Up to €50,000 for European Textile SMEs
FutureProofTextiles is opening its first call for proposals, offering €50,000 lump-sum grants to European textile SMEs pursuing either digital transformation or green transition projects, as part of a €2,000,000 cascade funding programme targeting 40 SMEs across the sector.
About FutureProofTextile
FutureProofTextiles: SME Support for Digital and Green Resilience mission is to help small and medium enterprises in the European textile sector overcome resource limitations and adopt advanced digital and sustainable technologies, boosting efficiency, reducing waste, and building a resilient cross-border innovation ecosystem.
Ahead of launching its open calls, the consortium carried out a dedicated Needs Assessment survey of 150 stakeholder SMEs, and applicants are expected to explicitly demonstrate how their proposed innovation addresses the barriers and needs identified in that assessment: chiefly limited access to finance, digital and green skills gaps, uncertainty in selecting technologies, and unclear sustainability regulations.
About FutureProofTextile Open Call 1
This first Open Call is designed to help SMEs navigate the “twin transitions” of digital transformation and green sustainability, distributing cascade grants across two parallel financing schemes:
Green Initiatives: promoting sustainable practices and circular economy adoption, energy-efficient production, responsible textile waste disposal, and improved resource efficiency. Eligible activities are grouped into five categories:
- Circular Economy and Sustainable Manufacturing Activities
- Textile Waste Reduction and Resource Efficiency Activities
- Sustainable Materials and Green Production Activities
- Circular Business Models and Sustainable Market Uptake Activities
- CO₂ Reduction and Environmental Impact Activities
Digital Innovations: adopting advanced digital tools, automation, and data-driven decision-making to improve efficiency and productivity. Eligible activities are grouped into three categories:
- Digital Transformation and Smart Manufacturing Activities
- Digital Product and Service Innovation Activities
- Digital Skills and Organisational Capacity Activities
The call also pursues a regional inclusiveness target, aiming to support at least 4 SMEs established outside the core consortium partners’ regions.
Why apply to FutureProofTextile Open Call
Each selected SME receives a €50,000 lump-sum grant, part of a €1,000,000 total budget allocated for this call, split evenly between the two financing schemes: 10 SMEs per scheme. The grant requires a minimum €10,000 self-funding contribution from the beneficiary, bringing the total eligible project budget to €60,000.
Funding is disbursed as a lump sum across three milestone-based tranches (40% / 40% / 20%), and projects run for a 9-month implementation period. Beyond the grant, beneficiaries gain access to tailored training, dedicated mentoring, and cross-border networking opportunities, detailed further below.
Who can apply?
- Applicants must qualify as an SME under European Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC.
- Each application must represent a single SME, consortia of multiple SMEs, clusters, and intermediary organisations are not eligible, even if the latter qualify as SMEs.
- Applicants must operate in the textile value chain; SMEs from complementary sectors (e.g., tech, machinery) are also eligible if their proposed innovation directly contributes to the textile value chain. Activities must align with one of the following NACE codes (or national equivalent):
– Textile manufacturing: C13.1, C13.2, C13.3, C13.9
– Apparel manufacturing: C14.1, C14.3
– Textile-based products and technical textiles: C15.12, C22.19
– Textile recycling and circularity: C38
– Digital and innovative solutions for the textile sector: J62, J63
– Manufacture of machinery for textile, apparel and leather production: C28.94
- Only SMEs legally established in Single Market Programme (SMP) participating countries (EU Member States and formally associated countries) are eligible.
- The applicant SME must have at least one staff member who speaks English and will be actively involved in implementation.
- Proposals must demonstrate a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 5 or higher.
- SMEs may submit up to two proposals per Open Call round (one Green Transition, one Digital Innovation), but each SME can receive a maximum of one grant award across the entire programme.
