EuroFutureTex 2005, brought to you by: Cientifica Ltd. and Veneto Nanotech, is the new name for EuroNanoTex 2004, Europe’s first conference to highlight how nanotechnology is further enabling the textile industry to improve its competitiveness.

EuroNanoTex was launched in June 2004 by the European NanoBusiness Association to look specifically at how nanotechnologies could impact the European textile industry in maintaining an advantage in the competitive textile industry.

Now under its new name, EuroFutureTex will be exploring the wide variety of technologies that are further enabling the textile industry to develop new products and markets and do so more quickly than ever before. The focus will remain on the opportunities provided by nanotechnologies but expand its examination to the impact of microtechnologies that are evolving to the nanoscale and are now having an impact on the textile industry.

Why nanotechnology and the textile industry? The answers are clear:

• The EU is the world´s largest exporter of textile products, representing a 15% share of the world market in 2001
• The EU is also the world´s second largest exporter of textiles and clothing combined, accounting for 11% of the world market—just behind China
• In terms of imports, the EU imports €72 billion in textile and clothing goods, or around 20% of world imports, second after the United States which accounts for 24% of world imports
• Finally, in terms of labour, the textile industry in the EU employs 2 million people in some 120,000 textile companies. This represents nearly 8% of all EU manufacturing industry employment.

The textile industry is critical to health and competitiveness of the European economy. While outsourcing to Eastern Europe and Asia remains an avenue to maintain this competitiveness, there is a drive to produce more knowledge-enabled, high-value-added products within the EU itself.

Nanotechnology offers solutions for keeping the textile industry in Europe competitive with the rest of the world:
• Lowering costs
• Improving margins
• Creating access to new markets

In order to fully examine the twin issues of competitiveness and nanotechnology in the European textile industry, the European NanoBusiness Association is organising a two-day conference to examine:

• The key economic drivers for technological change in the European textiles sector
• The effect of technology on the competitiveness of the sector
• The ways in which nanotechnology is already being applied to the textile industry
• Future trends and directions