A new network is offering grants of up to £100,000 for “mini-projects” to make fashion more sustainable.

The University of Exeter is leading the Future Fibres Network, which aims to embed environmental sciences at the heart of fashion, apparel and textiles sectors. The initiative hopes to establish systematic, circular and sustainable principles within the industry.

The fashion and textile industry are estimated to be worth £21bn to the UK economy, and provides more than half a million jobs, according to the university.

Globally, the sector causes 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of wastewater.  Fashion consumes more energy than both aviation and shipping combined, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

Project lead, professor Tamara Galloway said: “We’re trying to upskill people. We want to give them green skills and upskill the next generation of designers and environmental scientists.”

In partnership with University of Exeter, researchers from the University of the Arts London, University of Leeds, University of Huddersfield and University of Plymouth hope to build the mass of transdisciplinary expertise and methodologies needed to establish systematic, circular and sustainable principles as the norm.

For its first event, the Future Fibres Network ran a workshop