especially the newly created and installed platform is an important tool to present technologies developed in Europe in an Open Innovation Platform (OIP) which is publicly accessible. This is helpful to spread research results to a high number of stakeholders and to establish new contacts for the transfer of research into practice. To keep the platform updated also after the project end further input of technology offers and information on projects will be done by the partners and other 2BFUNTEX members. So the developed platform will remain useful after the project to get information on research results and events offered by other institutions and companies and to gain knowledge on new technologies in the field of functional textiles. Further contacts to European research institutions and enterprises can be established to deepen a European-wide cooperation. All 2BFUNTEX partners are committed to support and use the 2BFUNTEX OIP after the end of the project.
WP3: Training & Education
A main outcome was the creation of training materials for different subjects related to functional textiles (Electrospinning of nanofibres, Nanomaterials and nanotechnologies, Protective functional textiles, Recycling of textile materials, Sustainable textiles and Smart textiles). All these comprehensive course modules are helpful for most partners both for the own project work to get knowledge on special technologies, but also to train academic and industrial project partners or companies they are working with. Since the 2BFUNTEX training modules will remain available for download on the 2BFUNTEX OIP, they can be further used by 2BFUNTEX partners as well as external parties in the years to come.
WP4: Dissemination
The objective of the dissemination activities is to create awareness to the broad public regarding functional textile structures and textile related materials to achieve and push a rapid uptake of those materials in industry. The dissemination of project information helped to enlarge the number of interested research institutions and companies and to enhance the exchange of information with relevant stakeholders. New contacts could be established as well as new project ideas were found. With the help of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles & Clothing, the 2BFUNTEX partners will continue to disseminate results of activities started in the 2BFUNTEX project.
WP5: Identification, formation and start-up of multidisciplinary project teams (MDTs)
Although many submitted proposals were unfortunately not selected for funding, one main outcome for the MDT members was to get in contact with other research institutions and companies, to work together and establish contacts for further collaboration and projects. Synergies have been identified and the knowledge on functional textiles and their experts throughout Europe could be enlarged, and further project ideas were found. The collaboration between the 2BFUNTEX partners and MDT members will be continued beyond the end of the project.
Besides the global potential impact mentioned above, several 2BFUNTEX partners have reported some specific impacts for their organisations and on national or regional level.
• The 2BFUNTEX project has a great impact on the Finnish textile research and reorientation of the industry towards emerging new technologies, which are greatly related to cellulosic and recyclable raw materials. The project has led to cooperation of VTT with DWoC design world of cellulose, which is a national large technology opening in Finland, enhancing these inventions.
• From 2012 to 2015 KNUTD has constantly informed the Ukrainian enterprises of textile, clothing, shoe and leather industries about the objectives and progress of the 2BFUNTEX project. This resulted in the creation on 22nd December 2015 of a cluster of enterprises-producers of textiles, clothing, leather, footwear; high educational institutions and some others (Light Industry Cluster) with the aim to find partners for cooperative research work. The expected impact of the formed cluster consists of the possibility to restore the production of textiles, especially the organization of new innovative textiles, clothing, footwear etc. manufacturing in Ukraine. The experience of European companies and the results of scientific research in the EU and in Ukrainian universities can and will be used for the development of innovative products. The data accumulated during the 2BFUNTEX project are being transferred to the respective companies. This gives the possibility to make the first step to provide employment (provide jobs) primarily for women.
• Thanks to the 2BFUNTEX project UCCI has established links with major Ukrainian textile and sewing companies, universities and foreign partners. The companies got acquainted with the UCCI activities and services and representatives of textile producers have taken part in the UCCI Industrial Committees sessions. In general it was also a very useful experience for UCCI in participation in international projects. The vast majority of textile companies in Ukraine have recognized that the replacement of traditional textiles by special textile materials allowed providing higher productivity and efficiency. A matchmaking process between scientists, producers and consumers has been fulfilled. Ukrainian regions received qualified persons, who will facilitate the modern development of the textile industry.
• The 2BFUNTEX project provided higher awareness of functional textile related research and development activities in the Turkish textile industry. New collaborations were formed by the networking activities during organized conferences and workshops. Turkish textile companies had an opportunity to gain information about the most recent projects on functional textiles through the 2BFUNTEX website and dissemination activities. The 2BFUNTEX project acted as a platform for the creation of new project ideas in a multidisciplinary approach. The Turkish partner universities held meetings with companies and academics from other universities. These meetings promoted the creation of new project ideas as well as an increase in the collaborative activities between industry and university. Through the 2BFUNTEX project, a lot of national research projects including industrial participation on functional textiles were started.
