"Textile and clothing sector has traditionally been one of the most important sectors of activity in Europe. In the last decades, the sector of traditional textile and clothing has been shrinking as result of the globalization and of the emerging of new industries in Asia. However, the importance of the sector still remains significant in terms of employment with 3 million jobs in Europe and ponderable GDP (gross domestic product). The emerge of nanotechnology, wearable electronics, digital designing, etc. researches provide new opportunities for development of textiles with advanced properties. The main aim of the project TEXMODA was to develop a massive open on-line course (MOOC) ""Advanced Technologies for Textile and Fashion Industry"" with corresponding Competence profile, Curriculum, Learning materials, which is open to every interested person, however the target audiences of the the MOOC are students at higher education in clothing, textile and fashion departments and recent graduates; SME's employees working in textile and fashion industry; VET graduates of clothing, textile and fashion that want to upgrade their skills and competences. The MOOC is available in www.upvx.es. The course was implemented in English language and translated in five partners languages (Lithuanian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek). The MOOC was pilot delivered, with the target to reach an audience from all Europe and not only from the partners’ countries. Geography of students enrolled into the pilot MOOC is very wide and not limited by European countries, there are students from all continents, i. e. also from Africa, Asia, America, Australia. The partners of the project were: Kaunas University of Technology, KTU, Lithuania (coordinator); Technological Educational Institute of Piraeus, PUAS, Greece, which after structural changes changed the name into University of West Attica; AINTEK SYMVOULOI EPICHEIRISEON EFARMOGES YPSILIS TECHNOLOGIAS EKPAIDEFSI ANONYMI ETAIREIA, IDEC, Greece; Universidade da Beira Interior, UBI, Portugal; Universitat Politècnica de València, UPV, Spain; ECOLE NATIONALE SUPERIEURE DES ARTS ET INDUSTRIES TEXTILES, ENSAIT, France; Lithuanian Clothing and Textile Industry Association, LATIA, Lithuania; Hellenic Clothing Industry Association, HCIA, Greece. Participants from partners institutions participated in the Train the trainer course developed during the project. The Multiplier events, organized to promote the newly developed MOOC, were attended by more than 350 participants. Project Logo, website, Facebook profile, leaflets were developed at the beginning of the project. 4 project newsletters were developed and distributed in each project semester (4 numbers in total). Brochure (in English and partners languages), posters, roll-ups were used in various events. Project results were presented in international conferences, fashion and trade fairs, workshops, seminars, summer schools, face-to-face meetings, etc., and published in journals, newspapers, partners institutional websites, etc. The project has a truly European dimension. TEXMODA addresses the need of European HE to open up education, addressing the Communication of the European Commission “Opening up Education: Innovative teaching and learning for all through new technologies and Open Educational Resources”. At national level, the project triggered the participating Universities to build their capacity to develop more massive, open, online courses and open educational resources and to gain expertise in particular field between the partners. The MOOC will be used as a part of courses in Universities curriculum as complementary material. Accreditation process of individual modules of the MOOC has started, however it is a long process. At international level, the project promotes European Higher education institutes to the new world of massive open on-line education and facilitate their internationalization. Collaboration on the project allowed to expand number of contacts at European level meeting new partners."

The project SSUCHY falls within the framework of the development and optimization of innovative and eco-efficient processes and constituents for structural and multifunctional bio-based composites. It is fully integrated into the research program of the Bio-Based Industries (BBI) Joint Technology Initiative operating under Horizon 2020, and particularly focused on BBI Value Chains 1 which is dedicated partly to the transformation of lignocellulosic feedstock to advanced bio-based materials. Our project is clearly positioned on the development of composite constituents , based on a renewable resource (i.e. biopolymers and plant fibre reinforcements) for the development of multifunctional biodegradable and/or recyclable bio-based composites with advanced functionalities for applications in transportation (automotive and aerospace) and a high value market niche (acoustic and electronics). It is dedicated to the development of specific concepts, technologies and materials to achieve a complete value chain and prove the principle at the scale of product demonstrators.

For aircraft structures most popular composites materials are laminates, shaped, whose mechanical properties are characterized by good in plane-rigidity but low out-off plane properties. For applications with a large number of plies difficulties occur during the preforming stage, first step of the RTM Process, where it requires to operate in several stage to master the deformability of each layer. Otherwise for pieces for which loads are out-of plane the use of laminates is less suitable. Using 3D-preforms as reinforcements in the thickness is discussed in the literature but as to its influence on the mechanical behavior of composites. Potentialities of reinforcement through the thickness to minimize defects during processing composite are fairly described. Innovative solutions reinforcements between the layers and developed in this program are based on the stitching technology. Conventional stitching is performed using a one- or double-sided sewing machine which inserts yarns of carbon, glass, aramid or other high performance fibrous tows into several layers of preforms. In this program, thermoplastics and dry preforms will be stitched for hot-pressing and RTM processes. Associated to the analysis of the stitching process, this project is dedicated to the identification of the mechanical behavior of stitched multi-ply preforms during the preforming and injection stages. Modelling developments will concern specific behavior laws including tufting threads for multiplies preform to simulate the preforming and injection (or hot-pressing) stages. Two demonstrators of composite parts will be realized on industrial tools for thermoset and thermoplastics applications. This consortium contains four companies dedicated to manufacturing of composite parts (RT2I, MECANO-ID), one specialist of fibers (SCHAPPE TECHNIQUES) and ESI which is a pioneer and world-leading provider in Virtual Product Engineering, leveraging the physics of materials. Three public laboratories conduct scientific developments. GEMTEX (ENSAIT) will be the leader of this program and tasks concern the tufting technology and the experimental identification of tufted stacking during the preforming stage. The LAMCOS (INSA de Lyon) is a specialist on the mechanical behavior of reinforcement and will develop a specific behavior law for the simulation of the preforming phase. TPCIM (Mines de Douai) will identify the behavior of tufted preforms during the injection (and hot-pressing) stages.