Fashion for Change Accelerator Programme Open Call

Fashion for Change has launched an open call for their Accelerator Programme helping fashion designers, start-ups and small and medium sized companies (SMEs) develop innovative ideas, applications, products and services geared towards circular fashion.

The open call for proposal invites sustainable fashion designers, start-ups and SMEs to apply for the Accelerator Programme between January 10 and April 19, 2022 in the form of transnational partnerships, which should consist of at least two partners from the EU-27 and associated countries. Applications eligible for the open call could be about the design and manufacture of innovative fibres and fashion products made from sustainable, recycled and/or up-cycled materials; circular business models like repair, sharing and return schemes; and software systems enabling on-demand fashion production.

The 35 most promising partnerships will be invited to present their projects at a “Fashion Sprint” designathon event, where they will benefit from personal mentoring and networking opportunities. 25 of these teams will be invited to an 8-month Fashion for Change “Growth Programme” to help them develop, test, and make their products more scalable.

To this end, each team will receive a grant of 10.000 EUR, professional business mentoring and technical support during meetings, workshops and study visits. Finally, the Growth Programme will award the five most outstanding teams an additional 5.000 EUR and two investor meetings per team, complemented by personalized business support to revise their business or marketing plans, for example.

The design of the Growth Programme takes into account the findings from the market study “Supporting Sustainable Fashion Designers, Start-Ups and SMEs in the Circular Economy” carried out by Fashion For Change in 2021, which concluded that fashion designers, start-ups and SMEs are in need of financial support combined with professional assistance and access to practical resources to succeed in adopting sustainable business models.

The 3-year Fashion For Change project is funded by the EU’s COSME Programme (Grant Agreement 958039) and run by a consortium of five partners: Civitta Estonia, the Estonian Academy of Arts, the European Federation of Sustainable Business – Ecopreneur.eu, Katalista Ventures and Singleton Group.

More information available at www.fashionforchange.eu