SMEs are the main constituents of the textile industry of Turkey. Functional textile materials are a relatively new subject for SMEs and they face the difficulties with production methods of functional textiles, uptake of the new products and market access. Through the 2BFUNTEX website, SMEs obtained an opportunity to present their current project ideas and to reach skilled contact persons. This will help the SMEs of Turkey to produce high added value functional textile materials which contribute to the national economy. With the help of 2BFUNTEX, the project development capacity of Turkish SMEs will increase in time. After the end of the project, the Turkish 2BFUNTEX partners will continue to promote the use of the 2BFUNTEX website by companies and other industrial partners.
• During the 2BFUNTEX project, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) had the possibility to introduce its own scientific potential and to get to know the scientific potential and needs of other project partners. KTU established relations and interchanged new project ideas with partners in and out the frame of the 2BFUNTEX project and created multidisciplinary project teams with research partners from Riga Technical University, Latvian Wood Institute (Latvia), Vitebsk State University (Belarus) and Empa Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Switzerland). During the 2BFUNTEX project, KTU initiated and carried out two bilateral research projects (with partners from Belarus and Switzerland), took part in the preparation of a new proposal for Horizon2020 with partners from Latvia, UK, Italy, Estonia and Germany, initiated and carried out three research projects, supported by the Lithuanian government, with Lithuanian textile companies, promoting additional research and transferring research results to the industry. This will have a significant impact on the competitiveness of the Lithuanian textile industry in the European and world market. Further, KTU has published results of scientific investigations, related to functional textiles and performed during the 2BFUNTEX project, in scientific journals, cited in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database, in such way enhancing the visibility of the university. KTU also prepared educational materials related with functional textiles and conducted university courses (in Lithuanian language) with the purpose to obtain well-trained and competitive young specialists in textile engineering.
• The 2BFUNTEX project is a network that brings together EU project results, technologies and training courses on functional textiles. Technologies related to textiles are often combined with nanotechnologies (encapsulation and microencapsulation of chemical compounds, nanoparticles), with sensors and electronics, with chemistry including antimicrobial textiles, with durability (abrasion, erosion, adhesion, washability, hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity), surface treatments to induce certain properties. Since properties of textiles give more and more possibilities when combining with functions and advanced properties, specifications of final products can more and more include textiles in their configuration due to their light weight and because they are easily wearable. The participation in this network, facilitates the knowledge of the more skilled researchers in these technologies, and facilitates the creation of projects with a high technological level, with the possibility to transfer the technologies to the industrial network. The participation of IK4-TEKNIKER in the 2BFUNTEX network has also facilitated connections with companies and RTD centres.
• Through the several discussions with both academic partners and industrial companies, VITO has initiated some projects on the plasma functionalization of non-woven materials, technical textiles and fibres. The benefit of a dry plasma functionalization of these materials to achieve improved surface properties will be further investigated in the next years.
• The potential impact of the 2BFUNTEX project for WUT is enhancing knowledge about textile industry in Europe and awareness of textile materials, technological needs and research possibilities. The National Centre for Research and Development in Poland established the INNOTEXTILE sectoral programme to finance industrial research and development work on innovative solutions for the textile industry. The programme INNOTEXTILE is a result of a positively assessed feasibility study submitted to the National Centre for Research and Development by the Association of Employers in the Clothing and Textile Industry “PIOT”. The NRDC budget intended for financing projects under the programme is PLN 60 million. INNOTEXTILE aims at companies or consortia of companies.
• In the Netherlands, the 2BFUNTEX project has supported the Chair of the Engineering of Fibrous Smart Materials (EFSM) group of the University of Twente to consolidate the link between the university and the local industry, both on research and innovation, as on education issues. Further, an open innovation hub ‘Textiles in Twente’ was created.
• The potential impact of the 2BFUNTEX project for the Romanian partners, TUIASI and FIT, consists mainly in boosting the organisation’s international visibility, thus making its accomplishments known outside the country, especially when it comes to the projects, technologies or publications that were developed. Also, the aim is to start new project proposals at an international level. Such an impact has a national dimension too because it mentions Romania when presenting the accomplishments and actions developed within the project. The potential impact of the 2BFUNTEX project on the Romanian textile/fashion industry consists mainly in acquiring better visibility at an international level and also the potential to become more involved in international projects, even as initiators of project proposals.
