20 years of Textile ETP: a short history and some lessons learned
Regularly, our Secretary General Lutz Walter shares his insights and knowledge through his blogposts, covering a wide range of topics related to textile sustainability and innovation. Follow his blog to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges that the textile industry is facing today.
"In December 2004 the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing, in short Textile ETP or even shorter the ETP, was officially launched. […] The history of the Textile ETP over the last 20 years can be broadly divided into 3 phases: the stealth phase from launch in late 2004 to 2012 as a non-formalised network operationally integrated into EURATEX, the start-up phase 2013-2018 as a newly created independent legal entity but with limited own operational capacity and relatively static membership, and the scale-up phase since 2019 with steadily growing operational capacity, growing membership and a widening suite of activities and services. […] The Brussels-based ETP team now counts 7 full-time staff members. 3 thematic Innovation Hubs – Circular Biobased Textiles, SmartX for smart and technical textiles and DigitX for digital textile innovation are open to subscribers. Our online members platform hosts several hundred hours of video-recorded expert webinar content, countless downloadable presentations and other technical documents and an experts directory of over 1500 contacts."
In his latest blog post, our Secretary General Lutz Walter reflects on 20 years of Textile ETP’s journey. He shares how we’ve grown from our beginnings in 2004 to become a key hub for research, collaboration, and innovation in the European textile sector. Highlighting our milestones, lessons learned, and evolving role, this blogpost offers a thoughtful look at our past achievements and exciting plans for the future.
