Heading towards a sustainable textile value chain: NEWTEXECO officially underway
- Research
"If we want to progress, then we must work together." With words like these from Laura, the research community New Textile in Ecosystems (abbreviated as NEWTEXECO) officially began on Thursday, September 21. In NEWTEXECO, ArtEZ, Saxion, and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences join forces to accelerate the transition – and research – towards a sustainable textile value chain, with design as a crucial centerpiece.
NEWTEXECO is an 8-year collaboration project in which about thirty companies, (sector) organizations, and (presentation) platforms also participate. Thanks to a SPRONG grant from the Dutch National Agency for Practice-Oriented Research SIA, the knowledge of all these institutions, companies, professionals, and researchers can be combined, and data can be exchanged. This offers opportunities to scrutinize every phase of the 'chain': from the very beginning - how to design sustainably? To the end, the recycling process.
Festive kick-off of NEWTEXECO
On Thursday, September 21, the official kick-off of this fantastic collective took place at ArtEZ in Arnhem. This was celebrated in grand style with the program team, consortium partners, the Boards of Directors of the three knowledge institutions, and other interested parties from the networks. The collaboration was sealed by the Chairpersons of the Boards of Directors of the three universities of applied sciences who signed the collaboration agreement on stage.
Bringing together students and researchers
All Presidents of the Executive Boards agreed: the importance of NEWTEXECO also lies in bringing together students from different institutions. During the kick-off program, many important themes were discussed, such as innovation in the textile industry. A recurring topic throughout the kick-off program was the importance of collaboration in NEWTEXECO. The responses of three collaboration partners to the question of whether they can describe in one sentence why they find it important to contribute to NEWTEXECO speak volumes: Marine Toeters, co-founder of Fashion Tech Farm, responded: "Because we can't do it alone." Laura Luchtman, owner of Kukka Textile, also emphasized the importance of collaboration when she answered, "That we must work together if we want to move forward." Therefore, in the next eight years, NEWTEXECO, together with consortium partners, will contribute to a more sustainable chain for textiles and fashion through innovation and research!
Want to learn more about NEWTEXECO or contribute to this research?
Collaboration with partners, companies, and universities is at the heart of NEWTEXECO. Do you also want to contribute and participate in NEWTEXECO discussions? You can find more information on the NEWTEXECO project page. Or contact us directly via newtexeco@artez.nl. If you are active on LinkedIn, you can follow the hashtags #textileresearch and #newtexeco. Under these hashtags, a lot of relevant and interesting research is already bundled, and it will only grow over the next eight years.