• AIT together with Ecoplus organised a high-profile open innovation stakeholder workshop at the GLOBART Academy in Krems/Lower Austria on 25-26 September 2015 with more than 50 stakeholders. The relevance of textile research and innovation in (Lower) Austria was discussed and promising ideas and measures to boost innovation in the textile sector were developed. Austrian Federal Minister of Employment Hundsdorfer as well as leading public authority representatives from the Province of Lower Austria participated in this high-profile event. One of the main findings was that new public support mechanisms and instruments are needed to support the textile industry in the area for multidisciplinary collaboration and the necessary technological infrastructure to face the trends of digitalisation.
• Also in Austria, companies of the Plastics Cluster, the Smart Textiles Platform and the Mechatronics Cluster have been brought together to get to know each other and to build the PlasTexTron® network of competences in order to enable cooperation between innovative companies across sectors and borders and create room for innovation. The aim of the textile network, which has already become a well-known brand among PlasTexTron® is to establish contacts between companies in the plastics, textile and mechatronics industries in order to initiate projects and jointly implement new product ideas and innovations. With the existing Smart Textiles Platform in Vorarlberg there is already a close contact. The implementation of a textile network in eastern Austria is secured for the next two years. The 2BFUNTEX partner Ecoplus, the Business Agency of Lower Austria and the Chamber of Commerce Austria / Lower Austria, group Textile Industry, will finance the organization of the textile network.
• Concerning the Czech SME SVÚM a.s. the participation in the 2BFUNTEX project strongly improved and strengthened the position of SVUM in the field of its main activities – research and testing. SVUM found numerous new contacts in Czech Republic and in the EU and became an even more respected institution in the field of functional textiles and composites made using textiles and textile fabrics. Participation in the project also positively affected the position of SVUM in the preparation of new research and development projects on both national and European levels to the effect that SVUM is an even more welcome and respected project partner. It concerns particularly programmes of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic and research and development programmes of the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade. With the use of some 2BFUNTEX results and database, three new project proposals connected with the application of advanced functional textiles and fabrics were elaborated with participation of SVUM as a main partner. The projects concern conveyors and the use of functional textiles and textile fabrics in railway bogies and suspensions, making the vehicles environmentally friendly from the viewpoint of low noise and low track forces. The socio-economic impact of the projects will be great, as conveyors and particularly railway transport concern a large amount of transported materials and the use of the advanced textiles and composites makes the transport environmentally friendly. Promotion of the 2BFUNTEX project, its database and multidisciplinary teams within Czech universities, including young scientists, within various industrial sectors starting with transport over aircraft industry and dedicated organisations involved in textile industry in Czech Republic resulted in further interests in the 2BFUNTEX project, which has a potential to make the use of various textiles both more extensive and intensive.
• In Italy, the textile industry is one of the most important sectors of manufacturing (~11% of added value). Emerging countries push Italian textile industry towards innovation (product and/or process). The weight of textile industry in Italy on GDP was 3% in 1990s and now is 1.7%. Despite the revenue is growing since 2009 by 6 billion euros, the number of workers has decreased from 1.1 million in 1992 to 405 thousands at the end of 2015 (source: Sistema Moda Italia, SMI). In this context, innovation plays a crucial role in maintaining this sector and relations between specialized R&D centres and industry must be promoted and financially supported. The 2BFUNTEX project has contributed to speed up this process by mapping technological needs and existing knowledge applicable to textile innovation. Emerging research topics (e.g. non releasing antimicrobial textile finishing, electrically active coating) and innovative processes (e.g. electrospinning) were identified and presented to the industry in order to create new opportunities for the generation of new products. The road of the textile industry towards innovation has just began, but it will require several years to become durable thanks to systematic cooperation between academia and industry at European level with the tools developed by the 2BFUNTEX project (i.e. Multi-Disciplinary Teams, Open Innovation Platform).
