Fashion For Change Open Call launched

The EU wide project “Fashion for Change” launched an open call for SMEs, fashion designers and start-ups to participate in an Accelerator Programme aiming to bring circular fashion products, services and applications to scale.

The 3-year project is funded by the European Commission’s COSME Programme and run by a consortium of five partners, including Ecopreneur.eu. Until April 19, 2022,  transnational partnerships of at least two companies can sign up for the open call. Eligible are ideas and projects about innovative fibres and fashion products made from sustainable, recycled and/or up-cycled materials; circular business models like repair, sharing and return schemes; and software systems enabling on-demand fashion production.

The 35 most promising partnerships will be invited to present their projects at a “Fashion Sprint” designathon event, where they will benefit from personal mentoring and networking opportunities. 25 of these teams will be invited to an 8-month Fashion for Change “Growth Programme” to help them develop, test, and make their products more scalable.

To this end, each team will receive a grant of 10.000 EUR, professional business mentoring and technical support during meetings, workshops and study visits. Finally, the Growth Programme will award the five most outstanding teams an additional 5.000 EUR and two investor meetings per team, complemented by personalized business support to revise their business or marketing plans, for example.

The design of the Growth Programme takes into account the findings from the market study “Supporting Sustainable Fashion Designers, Start-Ups and SMEs in the Circular Economy” carried out by Ecopreneur.eu as part of the Fashion For Change project in 2021. The study concluded that fashion designers, start-ups and SMEs are in need of financial support combined with professional assistance and access to practical resources to succeed in adopting sustainable business models.

For further information and to apply for the Open Call visit https://www.fashionforchange.eu/accelerator-programme