Request for Applications: WORTH Partnership Project – Fashion

Objectives

• In line with the EU Industrial Strategy, EU SMEs strategy the action will contribute to supporting creative industries and their SMEs. It will contribute to the objectives of the Single Market Programme and in particular to strengthening the competitiveness and sustainability of enterprises, particularly SMEs, and supporting their access to markets. It will also indirectly contribute to other EU policies such as EU Green Deal and New European Bauhaus, EU innovation policy, A Europe fit for the digital age, EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles or the Communication on Building the future with nature: Boosting Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing in the EU, among others.
• The general objective of this call for proposals is to enhance the competitiveness, sustainability, and innovation of European design-intensive creative and lifestyle industries (particularly, in sectors like fashion and home decoration). This will be achieved by reinforcing the sector capacity and fostering transnational cooperation between creative professionals, designers, SMEs and technologies providers. This call for proposals aims to support entrepreneurship and drive the green and digital transitions within the creative and lifestyle industries. It supports transnational business partnerships (‘partnerships’) between SMEs (e.g. manufacturers, crafters, tech-providers) on the one hand and designers or other creative professionals on the other. Throughout the incubation and acceleration process, these partnerships work to develop innovative, design- and creativity-driven products, processes or services with high value-added helping them either embark on a sustainable business path or enhance their competitive position. Support to selected partnerships in the targeted creative sectors will be provided by the projects selected under this call through:
  • direct financial support to the partnerships, tailor-made mentoring programmes (coaching and strategic advice tailored to meet the specific needs of partnership), general training courses (e.g. marketing, business planning or IPR protection), as well as visibility and networking opportunities for the partnerships. In particular, the mentoring programmes will support partnerships to:
    • define and develop their business idea;
    • define their market positioning;
    • showcase their prototypes or proof of concept during relevant trade shows;
    • define their Intellectual Property Rights strategy;
    • define their strategy to attract investors and to access markets, including public procurement markets where possible.

Themes and Priorities

• The WORTH Partnership Project IIIrd edition remains the Europe-wide incubation programme providing direct support to partnerships between SMEs (e.g. manufacturers, crafters, tech-providers) on the one hand and designers or other creative professionals on the other, during the entire process from idea generation to prototype design as well as product manufacturing and commercialisation, based on tech-driven or green business solutions.
• The project proposals shall overall support designers and SMEs in developing innovative products, services and business ideas responding to the most pressing challenges such:
  • Circular economy and resources efficiency.
  • High-value added solutions for attractive growth markets.
  • Advanced digitized manufacturing, value chains and business models.
  • Smart, high-performance materials.
  • Rethinking social innovation and inclusion.
  • Reinvention of craftsmanship and heritage preservation.
• Applicants can add additional emerging challenges to the ones mentioned above.
• Proposals must take into account the results of projects supported by other EU funding programmes, in particular by previous editions of the WORTH partnership project. The complementarities must be described in the project proposals.

Topic

• Topic 1: SMP-COSME-2024-WORTH-01 — Boosting Competitiveness and Innovation Capacity of SMEs through creative partnerships – WORTH partnership project – Fashion
  • The project proposals submitted under topic 1 will cover support to partnerships in the fashion sector, including textiles and clothing, footwear, leather goods, jewellery, and fashion accessories.
  • Fashion is one of the most vibrant creative sectors in Europe. It is present in the everyday life of millions of people, and can convey values such as culture, creativity, innovation, and craftsmanship. Europe is home to many independent fashion brands and talented fashion designers. Despite crisis and diverse challenges many European companies in the sector have managed to defend their position in the global market.
  • This is mainly due to a move towards innovative, high added-value products and services, niche markets, and new business models. WORTH partnership projects contribute to innovation and sustainability in the fashion sector, incubating new design-driven solutions and business ideas and promoting transnational cooperation.
  • The project proposals shall overall support designers and SMEs in developing new innovative products, services, and business ideas in the sector of fashion industries, including textiles and clothing, footwear, leather goods, jewellery, and fashion accessories.

Funding Information

• Topic budget
  • Topic 1: SMP-COSME-2024-WORTH-01 Fashion (including textiles and clothing, footwear, leather goods, jewellery, fashion accessories) EUR 2 250 000.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
    • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  • non-EU countries:
    • listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme (SMP)
• Legal entities (forming a consortium) may include the following (the list of type of entities is not exhaustive):
• • Non-profit organisations (private or public) specialised in business and entrepreneurial support and/or creative industries.
  • ‘Public bodies’ specialised in business support for SMEs and/or creative industries.
  • Research centres, universities or educational institutions.
  • European umbrella organisations of industrial/sectoral associations.
  • Business support organisations including business incubators and accelerators, local economic development agencies, entrepreneurial hubs.
  • Business development organisations, including business labs, chambers of commerce and industries, trade associations, industry-specific organisations.
  • Business Networks and other professional associations.
  • Organisations providing specialised communication services (such as communication agencies).
  • Providers of sustainable solutions, including recycling centres.
  • Profit making entities specialised in business and entrepreneurial support and/or creative industries.
  • Financing bodies and/or providers of financing solutions.

For more information, visit European Commission.