A £4 million funding opportunity in the UK has opened applications for projects that can sort and recycle fashion items at scale.
- The funding comes from InnovateUK, alongside the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
- The application round opened on Monday.
The Aim: The project's aim is to develop innovative, multi-disciplinary solutions to sort and recycle fashion goods and textiles at scale in the UK.
- This is the first project of the £15 million UKRI Circular Fashion Programme, which has been developed over several years in consultation with the industry and UKFT.
- UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £4 million for a demonstration of innovative technologies, services and processes.
- The competition closes on 11 January 2023.
Call for Proposals: A selected project must support a demonstration of innovation at an industrially relevant scale, which will:
- increase the proportion of post-consumer fashion and textiles retained in a closed loop system,
- increase the market value of processed post-consumer fashion and textiles,
- reduce the proportion of post-consumer fashion and textiles which is sent to landfill, destroyed or exported,
- develop and disseminate best practices in technologies, services, processes and business models to support wider industry and policymakers.
Specific Themes: The project must focus on mixed fabrics. In addition, the initiative is encouraging applications that focus on one or more of the following materials: wool, cotton and polyester.
No to Russia: The competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.
Lead Organisation: To lead a project, an organisation must:
- be a UK registered business of any size,
- collaborate with other UK registered organisations,
- be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME),
- involve at least one academic institution (can be non-grant claiming),
- involve at least one relevant trade association (can be non-grant claiming).