• The 2BFUNTEX CSA cooperation was an efficient tool for improvement of integration of INOTEX into the international multidisciplinary system of innovations for the textile sector. Modern and upcoming innovations – of emerging technologies and added value functional textiles including respect of actual environmental criteria - must be based on an intensive multidisciplinarity. The 2BFUNTEX integration supported the internationalization of the work of INOTEX as well as possible European activity profiles – in the area of MDT Bio profile (implementation of BioTEX R&D roadmap into the ETP 1- Sustainable resources and ETP2 – efficient cleaner processing technologies). Using the 2BFUNTEX links and ETP experiences INOTEX was accepted as an innovation lead partner for creating Regional innovation strategy (RiS3) of HKr (+ PU and LBC) regions. The 24th IFATCC world congress to be organized in Czech Republic in June 2016 can be considered as one of the post 2BFUNTEX actions – a platform of innovation trends.
• Through industry-targeted courses on textile technology and functional textiles, DTI has contributed to the transfer of knowledge on textiles from research institutions to the Danish Textile industry, which consists mainly of SMEs. By increasing the level of knowledge and education in the textile industry, interest and ability to participate in textile innovation is heightened. The textile industry in Denmark has been moving from local to international and often ex-European production, but through innovation, value added products can be created that foster a local production environment. By holding a workshop on functional textiles and their growth potential in Denmark, DTI has promoted networking between companies, research institutions and academic researchers, as well as increasing awareness of the commercial opportunities available through innovation. This workshop was very well received and has raised the general profile of DTI, which is beginning to attract partners for innovation projects. It has also generated interest for participation in innovation activities. A similar effect has been seen from one-on-one contacts with Danish SMEs with the aim of establishing requirements and desires for research collaborations.
DTI has participated in multidisciplinary research projects involving both the research institute DTI alone, and DTI in collaboration with university and industrial partners. Through this participation, DTI has gained both new knowledge and networks, and contributed to bringing research at universities, research institutions and industry closer together. Through participation in 2BFUNTEX meetings and events, DTI has seen a significant increase in its network of potential partners for future research projects, which will have a large impact on their future opportunities for international projects.
• The 2BFUNTEX project has enabled TechniTex to undertake – at scale – a series of industrial and academic visits. It has exposed the textile companies to the range of R&D that has and is taking place in the EU but outside of the UK. It has also exposed them to the funding opportunities that are available via Horizon 2020 – which will hopefully result in greater participation in EU funding streams by the UK textiles and clothing sectors. The project has highlighted the range of expertise and skills available to the UK textile and clothing sectors from the 2BFUNTEX partners and participants.
In summary, the 2BFUNTEX project has been successful related to knowledge enhancement in the field of functional textiles and on how to improve a rapid transfer of research ideas and technologies into industry and practice. The Open Innovation Platform (OIP) is a very helpful tool not only to present the own research results but also to find new ideas and partners for future projects and collaboration. Furthermore, one main outcome of the project is the high number of contacts established with other European research institutions and enterprises from various technical fields and the set-up of new business connections.
Dissemination activities
The objective of the dissemination work package was to create awareness to the broad public regarding functional textile structures and textile related materials as such achieving rapid uptake of those materials in industry. Dissemination of information via the 2BFUNTEX OIP and the many other dissemination activities (conferences, workshops, e-newsletters, etc.) has enlarged the circle of interested research institutes/universities and companies and enhanced the exchange of information between relevant stakeholders.
The specific objectives of the 2BFUNTEX dissemination activities were:
- Developing a dissemination strategy (deliverable D4.1);
- Raising awareness of the project among the community and stakeholders in the EU member states;
- Ensuring effective dissemination of the project goals and results to the target users;
- Ensuring good communication within the European textile community;
- Ensuring the dissemination of project results at conferences, public events, and among the networks of the consortium members;
- Ensuring the success of the databases implemented in the web portal;
- Ensuring the success of the multidisciplinary teams;
- Ensuring the dissemination of project results in universities, especially about training materials available.
Several tools were set up in order to foster dissemination of the 2BFUNTEX activities and results:
- A web-based Open Innovation Platform (www.2BFUNTEX.eu): by the end of the project already 600 members have registered worldwide (from 57 countries).
- Newsletters: 7 issues of the 2BFUNTEX e-newsletter were published on the 2BFUNTEX website and distributed widely by all partners across Europe towards main textile stakeholders and the last one also via the 2BFUNTEX Monthly Digest to all registered members. The newsletters covered regular project news such as conferences, workshops, meetings, project results, and informed readers on forthcoming events.
- Disseminations tools (PowerPoints, Posters, leaflets...): these have been regularly updated, mainly before all important 2BFUNTEX events and are uploaded in the Partner download section of the 2BFUNTEX website and thus available for use by all partners.
