The textile industry is highly of relevant importance both in Morocco and Jordan accounting for 165k jobs in the former and 60k in the later, making one of the largest industrial sector for both countries. However, most SME companies have limited access to services like testing, training, research, studies, technology and financial funding instruments. Also, there are not any focal points in these two countries that fulfill the knowledge triangle, bringing together enterprises, universities and research centers, especially as far as the advanced textiles’ production is concerned.
FOSTEX project aims to fill the gap in the area of specialized services for the textile sector, with the establishment of four advanced textiles’ centers located at the participating HEIs in Jordan and Morocco. These centers will play the role of focal points for the textile sector and relevant stakeholders to bloom innovations and promoting entrepreneurship.
A customized capacity building program will be assembled by EU partners, experts in training and in advanced textiles, in order to improve the management and technical skills of experts running the centers as well as providing EU experience with best practices.
A custom service list will be defined with support from EU partners for each advanced textiles’ center according to sectorial needs at each region of influence.
Ultimately, the goal is to foster the university-industry collaboration to support the development of innovations and entrepreneurship in the textile sector in Morocco and Jordan to generate an ecosystem of advanced textile materials.