ACTE renews its commitment to innovation

On 17th October, ACTE organised the international conference "The thread of innovation" at the Museo Nacional de la Ciència i de la Tècnica de Catalunya in Terrassa, Spain. The conference aimed at exchanging experiences and informing about new business opportunities generated by the TCL sectors.

The opening session was chaired by Pere Navarro, Mayor of Terrassa and Vice-president of ACTE Spain, and Edgardo Canuto, ACTE Vice-president for European Affairs, with the participation of Claudio Cappellini of the European Social and Economic Committee, Montserrat Torné, Director-general of international cooperation of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and Antoni Soy, Industry and Enterprise Secretary of the Catalan Government.

This high-level conference, which was attended by almost 200 experts from public authorities, research and technology centres, businesses and universities from all over Europe, was divided into two parts: a first institutional part with the exposition of best practice examples from France (Lille), Italy (Marche Region) and Spain (Vigo) in the field of territorial policies and innovative clusters. In the afternoon, 4 thematic workshops discussed about the different dimensions of innovation related to the textile, clothing, and leather and footwear sectors:

• Eco-innovation in the textile sector: issues related to quality, transparency and certification
• Innovation in heritage - the TWINTEX experience: set up in Prato, this network is composed by several textile museums from all over Europe
• Knowledge and research: the relation between university, technology centres and the business sector
• Reinventing the territory: innovative approaches in urbanism

The conference concluded with the adoption of the "Terrassa Charter of the textile and fashion sector". The document highlights that the textile-fashion sector has shown a big capacity for adjustment to structural changes and still has important growth opportunities like, for instance, high quality "technical" textiles to be used in road construction, air bag manufacture, and for medical purposes, among many others.

The future of the sector is closely linked with innovation but innovation not only means the creation of new products. Innovation is also about transforming businesses towards new management models, markets and activities, and about adequately training and mobilising the scientific and innovative talent to assure that the expertise and knowledge will not get lost in our territories.

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Terrassa Charter of the Textile and Fashion Sector en / es / fr / it
Download conference documentation

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