- Social media presence was established on Google+ and LinkedIn. Furthermore, easy sharing of content via social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, ...) has been incorporated in the 2BFUNTEX database.
- A brochure ‘2BFUNTEX network’: including information about the project and its objectives, a short presentation of all project partners and descriptions of all MDTs. The purpose of this brochure was to advertise the network to an international audience, with the aim to attract new partners to the various multidisciplinary teams. 500 copies of this brochure were printed and distributed at several 2BFUNTEX dissemination events in 2014 and 2015.
The section below presents the events, conferences and workshops that have been organized specifically within the 2BFUNTEX activities either as standalone 2BFUNTEX events or as joint initiatives within the framework of wider events. All these events have been widely promoted via the 2BFUNTEX OIP, by the partners via email to their contact persons and in face-to-face meetings.
• The 2BFUNTEX kick off conference was organised on Wednesday 13th June 2012 in Zadar, Croatia, as a special session of the AUTEX 2012 Conference on “Innovative textiles for high future demands” (from 13 to 15 June 2012). With more than 60 participants, the 2BFUNTEX session was one of the most successful sessions of the AUTEX conference.
• The first large scale 2BFUNTEX conference was organised on May 30th and 31st, 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey, as the “International Istanbul Textile Congress 2013 on Innovative and Functional Textiles”. The conference attracted around 300 participants from research institutes, universities and industry all over the world. Following the 2BFUNTEX conference, the first 2BFUNTEX Brokerage Event and Technoshow was organised on the 1st of June 2013 in Istanbul, supported by the Entreprise Europe Network (EEN). 25 participants from 7 countries took part in the matchmaking event, where companies working on functional textiles had the opportunity to discuss possible future collaborations with researchers and other companies. During the Technoshow industrial applications of added value functional materials with new functionalities and improved performance were presented as prototypes. The brokerage event and Technoshow was an international meeting point for the textile industry with academics and researchers from universities, institutes, research & development centres. It was attended by around 100 representatives of which 44 from industry.
• On 23rd October 2013 the 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 Innovation Seminar annex Matchmaking Event on Functional Textiles was organised at the EUROFINISH 2013 Trade Fair in Ghent, Belgium, which attracted 2438 visitors and 160 exhibitors. The 2BFUNTEX@eurofinish2013 event was attended by over 60 participants from 17 different countries and organised in 3 sessions:
- Innovation seminar : including presentations on research funding opportunities, 2BFUNTEX MDTs, project ideas and technology offers.
- Brainstorm sessions on a limited number of presented early stage research ideas during lunch break.
- Matchmaking via 121 face-to-face meetings.
• A special 2BFUNTEX session was held at the 9th Annual Public Conference of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP T&C) which was conducted on March 31 – April 1, 2014 in Brussels, Belgium. During the half-day 2BFUNTEX session, with as topic ‘Effective tools for European textile technology transfer’, presentations were held about the 2BFUNTEX objectives and results, the Open Innovation Platform and the MDTs, as well as 3 examples on how they can be practically used by industry. In total 148 persons attended the ETP T&C conference of which 36 industrial participants, 82 researchers and 30 delegates from EC departments and various associations.
• A special 2-day 2BFUNTEX session on functional textiles was organized within IITAS 2014 – XIIIth International Izmir Textile and Apparel Symposium on April 2-5, 2014, in Antalya, Turkey, with 660 participants (105 academics, 445 from industry and 110 students) from 19 countries.
• The Symposium M on “Functional textiles – from research and development to innovations and industrial uptake” was organised within the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) 2014 Fall Meeting held from 15th to 18th September 2014 at Warsaw University of Technology. More than 1000 researchers attended the E-MRS 2014 Fall meeting conference where 23 Symposia have been organised. The Symposium M lasted three days, from 16th till 18th September and attracted over 70 participants who presented 45 oral and 15 poster presentations. A special session at the beginning of the symposium was dedicated to the 3 projects which cooperated to organise the meeting: 2BFUNTEX, COST Action MP1105 (http://www.flaretex.eu) and COST Action MP1206 (www.electrospinning-cost.eu). The Symposium M provided an international forum to exchange knowledge and experience as well as discuss recent advances in the field of functional textiles. Attendees presented their work in three subjects – flame retardant textiles, electrospinning and other functional textile related materials. It was also a great opportunity to make new contacts and promote technology transfer between academic environment and industry.
