Fibre manufacturer Spinnova has received a grant of €1.6 million for its research and development work from Business Finland.
- The grant amount, which represents 50% of the project’s total cost estimate of €3.2 million, will be for the time period 1 October 2022 to 31 December 2024.
The project: The development project focuses on the follow-up research of Spinnova technology and fibre, targeting fibre utilisation in new application areas and product segments such as composites and nonwovens.
- The project includes continuous natural filament development, which allows Spinnova to be used in new types of textile products and to explore the composite segment.
- The project also includes development of scalable environmentally friendly dope-dye technology where the raw material of Spinnova fibre is dyed already before yarn production.
- Compared to conventional dyeing, the dope-dye method significantly reduces the use of water, energy and chemicals.
- The utilisation of non-toxic natural dyes in textile dyeing is also being explored in the project.
The funding: The grant is part of the European Union’s NextGenerationEU financing and Finland’s Bio & Circular Finland sustainable growth programme.
- The project must during its whole lifecycle meet the DNSH (Do No Significant Harm) requirements and environmental and digital criteria presented in the funding application.
- Business Finland’s financing speeds up and expands the project by improving its business potential and allows more risk taking in the content of the project.
What they said:
With the Business Finland grant we can continue our extensive development work of Spinnova’s unique technology and fibre. It’s great to see that Spinnova’s potential in the global fibre markets has been recognised and top-level Finnish research and development work is being supported financially.
— Kim Poulsen
Chief Executive Officer
Spinnova
Spinnova is a great example of how a company’s continuous development is important—they never settle for the existing but always develop something new. The sustainable competitive advantage Spinnova has gotten from their technological development has been the driving force for them.
— Veli-Pekka Ihanus
Funding Manager
Business Finland
Plans ahead: Established in 2015, Spinnova is ramping up its global commercialisation phase.
- The first commercial-scale factory of Spinnova’s joint venture company Woodspin is expected to be completed in Finland at the end of this year.
- Spinnova aims to scale the production of sustainable Spinnova fibre to 1 million tonnes by 2031–33.
