SmartX - European Smart Textiles Accelerator
SmartX is the short name for the European Smart Textiles Accelerator. Innovation projects supported through the SmartX programme will focus on filling the industrial manufacturing gap that currently exists between an abundance of promising design prototypes and a growing end market interest in smart textiles and wearables. Bringing such products to market quickly and at reasonable price points requires the establishment of a novel industrial value chain composed of manufacturers of textiles and microelectronics, integrators and assemblers, data processing and IoT experts, manufacturing technology providers, distributors, funding providers and end users.
The SmartX will establish a portfolio of up to 40 Trailblazer projects, which will pioneer one or more stages of the novel value chain with a specific focus on critical manufacturing steps. These projects will be selected by an international selection committee of recognized experts in the smart textiles field. The funded projects will be coached along the entire process from project generation to results exploitation by clusters experts trained in the SmartX Coaching Approach. Funded projects will mostly tackle 3 high-potential end markets:
(i) protective wear incl. sports gear;
(ii) industrial applications;
(iii) health care and wellbeing, markets where Europe has leadership positions.
Small and medium-sized companies from across the EU and certain associated countries can apply for the funding through open calls.
In addition to the funding and coaching of innovation projects, SmartX will also develop a web-based collaboration platform for European smart textiles experts with a number of self-service and interactive tools.
During the autumn SmartX will organize regional workshops in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden and an IoT hackathon in Berlin to share knowledge and prepare companies for the upcoming call for projects.
The first call for projects is expected to open in November 2019. And two further calls will be launched during 2020.
The SmartX Consortium is composed of the following partners: Textile ETP (BE - coordinator), UP-Tex (FR), Po.In.Tex (IT), Texfor (ES), Smart Textiles (SE), Cluster Têxtil Moda/CITEVE (PT), DSP Valley (BE), CITC-EuraRFID (FR), DITF (DE), Centexbel (BE), Steinbeis (DE), IFM (FR), Sourcebook (DE).
More information: https://www.smartx-europe.eu/
