Four partners of Tèxtils.CAT, the Catalan cluster for advanced textile materials, have been selected as beneficiaries of the first ELEVATEX call, a European project co-funded by the European Union that drives innovation, sustainability, and competitiveness of European textile value chains.
The first ELEVATEX call targeted textile SMEs developing innovative products, processes, or services close to market (TRL above 6), with special focus on the green and digital transition and market entry. Each selected company will receive a grant of 30,000€ for a six-month project, from October 2026 to March 2027.
The call received 233 proposals from applicants in 26 countries. After eligibility verification, 185 proposals from 24 countries advanced to the evaluation phase. Of these, 20 SMEs have been selected, receiving a total of 600,000€ in financial support.
Four of the 20 selected companies are partners of Tèxtils.CAT:
- Etisilk: Through the TEXSILK-COOL project, the company will complete the industrial qualification of HDPE technical textiles with passive cooling for outdoor shading, which have shown surface temperature reductions of between 5 and 10 °C under direct solar radiation, with pilot applications in awnings and parasols.
- Technitiger: In the RE-ARAMID project, the company will develop recycled meta-aramid yarns with a recycled content of between 25% and 50% and validate them in a certified flame-retardant fabric and a demonstrator garment, using 3D woven structures to recover the mechanical strength lost during recycling.
- Hilaturas Arnau: As a producer specialising in technical textiles, it will lead the development and certification of a high-performance fire-barrier fabric incorporating recycled PBI and para-aramid fibres. Manufactured entirely within the European Union, the fabric is specifically designed for firefighter protection and industrial thermal protection applications. The project will demonstrate the feasibility of a circular supply chain that reduces Europe’s strategic dependence on virgin critical fibres sourced from non-EU countries.
- La Industrial Algodonera (LIASA): The company will scale up to continuous industrial production of an entirely paper-based braided cord featuring an innovative design and FSC certification for premium packaging. The cord replaces fossil-based fibres and enables paper bags to be recycled as a single material.
Tèxtils.CAT is one of the five partners in the ELEVATEX consortium, together with Techtera (France), the coordinator, CITEVE (Portugal), Next Technology Tecnotessile (Italy), and ATEVAL (Spain). Together, the partners represent around 1,000 textile companies across five leading European textile regions.
About ELEVATEX
ELEVATEX (Joint cluster initiative to leverage innovation and cooperation for the resilience, twin-transition, recovery, and global competitiveness of European textile value chains) is a European project supporting the transformation of the textile and manufacturing sectors through innovation, collaboration, and sustainable growth. It helps companies access funding, expert knowledge, and new opportunities for development and international cooperation.
