Hi-Tech-TEX project, coordinated by Portuguese Textile Cluster/CITEVE Technological Centre for Textile and Clothing Industry of Portugal, Kick of Meeting held virtually on 7^th and 8^th February with funding under European Cluster Excellence Programme with ClusterXchange scheme connecting ecosystems and cities as part of COSME.

Hi-Tech-TEX – New sustainable and cross-sectorial value chains towards excellence in Technical Textiles to foster the uptake of innovation and increasing competitiveness - main objective is to strengthen cluster management excellence and facilitate exchanges and strategic partnering between clusters and specialised eco-systems and cities across Europe, including through implementation of the “ClusterXchange” mobility scheme.

Besides Portuguese Textile Cluster/CITEVE, Hi-Tech-TEX partnership integrates AEI TÈXTILS, Associació Agrupació D’empreses Innovadores Tèxtils from Spain; ATEVAL, Asociación Textil De La Comunidad  Valenciana from Spain; NTT, Next Technology Tecnotessile S.R.L. from Italy; DCC TTC, Denizli Chamber of Commerce from Turkey; CLUTEX, Clutex - Klastr Technicke Textilie from Czech Republic. Therefore, Hi-Tech-TEX partnership brings together 4 EU countries and 1 Non-EU Participant in the COSME Programme and representing 6 regions: Norte in Portugal, Catalonia and Valencia in Spain, Tuscany in Italy, Severovýchod in Czech Republic, and Aegean in Turkey.

The Hi-Tech-TEX will be carried out several activities for a duration of 24 months. The activities are clustered as follows:

The training and coaching activities for Cluster excellence capacity building will be focus on the implementation of a strong framework programme towards capacity-building.

The implementation of pilot collaborative actions and new services that exploits synergies and draws on complementarities activities for Joint collaboration activities create a basis for the long-term cooperation between the clusters’ ecosystems and the partnership’s sustainability.

           Partnership joint strategy building and service portfolio activities will support the definition of a joint strategy and roadmap, foreseeing the implementation of new services that exploits synergies, and draws on complementarities to further the deepening of the ecosystems’ relationships.

            ClusterXchange pilot implementation focus on the implementation of the ClusterXchange pilot enabling new growth opportunities for SME and industrial transformation.

By implementing those activities as well as Outreach and Awareness Raising & Project Management and monitoring activities, Hi-Tech-TEX specific objectives will be succeeded as follows.

1. Establish new integrated value chains for development, manufacturing, and marketing of innovative hi-added value solutions.

2. Better exploit the potential of clusters and combining different competences and innovative solutions Identify, map, and connect existing facilities and service providers such as clusters, specialised RTOs, and other innovation accelerators across EU regions, to develop a networking platform to promote opportunities, links and to enable sustainable cooperation partnerships.

3. Implement capabilities and capacities and raise innovation potential by implementing the ClusterXchange pilot scheme with at least 80 short-term exchanges Clusters are the concentration of economic activities in groups of related industries in a specific location that are connected through multiple linkages, spillovers, and they reflect an increasingly cross-industry nature of value chains and innovation systems.

4. Develop and replicate a systemic approach to cross-sectoral SME innovation beyond Hi-Tech-TEX

5. Permanently boost the innovation capacity of SMEs in this area by reinforcing the emerging value chain patterns and replicating the innovation process capabilities.