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Report: Innovation funding for UK fashion and textiles

31/07/2025

Business Fashion Innovation Textiles

A new report, Innovation Funding for UK Fashion and Textiles, offers insight into how collaborative research and development (R&D) funding has been used to drive innovation across the sector. For businesses and industry professionals navigating the shifting landscape of fashion and textiles, this report provides a practical overview of mechanisms that have already delivered tangible results.

Focusing on two major fashion and textile clusters – Future Fashion Factory (FFF) and the Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) – the report draws on the experience of the broader Creative Industries Clusters Programme (CICP). This £80 million initiative, led by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), was designed to strengthen links between academic research and industry.

The report draws on feedback from project teams, businesses and funding recipients to highlight t where funding mechanisms have worked well and where challenges remain. Key recommendations include:

  • Structuring funding for applied, scalable innovation
  • Reducing barriers to engagement for SMEs and underrepresented voices
  • Encouraging whole supply chain collaboration
  • Supporting evolving skills needs across the sector
  • Balancing capital and revenue funding to support long-term growth

For fashion and textiles businesses, this is a chance to understand how public investment can better support innovation, from sustainable materials to digital tools and business models. For policymakers and funders, it provides clear evidence of what’s needed to make future R&D programmes more accessible, commercially relevant and inclusive.

Read the full report at the link below:

Innovation Funding for UK Fashion and Textiles Report

Acknowledgments

This collaborative research project was delivered jointly by academic colleagues from the Future Fashion Factory (FFF) and Leeds University Business School (LUBS) at the University of Leeds, with academics at the Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) University of the Arts London.  FFF and BFTT are both part of the Creative Industries Clusters Programme, an £80 million initiative led by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

The Future Fashion Factory (FFF) 

The Future Fashion Factory (FFF) is a £6.1M industry-focused collaborative R&D programme led by Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour (LITAC), University of Leeds. It brings together designers, manufacturers and retailers, to co-develop and implement new advanced textile and industrial digital technologies (IDTs) to create new products and enable shorter lead times, increased global competitiveness and sustainability.

The Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) 

The Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) is a £5.5m project led by the University of the Arts London (UAL)in collaboration with Loughborough University, University College London, the University of Leeds, Queen Mary University of London, the University of Cambridge, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Businesses featured in case studies: