Current Proposals WUR-Textiles
Michiel Scheffer ??
President of the Board of the European Innovation Council. Please do not send me research proposals, service offers or job applications. Invitations to speak please at least three months in advance.
The textile programme at WUR looks for industrial partners for several projects:
- 1. TKI Natural Fibres - Agro-Food Activities. The textile programme has submitted two proposals in the TKI program.
A small project focuses on the potential to extract fibres through a traditional route (type flax), or through a cellulose (type viscose) route from plants growing in NW Europe at industrial scale. This can go from field crops like soja or lupine till greenhouse crops like stems of tomato and paprika.
A larger project, originating from discussions inside EIHA (European Industrial Hemp Association) focusses on extraction of fibres out of hemp plants grown for their CBD content through mild processing. This plant is possibly shorter, younger and less lignified.
TKI is a specific Dutch National Funding Scheme that funds public research that has industrial support. The Dutch government doubles all in kind and in cash contribution from industrial players. Provided that a proposal has the support of at least one Dutch SME, also non-Dutch economic actors can participate.
We have for both projects indicative small and large tickets. For the small project a small ticket is 5000 Euro and a large ticket is 20000 Euro. For the large project a small ticket is 20000 Euro and a large ticket 75000 Euro. Large tickets gives access rights to IPR, small tickets gives access of information on results.
2. TKI Consumer Trends. Led by our consumer studies division in connection to our food waste programme (e.g. with support of Unilever) we have a project on understanding interventions in consumer behaviour related to sustainable choices in buying, maintenance and disposal of consumer products. The objective is to study in real time over the duration of two years the real behaviour of consumers in their orientation in a store or on a webshop in relation or a sustainable offer (claims to be defined together with the companies). This rather large project is also open to a limited number of textile cases (preferably sold in a supermarket setting – e.g. underwear, hosiery; or as commodities e.g. bed/bath linen). The access is here that companies can participate if they bring in a case. A case must be based on observation of consumers on a website, on a webshop or in a physical store. The project is also of interest for laundry and dry cleaner companies with services for consumers. For participating with a case study, the investment for a company is 35000 Euro in cash for the duration of two years.
3. Better Cotton Project. WUR and ITA-RWTH (Aachen), have been selected by the German Ministry of Overseas Development (GiZ) to elaborate a proposal to optimize the textile processing and supply chain of Sub-Saharan African Cotton (Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique). The work is on better forecasting of climate conditions to optimize cotton yield, promote longer fibre lengths and less irregularities (neps, honeydew) in order to reduce costs in spinning, and increase value for the cotton farmer. The project is open to cotton spinners/weavers or users of cotton fabrics, subjected to agreement of the current consortium (already 10+ partners e.g. Trutzschler, Saurer, Calik Denim, Velener Textil, Bremer Baumwolleboerse). In this project we expect a contribution in kind, external costs (travel, supplies) are covered by the grant.
It might be that you are looking for expertise on other topics when it comes to sustainable textiles. We are preparing EU-Horizon projects and are also working closely with large fibre manufacturers (on biobased polymers), on recycling and design for recycling, and on range of projects related to cotton and climate change. Do not hesitate to contact me!