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

LEAPFROG - Annual Conference

__________________

17/07/2005.

LEAPFROG – Annual Meetings.





Recent Events
LEAPFROG - 2nd Annual Public Conference, 16 June 2005 in Brussels
The Conference took stock of progress of the LEAPFROG initiative and provided an outlook on the promising research & development work that will be tackled in the Integrated Project from mid 2005 onwards. After building a strong network of experts and research consortium for this project during 2002-2003 and ensuring the necessary funding through the EU’s 6th Framework Programme in 2004, the project is currently defining its detailed research targets, the technological development work and a roadmap for integrating all elements into a holistic framework.
This holistic approach encompassing a wide spectrum of development work (among which the automation of the actual garment making up process is just one element) will align all project modules towards the following major objectives:
- a significant productivity increase in the clothing sector combined with an improvement of overall product quality levels
- a considerable acceleration and better coordination of all processes across the textile-clothing value creation chain leading to sharply reduced response times and total costs
- the introduction of innovative product-service concepts with a higher added value proposition to retailers and end-users and better margins for manufacturers
The LEAPFROG consortium believes that in an effective combination of these factors lies not just a potential for incremental competitiveness improvements but a real opportunity for a game changing transformation of the clothing sector that could potentially make many of today’s challenges obsolete. Companies should however not look for quick fixes from this project, but industrial partners which are prepared to seriously consider and invest in innovative approaches will find many leads in this project and are welcome to join the interest group AADLT.
On the political front, the development of this largest ever European collaborative research initiative has very positively impacted the view of this sector as one that is able to set up long term industry transformative actions. It has helped significantly to obtain the necessary political support for the creation of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing or the allocation of a €25 million budget for research in technical textiles by the EC in 2005.


Contact: Lutz Walter, Euratex
Ph. +32-2-285.48.85
E-mail: lutz.walter@euratex.org
WWW: www.leapfrog-eu.org