AEI Tèxtils organized the kick-off meeting of the new European Project: ADDTEX – Advancing industrial digital and green innovations in the advanced textile industry through innovation in learning and training. ADDTEX is one out of 30 new funded Strategic Alliances for Education and Enterprises at European level. The meeting was held in the cluster facilities in Terrassa from July 13th to 15th.
The ADDTEX partnership is composed by four clusters/industrial associations, AEI Tèxtils in Catalonia, the Portuguese Textile Cluster both, IVGT in Germany and CLUTEX in Czech Republic, together with a series of higher education institutions and vocational education centers: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (member of AEI Tèxtils), University of Boras, Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, PIN – Polo Universitario Città di Prato and complemented by supporting innovative organizations: TITERA, INCDTP, CRE.THI.DEV and CIAPE.
The project, co-funded under the Erasmus+ program from the European Union, aims to facilitate the flow and co-creation of knowledge between higher education (HEI) and vocational education and training (VET), research, public and business sectors within the advanced textile materials industry to foster new, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning.
ADDTEX will also reinforce the clusters in each region, supporting education and training of advanced textile materials’ companies through linkages with HEIs and VETs.
Over the kick-off meeting, the partners had the opportunity to introduce their organizations and their role in the project, discuss about the project outcomes and timeline and to plan the next actions for the upcoming months.
ADDTEX main outcomes will be a market needs assessment of future skills for the advanced textiles’ manufacturing industry, a custom virtual training program focusing on green, digital and smart skills for different industrial profiles, testing collaboration activities between industry and academia to foster synergies and innovation and the development of hubs in the clusters to facilitate skill development.
In the next 3 years, AEI Tèxtils will take profit of the project to strengthen its portfolio of services for upskilling and reskilling the advanced textile materials sector, as well as building strategic alliances with key educational players, both within the region and at European level.
ADDTEX is fully aligned with the new strategy of the cluster on skills to accelerate strategic and technological capabilities and attract talent to drive innovation and resilient growth in the sector; and with the strategic line of supporting digitalization and sustainability to enhance the digital transformation in advanced textile materials’ manufacturing and fostering green practices through skill development.
AEI Tèxtils considers this project as a cornerstone for the long-term innovation capacity of the sector. Clusters act as a hub and as a collaborative environment to facilitate partnership between enterprises, research institutes, policy makers and other institutions that promote innovation and provide SMEs access to new knowledge competencies, resources and markets.
ADDTEX is the first of the three key European projects AEI Tèxtils is starting this year to support competitiveness of its members. The remaining two projects, framed within Euroclusters, will complement the portfolio of services for competitiveness development.
