UKRI Circular Fashion Programme: Recycling and Sorting Demonstrator

Grants are available for UK-based business-led projects for the demonstration of innovative technologies, services and processes in the UK’s fashion and textile sector.

This competition is jointly operated by Innovate UK (IUK), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

The aim of the competition is to fund a research and development activity demonstrator. This will demonstrate new technologies, services, processes and business models capable of addressing the recycling and sorting challenges, as part of the UK’s fashion and textile sector and their direct supply chains.

Proposals must be for a multi-disciplinary, collaborative, demonstration project. Projects must support a demonstration of innovation at an industrially relevant scale, which will:

• Increase the proportion of postconsumer fashion and textiles that are retained in a closed loop system.
• Increase the market value of processed post-consumer fashion and textiles.
• Reduce the proportion of post-consumer fashion and textiles which is sent to landfill, destroyed or exported.
• Develop and disseminate best practices in technologies, services, processes and business models to wider industry and policy makers.

Projects must focus on mixed fabrics. IUK encourages applications focussing on one or more of these materials: wool; cotton; polyester.