Tracks4Crafts 2023-2026: a Horizon 2022 funded, four-year European collaboration set to examine and transform the transmission of traditional crafts knowledge. In today’s world, crafts are valued as traditions, as heritage, but they sit uneasily in an economic environment focused on high-tech and mass-production. The main aim of the project is to revive, validate and valorise crafts. Sixteen partners including the University of Antwerpen, University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, the Association of European Open Air Museums and World Crafts Council Europe will collaborate to identify and test alternative formats of knowhow transmission (both in physical spaces and with new digital technologies), business models to bring traditional crafts knowledge to the market, boosting entrepreneurship, and developing tools for applying legal regulation and certification. A selection of pilot cases, including the Textile Center, are at the centre of Tracks4Crafts. The Kick-Off meeting was held in Antwerpen from March 24-26, 2023.; in November, the Consortium met for a work meeting in Florence, Italy. www.tracks4crafts.eu
Fjólublár: The project "PurpleBlue" is a collaboration of the Textile Center of Iceland, Biopol in Skagaströnd and Ístex. The goal is to create a sustainable dyeing process for Icelandic wool and focuses on purple dye production from the bacterium Janthinobacterium lividum. The project seeks to refine the conditions for the bacteria to produce purple shades by using various waste materials as a base for the bacteria to grow, and ensure an environmentally sustainable production of dye for textile dyeing. The project received funding from the SSNV 2023 Development Fund.
„TextileCluster“: In 2021, the Textile Center received a Lóa - Innovation grant to develop a TextileCluster in Iceland and strengthen collaboration within textiles. The first meeting with representatives from schools, textile businesses and institutions was held in January 2022.