Interested in exploring opportunities for funded projects with potential for deployment in Space & on Earth?

Smart Textile Alliance is planning to launch a taskforce on e-textile solutions for Space with especial focus on performance and health monitoring solutions, not least those that can also subsequently be deployed in terrestrial applications. Our aim is to encourage e-textile developers and manufacturers to consider applying for ESA Calls by offering support in identifying funding and development opportunities, supporting development of smart textile concepts, assisting in finding partners and coordinating potential proposals.

Goals for the taskforce are to:

• Draw attention to opportunities for funding smart textile developments in space projects.
• Bring together organisations with a heritage of space development and newcomers with disruptive technologies, concepts and approaches, to investigate potential for collaboration and development of smart textile-based solutions for wearables and space applications.
• Identify relevant calls and partners and develop proposal concepts – aiming to submit at least 1 proposal in 2026.

To support us in this work we have invited both an experienced ESA Project Officer to support the group as an expert mentor, sharing knowledge about relevant ESA funding programmes, upcoming calls and how they are evaluated and supported, together with an ESA-astronaut with a unique background as an orthopaedic surgeon, and who is willing to give feedback on proposed concepts.

We plan for the first meeting to be with a visit to the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne in June, but busy schedules – and astronaut flight training – makes finalising a date challenging – so we first expect to fix the date in the course of May.

More Info

Interested in taking part? Drop a line to info@smarttextile.org with Space Taskforce in the subject line