Projects for the  European leather industry
R&D + Social and Training

SEETAL (2008-2009)

SEETAL stands for : EU Acquis familiarisation and organisational strengthening of South-Eastern European Business Representative Organisations of the Textile, Apparel and Leather Sectors.

After the successful completion of the first Perfect Link project, the EU textile and leather associations, EURATEX and COTANCE, have started a similar project for Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Turkey (only textiles).

The general aim of this project is to improve capacities and skills of participating BROs to support member as well as
non-member companies to comply with and take advantage of those issues of the acquis that are most relevant to the textile/clothing and leather industries.

Actions foreseen include:

* Specialised seminars on acquis subjects for BROs staff and local specialists relevant for the textile, clothing and leather sector
* Follow-up Assistance to each BROs.
* Organisation of national public events
* Establishment of a one-stop-shop service

The project will last for 18 months, until mid-2009.

Capacity Building II (2008)

After the successful completion of the first Capacity Building project, the EU social partners, EURATEX, COTANCE and FSE:THC, have started a follow-up project that will extend over a period of one year (2008).

The project will consist in

- the analysis and synthesis of the state of play of the national action plans adopted in the framework of the first EU integrated project;
- two waves of one-week visits from a delegation of social partners from the New Member States and candidate countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia / Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia) to three Member States (Germany or Sweden, Belgium, France or Italy) to exchange experiences (March and May 2008);
- interactive trainings seminars at national level;
- a final conference (Mid-November 2008) which will carry out the evaluation of these seminars as well as the follow-up of the national actions programmes.

Progress reports and results will be posted on the Capacity Building website : http://www.buildingtrust-tcl.org/

One Leather Training (2005-2007)

Europe’s Leather Training goes on-line

On 3^rd October 2005 Europe’s leather research and training centres together with a number of European leather trade associations launched in Naples, at the SSIP, the start of “ONE LEATHER TRAINING”, a EU supported project that will develop, over the next two years, a multilingual Internet platform capable of delivering professional training and skills development for tannery workers and managers as well as initial training to unemployed people and first job seekers.

The project partners are CTIC (Portugal), LGR (Germany), ELKEDE (Greece), UK Leather Federation (former BLC, United Kingdom), PIPS (Poland), AIICA (Spain), SSIP (Italy) and ICPI (Romania). COTANCE and ETUF-TCL, the respective employers and workers organisations at EU level, as well as Scalconsult, a consultancy specialised in innovative training systems, will assist them.

The project partners held their kick-off meeting under the chairmanship of Dr Alcino Martinho, director of CTIC and current GERIC President. CTIC, the Portuguese leather research and training centre, is the coordinator of this European leather-training course.

This initiative received the approval and financial support of the EU through the Leonardo da Vinci Programme. It is a follow-up project to a successful previous Leonardo pilot project (Self Training Kit for the Leather Industry) developed by almost the same partnership where self-training courses for 3 professional profiles (Foremen, Sorters & Graders, Salesmen) were elaborated in 5 languages (EN, DE, PT, GR, PL) on a paper-based and CD-ROM support.

This second exercise 
-expands the group to Italy (SSIP), Spain (AIICA) and Romania (ICPI), 
-enlarges the number of languages (IT, ES, RO), 
-adds a new professional profile (Raw Materials Purchase Manager), 
-reviews, up-dates and adapts the existing content so that it allows also unemployed and first job seekers to get acquainted with tanning operations facilitating their eventual insertion, and
-develops an Internet platform where the training courses can be accessed.>

The partnership will start with a customer satisfaction survey of the previous training tool so as to get feedback from the actual users on how the content can be improved and made user-friendlier. A list of organisations assisting and providing qualification or re-qualification to jobseekers will be drawn up by all partners as potential candidates for intermediating in the supply of the initial training service.

The on-line training will become available to Europe’s tanneries within two years. It will be freely accessible to COTANCE members’ affiliated companies and to Polish and Romanian tanneries. Continuing communication and information to the industry through the project partners will keep the sector’s operators informed on the development of the new training tool.

For updated information on One Leather Training : check the project page.

DERMAGENESIS (2003-2008)

Coordinated by Conciaricerca Italia Srl, the project addresses the most prominent issues of European Tanneries: availability, quality and yield of raw material, as well as pollution prevention and control. Other partners are UNIC, COTANCE, Consejo Espanol de Curtidores, BLC, the Association of the Hungarian Leather and Shoe Industry, the Associazione Calzaturifici Riviera del Brenta, eight SMEs and six RTD performers.

The major goal is to develop a new, cost effective bio-manufacturing process for the production of a smart, innovative product, tailored for the specific needs of footwear manufacturers, to be used as raw material by tanneries, that will guarantee: controlled biochemical composition, standard and consistent quality, process yield increase, substitution of chemical with high tech biological processes, 50 – 60% reduction in water consumption and in pollution loads.

The complexity and strategic importance of the problem is a challenge that cannot be addressed by single SMEs; therefore the project complies with the objectives and falls within the scope of application of Collective Research.

Expertise from two Universities and three sectorial research institutions, as well as Bioreactor and Tannery Machines developers will be amalgamated with eight SMEs technical skills, under the leadership of six IAGs. Starting from the product specification definition, attained with the participation of all industrial partners, tissue engineering techniques used for biomedical applications will be transferred, adapted, optimised and validated. The stepwise research approach comprises design, development and testing of cells, materials, protocols and bioreactors. The project is expected to yield demonstrators tested at lab and pilot scale, including bioreactors, matrices, culturing protocols and a stabilisation system as well as a waste treatment / recycling system, towards a closed loop production approach.

Moreover, industrial feasibility of Dermagenesis will be assessed in conjunction to fitness for end use of Bio techno leather (model shoes). In parallel, training of skilled personnel and the definition and exploration of exploitation pathways, will involve directly SMEs and IAGs. The project is expected to last 48 months, until 2007.

Update : October 2007

The 4-year project started in January 2004. It has been granted a six-month extension period and will thus come to its conclusion in July 2008. At the time of writing, the technology that has been developed is being patented. The results have somewhat deviated from initial expectations. However they are significant for the sector. Besides the patent, the European tannery will benefit from interesting spin-off that will soon be on-line on a specific web-site, also accessible through the Euroleather site. They concern a new tanning process and new knowledge at the level of the skin structure that will allow a better use of chemicals in the production processes.

Update : April 2008

See our special Press release on the Worskhop on "Bioengineering of leather, the new frontier of leather technology", held at Lineapelle on 23 April 2008.