Funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), FFN+ will build on the university’s extensive research into the sustainability of the fashion industry. That has included the first research to highlight how microfibres are released into wastewater through the laundry process, and how mechanical devices can prevent their release.
Plymouth University’s £1.6 million project, FFN+, aims to decarbonise the textile industry by embedding environmental sciences at its core.
Funded by UKRI, FFN+ builds on extensive sustainability research, including studies on microfibres in wastewater.
The initiative focuses on creating systematic, circular, and sustainable principles in fashion.
The university has also led research that found clothing fibres everywhere from the slopes of Mount Everest to the River Ganges and the deepest oceans. It has also worked to influence national policies around sustainability in the fashion industry, contributing to government reviews and debates on the issue.
The FFN+ project is being led by the University of Exeter, and also involves researchers from the University of the Arts London, University of Blackburn, University of Leeds, and University of Huddersfield.
The FFN+ project will build the critical mass of transdisciplinary expertise, and methodologies needed to establish systematic, circular, and sustainable principles as the norm. A key objective is to counter the current siloed disciplinary approach that exacerbates the complexity of the environmental challenge. The FFN+ consortium is uniquely placed to address this issue, operating across established networks of expertise spanning environment, design, STEM, and humanities capabilities across academic, industrial, public, and private organisations, communities, and networks.
“Our vision is to embed environmental sciences at the heart of the fashion and textiles sector. Building FFN+ is a first step towards transforming the fashion industry towards a new, low carbon future. We’re excited to be bringing together all sorts of expertise in business, design, manufacturing, and the environment to achieve this. It’s no longer good enough to design textiles and garments without thinking about what happens to them at the end of their life. We need to design in sustainability from the start. This could include manufacturing smarter fabrics or garments that don’t cause harm to the environment during their manufacture, use, and disposal, but could also include developing more circular, less wasteful supply chains or changing people’s perceptions and attitudes to the clothes they wear,” said project lead professor Tamara Galloway, who teaches ecotoxicology at the University of Exeter.
The funding is part of the £6 million awarded to three teams of researchers by the Natural Environment Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council, and Innovate UK. It is a key part of UKRI’s £15 million Circular Fashion Programme.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)