How to apply to FutureProofTextile Open Call
Applications must be submitted exclusively online via the EU Survey application portal. Proposals must be written in English; submissions in any other language will not be evaluated. A separate application is required for each financing scheme. The required documentation package includes the Standardized Application Form Template, the “Tables with Activities, Budget, Milestones and Risks” document, a signed SME and Eligibility Declaration form, and a signed Funding Eligibility and Absence of Conflict of Interest Declaration form.
Important dates
- Open Call launch: 22 June 2026
- Application deadline: 18 September 2026, 23:59 CET
- Selection of SMEs: 20 November 2026
- First Cohort Agreement: 19 February 2027
A second Open Call round will follow the same “Twin Transition” structure, opening on 22 February 2027 with a deadline of 21 May 2027.
Proposal requirements
Proposed activities and budgets must strictly fall within the eligible activity categories and eligible cost categories set out by the project. Costs must be directly linked to the approved project, necessary for implementation, incurred within the eligibility period, and properly recorded in the SME’s accounting system.
Eligible cost categories are limited to: Staff Costs (technical personnel, engineers, designers, sustainability experts, project management, trainers); Equipment, Software and Consumables (specialised machinery, software licences, testing/monitoring equipment, prototyping materials, sustainable raw materials); Networking and Collaboration Costs (matchmaking events, business missions, technical workshops, trade fairs); and Dissemination, Promotion and External Services (dissemination materials, technical consultancy, certification support, market validation).
Activities such as mass industrial production, purchase of land or buildings, general corporate advertising, and routine operational costs are explicitly excluded.
Milestones for the 9-month implementation are proposed by the applicant but are not scored during evaluation and may be renegotiated during contracting.
Evaluation and selection process
Applications are assessed by an Evaluation Committee of five international experts (one each from Ukraine, Turkey, Bulgaria, Spain, and Italy), applying principles of fairness and transparency (evaluators recuse themselves from applications tied to their own country or network), confidentiality, ESG compliance including the “Do No Significant Harm” principle under Article 17 of the EU Taxonomy Regulation, and gender equality.
Each proposal is scored independently by two evaluators against four weighted criteria:
- Technical Innovation (40%): novelty, feasibility, and scalability of the proposed solution
- Impact & Sustainability (30%): contribution to supply chain resilience, digitalisation, and the green transition
- Business Viability (20%): market potential, financial sustainability, and commercialisation strategy
- Implementation Feasibility (10%): SME capacity, resource allocation, execution timeline
Each sub-question within these criteria is scored on a 0–5 scale, and proposals must meet a minimum threshold score of 2 for every criterion to remain eligible. To correct differences in evaluator scoring tendencies, FutureProofTextiles applies a normalisation methodology.
In case of tied final scores, ranking is decided sequentially by: contribution to geographical balance (at least 4 SMEs outside core consortium regions), higher score in Technical Innovation, higher score in Impact & Sustainability, and gender balance within the applying team.
Results are communicated within 2 months of the call’s closure, and any complaints must be submitted within 5 calendar days of the results announcement, with a final decision issued within 20 working days.
Additional support beyond funding
Selected SMEs gain access to a support package designed to build a connected innovation ecosystem alongside the grant:
- Tailored Training: an average of 40 hours per SME.
- Dedicated Mentoring: up to 6 selected SMEs, chosen through a transparent assessment.
- Open-Access Materials: 100 hours of scalable training curricula and best-practice guides.
- Cross-Border Networking: facilitated international collaboration across the consortium’s network.
Final thoughts on FutureProofTextile Open Call
This call suits SMEs already operating at TRL 5 or above, in other words, those with a validated technology or process ready for near-term implementation rather than early-stage R&D. Applicants should be able to commit €10,000 in matching funds and complete a focused project within 9 months.
Textile manufacturers and apparel producers looking to pilot circular production, resource-efficiency, or Industry 4.0 solutions, as well as tech and machinery SMEs whose innovations serve the textile value chain, are well positioned to apply.
More information
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FutureProofTextiles 1st Open Call – Digital and Green Innovation for Textile SMEs
