Digi4Fashion

DIGI4FASHION, the Digital Fashion Innovation Hub, aims to be a national benchmark for the textile, clothing, footwear and leather goods sectors, supporting the dissemination and adoption of advanced digital technologies by businesses. With a particular focus on SMEs, it will offer a range of services and initiatives centred on the development, testing and trialling of these technologies.

Project details

DIH | DIGI4FASHION – Digital Fashion Innovation Hub

Project Number | 876

Funding programme | Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR)

Component | C16 – Companies 4.0

Measure | 013 – “Digital Innovation Hubs”

Consortium Leader | CITEVE – Portuguese Textile and Clothing Association

Project Description | The DIGI4FASHION hub’s mission is to be a national benchmark for the textile, clothing, footwear and leather goods sectors, supporting the dissemination and adoption of advanced digital technologies by businesses, particularly SMEs, by offering services and initiatives centred on the development, testing and trialling of these technologies.

Start date | 1 October 2022

End date | 30/09/2025

Total investment | €2,894,226.58

Total grant | €2,253,816.84

Beneficiary Organisation | ATP – Portuguese Textile and Clothing Association

Investment | €181,342.80

Grant | €136,202.60

Objectives:

- To promote the digital transformation of the fashion sector by providing resources and expertise to help SMEs incorporate advanced technologies or digital solutions into their business processes, thereby improving their operational efficiency.

- To increase the competitiveness of fashion SMEs, helping them to adapt to market changes and become more agile and flexible in the digital age.

Expected Results:

- To contribute to increasing the digital maturity of SMEs.

- To enhance digital skills and profiles within companies.

- To increase the number of digital solutions available to the target sectors.

DIGI4FASHION comprises five partners, two of which are sector-specific technology centres (CITEVE and CTCP), recognised as CITs by the main textile and clothing business associations (ATP and Portuguese Textile and Clothing Association) and the footwear and related sectors (APICCAPS), and in which the textile and footwear clusters are also represented through their managing bodies (CITEVE and APICCAPS).

Project website

Although the main focus of the initiative is on companies in the fashion sectors, it will bring together and stimulate an innovation ecosystem, with partners of diverse profiles, such as CITs, other clusters, TICE companies, amongst others.
The involvement of these stakeholders, with their different strengths and expectations, is important for offering a range of services that provide value to the target audience:

- experimentation and testing of digital technologies in the early stages of use or with significant potential for use by companies in the fashion clusters;

- training and development in digital skills, for existing staff and managers within companies or for new staff to be recruited;

- support in securing funding to enable companies to invest in digital technologies, whether through identifying and preparing applications for national or European support schemes, or by seeking to establish joint partnerships between suppliers and manufacturers of advanced technologies and systems and between companies acting as early adopters and demonstrators of those same technologies, or even through mechanisms to support entrepreneurship;

- promoting networking, facilitating the sharing of synergies amongst the various target audiences;

- supporting the incubation and acceleration of businesses.