Context , the European network of experts in advanced textile materials, led by AEI Tèxtils , the Catalan cluster of advanced textile materials, has organized the webinar Financing opportunities and success stories for the development of smart textiles .
The webinar began with a brief presentation of Context , by Ariadna Detrell , AEI Tèxtils cluster manager , as leader of the network.
In the first block of the session, different financing programs were presented to support the development of innovative products; four cascading funding projects and the new EIC Accelerator program, presented by Bruno Mougin , from the French cluster Techtera .
The European projects presented that offer cascading financing mechanisms for SMEs were: GALACTICA , ELIIT , INNO4COV-19 and SMARTEES2 .
The first, Galactica , was presented by its coordinator, Josep Casamada , project manager at AEI Tèxtils . Galactica aims to support new industrial value chains, including the textile and aeronautical / aerospace sectors based on advanced manufacturing throughout the European Union.
ELIIT, European light industries innovation and technology project , represented by Korina Mollá , from Aitex , seeks to support SMEs in the textile, clothing, leather and footwear sectors in improving their competitiveness, helping them to integrate new technologies into products, services or innovative processes or high added value.
Izabel Alfany , from the Leitat Technological Center , as a partner of the project, made an introduction to INNO4COV-19, which aims for companies and reference laboratories to develop and implement innovative technologies to combat Covid-19.
Finally, SMARTEES2 was presented by one of its partners, EBN, represented by Florian Sora . SMARTEES2 aims to help SMEs to integrate flexible and portable electronic devices into novel products / series of products.
In the second part of the webinar, three companies presented their success stories in the development of smart textiles .
First, Marc Ponsa , CEO of Polisik (member of AEI Tèxtils ), presented his Smart-Horse-Riding project , co – financed by the SMARTEES2 program.
They were followed by Delphine Vialleton and Marc Piaulet , Innovation Engineer and Commercial Director of Satab , respectively, who showed the narrow electronic fabrics developed by the company.
This was followed by Wolfram Hartramph , an engineer at ITP GmbH , who introduced Texcool. A project developed together with the Catalan company, member of the AEI Tèxtils, E.Cima . Texcool is a textile cooling system based on the Peltier effect.
Finally, Judith Bosch , from the European textile technology platform, as project coordinator, made a brief summary of Smart-X , which supports the establishment of smart textile manufacturing value chains in Europe by financing and coaching SMEs and start-ups.
The event was followed by more than 70 attendees .
The recording is available on YouTube. Watch it here.
