The Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki has received European Union (EU) grants worth €1,675,090 for a research project that combines the cultural tradition of dyes and textile dyeing with the development of novel dyeing techniques and bio-based dyes.
- The grant is part of the €4 million Colour4CRAFTS multidisciplinary project which is being funded via Horizon Europe, the EU’s €95.5 billion flagship funding programme for research and innovation.
The Project: In the Colour for Combining Re-engineering, Applying, Futuring, Transforming, Stretching! (Colour4CRAFTS) project, research groups from a range of fields as well as research and development businesses are joining forces to produce new information on the use of dyes and pigments in historical times as well as new high-tech applications for bio-based dyes.
- The University of Helsinki’s share of €1,675,090 would be divided between two faculties: the share of the Faculty of Educational Sciences would get €1,160,090 and the Faculty of Science €515,000.
- Professor of Craft Science and Craft Pedagogy Riikka Räisänen heads Colour4CRAFTS, the first consortium project coordinated at the City Centre Campus in nearly 10 years.
- Räisänen has also led the BioColour project, funded for a six-year term by the Strategic Research Council (at the Academy of Finland), which she believes has already had an impact on the inclusion of bio-based dyes and pigments in the offerings of Finnish textile companies.
- Through previous projects, she has established extensive international networks with both researchers and business life.
- Part of the funding for the Colour4CRAFTS project goes to the natural sciences, to research in chemistry conducted by University Lecturer Petri Heinonen.
What They Said:
In this multidisciplinary project, history is our starting point. We want to see what we can learn from the past, while at the same time we aim to innovate new, increasingly green ways of producing dyes and using them in ways that do not pollute and consume resources as little as possible.
— Riikka Räisänen
Professor of Craft Science and Craft Pedagogy
University of Helsinki
