WEAR Sustain: Ethical Wearables and E-Textiles

DEADLINE: 15 January 2018

WEAR Sustain is looking, in its second Pan European competiton, for up to 26 teams of artists or designers and technologists/engineers to work together to design and develop compelling, innovative, aesthetic, ethical, environmental, and sustainable solutions for wearable technology and smart or e-textiles development, across all possible application domains.

Up to €50,000 of funding is available to each team, which offers the means to jumpstart promising co-created concepts, and receive support from experts towards the development of a prototype as a possible go-to-market trajectory. Co-applicants will be promoted as pioneers of ethical and sustainable wearables, and e-textiles.

WEAR seeks proposals that address vital current and pressing issues facing European and global society. These themed areas will guide proposals for WEAR Sustain funding. Applicants must engage with one or more of the themes in a critical and creative way, proposing     solutions to these issues. The themes for the current open call are:

  • Use, reuse or Waste
  • Batteries & energy sources / generation
  • Sourcing and life-cycle
  • Data collection & Privacy
  • Social / Workplace
  • Body / Physiology / Somatics
  • Open Category

Irrespective of the chosen theme, data ethics and sustainability should be addressed in the proposal. A total fund of €2.4m is being made available over two years, to fund 48 teams, out of which 22 collaborations have already been selected during the first competition. Partners will receive support via innovation vouchers and input from mentors, experts and hubs to help realise their ideas, and help towards taking prototypes to market.

  • Selected finalists will be invited to pitch to a panel of experts in the week of 7th – 9th February 2018.
  • Winners will be notified by 16th February 2018.
  • Teams must be prepared to work together on their prototypes from the 19th March 2018, over a period of 6 months.

WEAR Sustain is managed by a consortium of 7 organisations across 5 EU countries: 4 universities or research centres and 3 SMEs. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 732098.

Please find more information on the programme as well as application link here.

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