Presentation: Recent market-ready innovations for high-performance textile applications

Speaker: Jessica Robe, WTiN

With a focus on commercially ready materials, this presentation will explore the new, cutting-edge innovations that can be sourced and implemented today. The session marks a comprehensive tour of the most significant functional launches currently hitting the market, defining key functional attributes such as durability, thermoregulation and moisture wicking, to name a few. It will assess new benchmarks for performance as continue to transition away from traditional synthetics toward advanced, multi-functional textiles. 

How collaboration drives commercial-readiness

Speakers: Tobias Schwab, BASF
Yaser Riaz, Interloop Limited

This session will look at real world case studies of successful partnerships in industrialising commercially ready materials. How can collaboration enable entry into new markets and diversify applications for materials? Through a diverse range of expert panellists, we will explore the importance of business architecture and operational reality beyond the marketing launch and examine the role of collaboration and the right partnerships within this.  

Responsible AI to Unlock Adaptive Materials

Speaker: Jacqueline Ros Amable, Matereal

Bringing new materials from the lab to commercial scale remains one of the biggest challenges in materials innovation. AI has the potential to transform not only how new materials are discovered, but how they are formulated, optimised, manufactured and scaled.

In this presentation, Matereal will share a case study in applying AI across the materials development and commercialisation process. Matereal is developing a new generation of non-isocyanate polyurethane materials designed to deliver performance comparable to incumbent materials while running on existing manufacturing equipment. Its Matereal Intelligence platform connects material design, chemistry, formulation data, manufacturing constraints and performance requirements to accelerate the path from formulation to production.

The presentation will explore how responsible AI can move beyond materials discovery to create more adaptive, data-driven materials development systems- compressing years of iterative chemistry and scale-up into a continuously learning process, while enabling more sustainable materials to compete on performance, cost and manufacturability.

Build the future innovation pipeline and bridging ‘the valley of death’

Speakers: Simon Whitmarsh-Knight, Hyosung
Amanda Turner , PLNTmatter
Victoria Mataczynski, Nanoloom

Moving material innovation from a successful lab pilot to a global supply chain is often cited as the most difficult phase of development. This session will assess the key barriers slowing down scaling, provide direction for navigating the integration barrier and discuss how we can bridge the innovation ‘valley of death’ through building fair offtake agreements; designing for scale at the outset; brand-innovator partnerships; working with upstream partners and maintaining investment to form permanent, systemic supply chain integration.

Panel: Scaling in the EU’s digital product passport era

Speaker: Shivam Gusain, Textile and fashion industry

As digital product passports (DPPs) become mandatory for textiles entering the EU – under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) – the 'scaling stage' of product development is no longer solely about volume but also about providing verifiable transparency and traceability to support the information requirements of a circular industry. Addressing current developments and challenges within the regulation, this discussion will deconstruct the data requirements for Tier-2 and Tier-3 suppliers and provide an overview on risk mitigation for brands and retailers. With compliance resting on their shoulders, this session will also assess how ‘scaling’ now means scaling smarter, not just bigger.

Innovation sprint: A high-velocity showcase of emerging material innovation

Speakers: Mya Griesbaum, Mycorrhiza Fashion
Anna Rising, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Laetus Felix Buberwa, KelTex

This fast-paced, high-energy Pecha Kucha session offers a wide-angle lens on the future, featuring a curated selection of innovators, researchers and startups presenting their nascent technologies in the iconic 20x20 format. Attendees will walk away with a comprehensive "snapshot" of the technologies that will define the textile supply chain by 2030. 

Industrialising academia the global supply chain

Speaker: Professor Parik Goswami, University of Huddersfield

Rather than purely based in theoretical study, academia has become the outsourced R&D powerhouse for innovation across the textile & apparel supply chain. This session will assess the different levers for academic-industry partnerships, exploring the opportunities and challenges with each. It will explore the role of academia in aiding the innovation-landscape and ensuring that the research of today becomes the high-performance supply chain of tomorrow.  

Fuelling the next frontier of textile innovation: Securing investment for early development

Speaker: Marte Hentschel , VORN

Developing a new, disruptive technology, whether it’s a new fibre, ingredient or chemistry is a high-stakes endeavour that requires not just technical brilliance but a strategic financial blueprint. This session will explore the funding landscape for the next generation of textile solutions. We bring together the leaders who have successfully raised capital for innovations and the organisations and investors who specialise in industrial transformation from lab to pilot scale. Panellists will divulge practical insights on how to bridge the gap between technical proof-of-concept and the commercial reality of a global supply chain.