Leeds shares massive R&D boost for UK’s creative industries
A new multi-million pound research project to boost creative innovation in the textile and fashion industry is being spearheaded by the University.
The project will explore and develop new digital technologies to help improve high-value, luxury design processes.
Aiming to transform the fashion industry’s capacity, new digital technologies will be developed to increase productivity, shrink design process lead times, lower costs and, importantly, reduce waste.
Partners of the project include Yorkshire Textiles, the Royal College of Art, Burberry, Wools of New Zealand, Abraham Moon & Sons, The Textile Centre of Excellence, Camira and the British Fashion Council.
It will be led by Stephen Russell, Professor of Textile Materials and Technology in the University’s School of Design.
He said: "The vision is to transform the UK industry’s capacity for new product innovation, and to reduce lead times and waste. This will be done by through the convergence of new digital and textile technologies within the fashion design process.
"Collaborative research and development by creative companies across the supply chain is fundamental to ensuring future growth, and harnessing UK design and manufacturing assets is central to our strategy."
The multi-million pound investment was announced today by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The Leeds-led project represents one of a several major research projects in the UK’s creative industries.
Worth more than £92bn to the UK economy, creative industries exports an estimated £46bn in goods and services each year.
The investment aims to create even more jobs, develop talents and drive the growth of companies, products and experiences that can be marketed around the world.
Professor Andrew Thompson, AHRC Executive Chair, said: “Combining world-class arts and humanities researchers with our globally renowned creative industries will underpin growth in this vibrant and rapidly expanding sector within the UK economy.
“These pioneering partnerships between industry and universities are providing a huge vote of confidence for a sector that is vital to the future prosperity of the UK.”
Nationwide, the fashion design industry contributes £28bn to the economy, with a growing workforce of nearly 900,000 – making it one of the largest creative industries in the country.
Yorkshire is a UK centre for design and manufacturing of high-value textiles – fabric made here is in high international demand, and finds its way in to some of the world’s most prestigious luxury branded products.
Many of this region’s textile manufacturers are now exporting more than 65% of what they produce.
New fashion design programmes will also be created for undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers at Leeds.
Industrial apprenticeship programmes are also being developed to address a skills gap in the industry for designers, who can combine their art, design, science and technology skills.
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