Textiles are a necessity of life for people as protection, warmth and comfort for body and interior, as well as shaping our individual, social and cultural identity. The global textile sector (60% of which is clothing) is dominated by fast fashion and has a huge ecological footprint and poor working conditions in mostly non-Western production countries. Dutch and European directives and legislation force the sector to work in a circular and transparent way to become ecologically and socially sustainable. This will not succeed without supporting research.

That is why NewTexEco (New Textile Ecosystems) has joined forces as a research community with five professorships from three universities of applied sciences at its core: Tactical Design and Fashion from ArtEZ University of the Arts, Sustainable & Functional Textiles from Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Fashion Research & Technology and Fashion Identity from Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. By combining the research expertise of these professorships, we connect the still largely separate fields of textile production, fashion design and circular business. Together with our practice partners, we work together as a consortium based on the vision that the complex transition task towards a sustainable textile sector can only be successful if it is supported by research from a broad, holistic approach in which existing and new knowledge and skills are developed and applied in various forms of co-creation, namely:

• Between different knowledge domains relevant to textiles (trans-disciplinary)
• Within existing and new textile chains (chain approach)
• With government, knowledge institutions, business and citizens, taking into account the ecological impact (quadruple/quintuple helix)

Central to our mission is research with practice. NewTexEco consists of around 30 practice partners ranging from independent fashion and textile partners, producers of (company) clothing, textile collectors and recyclers to (inter)national platforms for fashion, textiles and sustainable entrepreneurship. They are the key players in our research. They know the challenges and hurdles to make the transition possible and what knowledge and skills are needed for this. Together with the practice partners, we initiate the necessary research on themes as formulated in regional, national and European textile policies. Specifically, this means knowledge deepening and application in circular, sustainable and regenerative design & production, business models and (re)use of textiles. We apply the results of the research as much as possible with our partners and share the results with students, teachers and the professional field.

We pursue for NewTexEco the goals of:

• profiling through international (re)recognition
• growth of our research capacity, facilities and funding
• expansion of our (inter)national network of practice partners and knowledge institutions
• increasing number of teachers and students in our research and learning activities
• quality of research through a research agenda aligned and implemented with practice partners, with a clear quality protocol
• increasing impact on science, the field, education and society by sharing and applying our knowledge

NewTexEco is an open network with formal consortium partners who co-fund the programme in-kind and partners who just want to be informed about what we are doing and the results of our activities and research. If you would like to become a (consortium) partner please contact our network coordinator Jaap Zandbergen.