• The 6th 2BFUNTEX workshop on 27th and 28th January 2015 in Tampere, Finland, was combined with the ‘Speed up the business by networking’ - seminar for the Finnish Textile industry and trade. Participants in the seminar represented industry (30%) and research (70%). There were all together 93 participants and also a group of university students followed the presentations. The seminar was organized by VTT and FINATEX, the Association of the Finnish Textile and Clothing Industries.
• The AUTEX 2015 Conference held in Bucharest, Romania, from 10th to 12th June 2015 included several 2BFUNTEX sessions and was attended by 240 participants coming from 41 countries.
• The 2BFUNTEX Final conference on “Technology Transfer of Functional Textile Innovations” took place on Saturday 14th November 2015 at ITMA 2015 in Milan, Italy. More than 400 people were registered from 71 different countries, among which many from industry. During the conference successful cases of effective technology transfer on functional textiles between research & industry have been presented and the winners of the 2BFUNTEX Technology Competition were announced and asked to present their technology. The full conference programme and all the presentations are available on the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform.
Further, the 2BFUNTEX project, its activities and results have been widely disseminated by all partners at several occasions (workshops, conferences, brokerage events, ...) by means of oral or poster presentation, distribution of leaflets and newsletters, etc.. In total 400 dissemination activities have been reported over the whole project duration in the EC Participant Portal, as well as 33 peer reviewed publications and 37 papers in conference/workshop proceedings.
Deliverable D4.9 ‘Report on participation to/organization of workshops/brokerage events’ gives an overview of the dedicated workshops and brokerage events organised by or participated in by the 2BFUNTEX partners over the whole project duration. In total 98 workshops were reported in 16 countries with in total 6920 participants, with a participation rate of SMEs of 81% of the participating companies. Specific topics were covered, such as nonwovens, personal protective equipment, innovative functional textiles, bio-textiles, composites, coatings and technical fabrics. Furthermore, 44 brokerage events were reported in 15 different countries with in total 2325 participants, including many SMEs (approx. 53%). Some of the events were large open events, so the number of participants is even higher, but could not be counted. Further, the 2BFUNTEX partners with strong links to SMEs reported a high number of visits to companies and meetings with industrial representatives where 2BFUNTEX was promoted.
Exploitation of results
The main result of the 2BFUNTEX project is the creation of an Open Innovation Platform (OIP) on functional textiles (www.2BFUNTEX.eu). UGent will continue to maintain the 2BFUNTEX database during the year 2016 (without any funding). Meanwhile, negotiations are under way so that the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing can take over the 2BFUNTEX Open Innovation Platform, which would ensure the sustainability of the website long after the project has ended.
Peaks in registrations by new members on the OIP have been noticed after the organisation of large dissemination events by 2BFUNTEX, which shows the importance of promotion at such events to enlarge the 2BFUNTEX community. Therefore, it is foreseen that the 2BFUNTEX OIP will be further promoted by the partners at future events (via oral and poster presentations and leaflet distribution). Moreover, the workshops within the textile industry will not stop with the end of the 2BFUNTEX project, but workshops will also be organised in the future in order to help the companies to implement functional textile innovations.
One of the main objectives of the 2BFUNTEX MDTs was to find project ideas to submit proposals, e.g. within the new Framework Programme HORIZON2020. Many ideas have been generated and some have already been successfully turned into a project proposal, while others still need further exploring. It is expected that the collaboration in the 2BFUNTEX MDTs will be continued beyond the end of the project. The deliverables prepared during the 2BFUNTEX project (such as D5.5 Toolkit for MDTs, D5.2 Letter of Intent and D5.3 Formal agreements for collaboration in MDTs) will be further used to support the MDTs in setting up new research collaborations. This will also be done by participating in future brokerage events, since face-to-face meetings are the best way to find new project partners.
The 2BFUNTEX results have been exploited and widely disseminated inside and outside the consortium. The consortium was composed of representatives from industry, the academic world, research institutes and industrial associations. Further, in terms of the geographical dimension, different EU member states (14) are represented together with 4 partners from an associated country (Turkey) and two partners from an International Cooperation Partner Country (ICPC) (Ukraine). By having partners coming from main industrial districts in Europe and from different types of organizations, we had the opportunity to use to a maximum extent the channels for dissemination and exploitation of the project results.
List of Websites:
URL : http://www.2bfuntex.eu/
Email : info@2bfuntex.eu
