The textile industry is the second largest industrial sector in Tunisia accounting for 161k jobs. However, the sector lacks innovation and competitiveness which caused a negative loss of employment of over 4k jobs a year during the last few years. The main barrier for the Tunisian textile industry is the low-value-added products that drives an intense competition in addition to the lack of own product. In this context, WINTEX project is oriented to the creation of innovation textiles centers to address the lack of competitiveness of the Tunisian textile sector with the support from Erasmus+ program by bringing EU expertise, idea and experience exchange, financial support and capacity building at Tunisian institutions oriented towards increasing the latent innovation capacity available in the country. In addition, WINTEX also aims to create an Academy Textile Industry council as a point of interaction and networking among HEIs and industrial partners. The main objective WINTEX project is to foster innovation and cooperation in Tunisian textile sector with transfer of knowledge from EU. The specific objectives will be the cration of 3 innovation textiles’ centers in the three Tunisian HEIs (ISMMM, USF and ISET), to build capacity program addressed to the centers operators and the creation of the Academia Textile Industry Council as a platform for collaboration among Tunisian stakeholders. The project will boost participation of students and staff in the textile centers by means of traineeships in order to set in place a collaborative and innovative mindset to the future generation of the textile industry technicians and managers. Ultimately, the goal is to weave innovation among academia and industry to support the development of innovations and entrepreneurship in the textile sector in Tunisia providing students, researchers and professionals in textile field with competencies and skills needed by the market.
The main objective WINTEX project was to foster innovation and cooperation in the Tunisian textile sector with the transfer of knowledge from the EU. The specific objectives were the creation of 3 innovation textiles’ centers in three Tunisian HEIs (ISMM, USFax, and ISET); to build a capacity program addressed to the staff of the centers, and the creation of the Academia Textile Industry Council as a platform for collaboration among Tunisian stakeholders.
The textile industry is the second-largest industrial sector in Tunisia accounting for 153k jobs in 2022. However, the sector lacks innovation and competitiveness which caused a negative loss of employment of over 4k jobs per year during the last few years. The main barrier for the Tunisian textile industry is the low-value-added products that drive intense competition in addition to the lack of their own products.
<< Background >> The textile industry is the second-largest industrial sector in Tunisia accounting for 153k jobs in 2022. However, the sector lacks innovation and competitiveness which caused a negative loss of employment of over 4k jobs per year during the last few years. The main barrier for the Tunisian textile industry is the low-value-added products that drive intense competition in addition to the lack of their own products. << Objectives >> The main objective WINTEX project was to foster innovation and cooperation in the Tunisian textile sector with the transfer of knowledge from the EU. The specific objectives were the creation of 3 innovation textiles’ centers in three Tunisian HEIs (ISMM, USFax, and ISET); to build a capacity program addressed to the staff of the centers, and the creation of the Academia Textile Industry Council as a platform for collaboration among Tunisian stakeholders. << Implementation >> The activities included field & desk research to identify the textile industrial needs of Tunisia, a collection of EU Best practices, and a national report. The second step included training the staff and equipping the centers, defining the services of the centers and business models, and disseminating to the stakeholders through roundtables, conferences, and other activities. Finally, the Academia Textile Industry Council was launched to ensure sustainability. << Results >> The main results are a Tunisian textile national report, an EU best practices database; recommendations to boost industry-academia collaboration; an e-book on advanced textiles; 3 equipped Textile advanced centers in Monastir, Ksar-Hellal and Sfax with services defined and piloted, business models and staff trained; 1 innovation and tech transfer plan; 3 videos and 9 posters showcasing the centers; 1 collaboration platform and the establishment of the Academia textile industry council (ATIC).