Brussels, 21 March 2025 – A major step in the implementation of the European Partnership for Textiles of the Future has been taken, as the European Commission and Textile ETP now begin the signature process of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Once signed, the partnership will be officially launched to drive sustainability, circularity, and innovation in the textile sector while reinforcing Europe’s strategic autonomy and global competitiveness.
Established under Horizon Europe and aligned with the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, the partnership will harness digital innovations and novel business models to strengthen Europe’s leadership in sustainable textiles by fostering research, innovation, and investment in environmentally friendly, resource-efficient and cost-competitive production practices.
The launch of this dedicated EU research and innovation funding programme for the textile sector is a testament to the persistent work of Textile ETP over many years, building up a strong European community of industry, research and higher education stakeholders and developing a positive future vision for this industry built on technology adoption and material, process and business model innovation. It is now up to us to demonstrate to the European Commission that their investment will generate a positive return through accelerated innovation in the sector and by a strong engagement and co-investment of industry, especially SMEs in the coming 3 years.
– Marina Crnoja-Cosic, President of Textile ETP
Innovation is the bridge between sustainability and competitiveness. The Commission’s decision is a welcome contribution, but it’s only a starting point. Additional resources should be made available under the new Multiannual Financial Framework, with a strong focus on Europe’s manufacturing base — including textiles — and targeted support for clean technologies, skills, and infrastructure. Only then can we build a resilient, competitive, and sustainable industrial future.
– Mario Jorge Machado, President of EURATEX
In the European Commission’s press announcement Stéphane Séjourné, European Commission Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy stated: “Today, we take another important step forward in our commitment to strengthen Europe’s industrial landscape. Our new partnership on the future of textiles brings together the Commission and industry to drive technological progress and sustainability across the sector. This initiative will accelerate the transition toward a stronger, more competitive and sustainable European textile industry. “ Full European Commission press release here.
Textile ETP will co-lead this partnership, working closely with the European Commission and all European textile innovation stakeholders. Together, the Commission and private industry partners commit to invest up to €60 million from 2025 to 2030 in collaborative research and innovation projects. The partnership will operate within the framework of Horizon Europe’s co-programmed initiatives, facilitating collaboration between the European Commission, Textile ETP, and industry stakeholders.
What’s next?
The partnership will be formally launched through the signature of MoU between the Commission and Textile ETP, which will take place in the next days. The first funding opportunities under this initiative will then be introduced in the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 to be published in Spring with expected project submission deadlines in the early Autumn 2025 for first projects to start in mid-2026.
The Textile Partnership calls in 2025, 2026 and 2027 will reflect the priorities set out in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) published by Textile ETP in July 2024.
While any organisation can answer these calls, Textile ETP will coordinate consortium building initiatives, project brokerage, and dissemination activities for its members. These brokerage activities will also include all other textile-related funding opportunities across the entire Horizon Europe programme and other EU-funding schemes for research and innovation.
Since the autumn of 2024, we have been running a regular webinar series featuring industry innovators and technology developers across the various research and technology domains described in the 2024 Strategic Agenda.
To benefit from all these funding access facilitation actions, we encourage interested companies and research organisations to join Textile ETP.
To learn more about the Textile Partnership funding opportunities and meet the Textile ETP team and many of its current members, our Annual Public Conference on 12-14 May 2025 in Alcoy, Spain is a perfect opportunity. Learn more about the event and register for participation here.
By working together we will ensure that strong project proposals are submitted for funding to the European Commission and once projects get underway, their results, new technologies, knowledge, and best practices are quickly disseminated within the EU textile ecosystem and beyond.
If you have any question, please contact Charlotte Denis, Communications Manager, at info@textile-platform.eu.
