European Apparel and Textile Organisation
24 rue Montoyer – B – 1000  Brussels
phone: + 32.2.285.48.81 – Fax : +32.2.230.60.54
e:mail : william.lakin@euratex.org
Web-site : www.euratex.org

Upcoming Public Events organised by the EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

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PRESS RELEASE
Upcoming Public Events organised by the European Technology Platform

Bio-Tex Workshop
Exploring Biotechnology and Textile Innovation
20 November 2008 (9.30 -17.00 hours), Brussels, Belgium
Jointly organised with the Sustainable Chemistry Technology Platform (SusChem) this public workshop will showcase the research and industrial application potential for biotechnologies in the textile sector. A line-up of industrial pioneers in textile biotechnology such as Nature Works, Novozymes, Dupont, Linificio & Canapificio Nazionale or Filatura Maclodio will share their experiences and discuss with leading textile and biotechnology scientists and the audience the most promising avenues for further developments in this field or the major bottlenecks that will need to be tackled to accelerate further industrial innovation.
Representatives of DG Research of the European Commission will outline relevant research opportunities in FP7 and listen to new research needs proposed by workshop participants. The conclusions from the workshop will be presented in form of a Textile Biotechnology Research Roadmap.
Participation in the workshop is free of charge thanks to EU project funding support.
The full programme and registration documents are available for download from www.textile-platform.eu

Public Seminar on Higher Textile Education
28 November 2008 (9.30 -16.00 hours), Brussels, Belgium
An estimated 10-12% of the employees in the European Textile and Clothing sector have a higher education degree and despite overall negative employment trends in the sector the ongoing demand for highly qualified engineers, designers and product developers or managers is expected to remain strong. Universities departments and specialised colleges across Europe face challenges to attract sufficient numbers of students for textile-related courses or to ensure the necessary resources for maintaining and strengthening the high level of education provision and related research facilities for which they are famous for the world over. Are we running the risk of a persistent gap between supply of and demand for highly qualified job starters for Europe’s textile and clothing industry? Results of surveys among industry and higher education institutions carried out by the Horizontal Task Group on Education will shed more light on this problem and a number of speakers and panellists from industry and academia from across Europe will share their views and discuss with the audience. A draft strategy paper to address the identified challenges will also be presented.
Participation in the seminar will be free of charge thanks to support of the EU Leonardo project Tex-Tag whose results will also be showcased.
The full programme and registration documents will shortly be available at www.textile-platform.eu




Personal Protective Equipment Conference
Driving innovation and public procurement in the European Lead Market
1-2 December 2008, Hengelo & Enschede, The Netherlands
Protective Textiles and Personal Protective Equipment has been highlighted by the European Commission as one of a handful of Lead Markets in which Europe holds a very strong position and which offers great potential for strong growth on global level for years to come. This high-level event will bring together the entire PPE industrial value chain, end users, academics and public authorities to discuss and identify:
- long-term end-user driven innovation demands and key research and technology trends as elements of a roadmap for innovation
- incentives and barriers for innovation from legislation, standardisation and best practises of safety at the workplace
- to provide a forum for value-chain dialogue and policy agenda setting for suppliers ad end-users of PPE
Leading industrial players will showcase their approaches to product and service innovation, important end users will describe their most crucial needs and innovation expectations, relevant research projects will present their results and policy makers from EU and national level will describe their actions to foster innovation in this market which will provide for better protection of humans at risk.
The full programme and registration documents are available for download from www.efsm.nl/ppeconference

4th Annual Public Conference of the European Textile Technology Platform
From EU Research to Industrial Innovation
1-2 April 2009, Brussels, Belgium
More than 20 European textile research projects with a total budget of more than € 200 million are currently running under the 6th and 7th EU Research Framework Programmes (FP6-FP7). The majority of those including flagship projects such as LEAPFROG, AVALON, DIGITEX or POLYTECT are expected to showcase their intermediate or final results in the form of presentations, exhibitions, live demonstrations etc. in this upcoming large scale event.
A keynotes session opened by EU Research Commissioner Potočnik and ETP chairman Dick Hendriks will inform about key developments in EU research policies and programmes and the activities of the Textile ETP. Related European Technology Platforms will be invited to share their views on the opportunities and related research needs for application of textile materials and processing know-how in their respective industry sectors and end markets.
The detailed programme is under preparation and more information will be made available in due course at www.textile-platform.eu
The conference organiser seeks sponsorships which should allow a significant number of students from textile/clothing universities and colleges from across Europe to attend this event. Interested companies or other organisations should send a short message to lutz.walter@euratex.org to learn more about the conditions and benefits of becoming an event sponsor.

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Lutz Walter
R&D Manager