Invest in France Agency uk Office

Nearly three years after it was created, Up-tex now has 300 businesses and provides assistance to all those involved in the textile industry via the financial, industrial, scientific and technological resources available at regional, national and international level.

The aim of the cluster is:

• To speed up the development of markets and business associated with ‘High tech textiles’
• To place textiles at the heart of materials of the future and thereby generate a large number of new outlets in high added value sectors.
• To promote new technology in industry and management, in particular via mass-customization that aims to bring customized products to individual consumers.

Five main markets have been targeted by the cluster:
• Clothing
• House and home
• Air and land transport
• Health and hygiene
• Textiles for extreme applications

The key technologies in the cluster are:
•    Advanced materials
•    Plasmas
•    Nanotechnology
•    Biotechnology
•    Agri-resources and bio-polymers
•    Intelligent textiles and Advanced Communications
•    Product customisation and individualisation.

To date, the cluster has provided assistance for new technology and research 35 projects with investment totalling 41M€. The projects involve 94 businesses including 22 group companies or subsidiaries thereof and 51 research laboratories and universities.

The projects can be classified as follows:
•    12 projects connected with clothing
•    6 projects connected with the medical and food sectors
•    1 project connected with the home and water sports
•    5 projects connected with transport
•    9 projects connected with textiles in general
•    2 projects connected with geotextiles

It should be noted that some of the projects have involved several French competitiveness clusters
Up-tex provides an added dimension to the formulation and identification of projects, by providing companies with help in branching out into three up-and-coming areas, namely virtual innovation, market innovation and technological innovation.

It is against this background that the DECID workshops have been set up, in partnership with CLUBTEX and the Institut français de la mode.

They have already attracted over 1900 people, representing 700 companies and 10 projects have resulted from the workshops

Attributes

Nord-Pas-de-Calais has occupied a privileged position in the French textile industry for several centuries. It is currently the 2nd biggest clothing and textile region in France with 1,000 businesses and 25,000 jobs

The Hi-tech Textile industry:
The high-tech textile industry in Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Businesses and Jobs
200 businesses and 9,000 jobs

Research   
750 researchers
World-wide project: Centre Européen des Textiles Innovants (CETI) with over one hundred researchers.    

Training
A full range of training facilities (engineering colleges, fashion college, textile training, chemistry, materials, printing, computer graphics, textile design, etc.)

Leading European companies:
Pronal, Tissavel, Biotech and Cousin, Trestec, Mortelcque, Pennel Industries

Le Centre Européen des Textiles Innovants (CETI), the only one of its kind anywhere in the world

A private research and development facility, the CETI aims to pool teams of multidisciplinary researchers (permanent or invited) in a technical association unlike any other in Europe (POLYTEX), to come up with innovative solutions to problems posed by Industry.

This is the backbone of the competitiveness cluster and is absolutely unique in Europe for 3 reasons :

• It combines researchers from the leading colleges and universities with textile researchers from well-respected institutes such as ENSAIT and HEI.
• They will work alongside engineers from IFTH who will be responsible for transferring fundamental research into business applications.
• The tools that will be deployed that combine research and prototype applications do not exist anywhere else

ENSAIT, HEI, EMD, ENSCL, and IFTH have been identified as partners, with special teams joining them depending on the project in question.

Members

192 members in 2008

Businesses 153
- French companies: Damart-Serviposte, Dickson-Constant, Desseilles Fabrics, Noyon Lucien et Compagnie, Promiles…
- International companies: Airbus, subsidiary of EADS (France, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain), Dim, subsidiary of DBA Apparel owned by Sun Capital Partners (United States), etc.

Over 100 small and medium-sized businesses 

Research or training facilities
10, including the Institut d’Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie (IEMN), Institut français Textile-Habillement (IFTH), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Ecole Nationale des Arts et Industries Textiles (ENSAIT), Ecole des Hautes Etudes de l’Ingénieur (HEI), Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Chimie de Lille, Ecole des Mines de Douai; Ecole Supérieure de Mode (ESMOD); INRIA… 
   
Around 25 other organisations are also partners in the cluster including the Calais, Lille, Cambrésis and Aisne chambers of commerce, Association France et Broderie, Union Professionnelle Dentelle Broderie, Union Régionale des Industries de la Confection (URIC), the Nord-Pas-de-Calais regional council, Nord county council…

Current R&D Collaboration(cf. appendix)

35 projects were earmarked between 2005 and 2008 with a total budget of 41 million Euros

Example of public funding:
Nearly 7 million Euros allocated by the Fonds Unique Interministériel (FUI) (single interministerial fund) between 2005 and 2008

International collaboration

Current
Creation of an ERANET based around Advanced Materials
Partnership with Monastir-El Fejja, Tunisia
Attendance at the Salon TechTextile, Frankfurt, Germany
Business meetings in Poznan, Poland

Planned
Visits from foreign researchers
Development of a network of contacts and alliance

Appendix: examples of R&D Projects

• More information on Up Tex