MACRAMÉ’s Central Objective is to: • detect, characterise and quantify Advanced Materials during their processing and product-life-cycle (incl. recycling/end-of-life) to assess (e.g. ecotox-/tox-test) the resulting impact on (human) health and the environment if/when they pose (intended or unintended) exposures to humans and/or the environment and to • advance (i.e. prepare for standardisation & harmonisation/’regulatory validation’) the wide-spread applicability and application of the developed test- and characterisation methods, by demonstrating their effectiveness and efficiency in the context of existing, market-relevant industrial materials, processes and products. In alignment with the EU strategies to secure the safety and sustainability of enabling and emerging technologies (incl. those based on chemicals and materials, as addressed in the EU’s Chemical Strategy for Sustainability (2020), and in the European Green Deal (2021)), the MACRAMÉ Project focusses on the development of methodologies that are applicable to ‘Advanced Materials (AdMas)’ - a categories that includes, but surpasses that of ‘nanomaterials’ (EU, ‘Definition of a Nanomaterial’), and that is aligned with the future-oriented innovation, safety and sustainability considerations at the OECD (OECD (2020)), the EU (EU (2022)), and several of its Member States (e.g. Germany (2021)); this will be achieved by focussing the development and demonstration of novel methods and methodologies, as well as the advancement of their harmonisation and standardisation on (planned inhalable carbon-based AdMas in a variety of morphologies and dimensions, moving beyond spherical particles: (a) graphene-related material (GRM), (b) carbon fibres (CNTs), and (c) Poly Lactic-co-Glycolic Acid (PLGA). The focus on carbon-based AdMa is due to unsolved detection and characterisation issues especially in complex media.

The aim of MY-FI is to provide the textile industry with a new nonwoven fabrics made of mycelium fibres, with improved performances and reduced environmental impact in comparison with current commercially available fibres. Mycelium fibres are obtained by fungal fermentation, starting from the residues of the textile indusrty, using a mild process and can be used to produce sustainable and performing nonwoven fabrics. Mycelium fibres indeed can extend the field of use of nonwoven fabrics to demanding or luxury applications. In virtue of their properties and aesthetics, mycelium fibres can be adopted, for example, in automotive or footwear applications that currently use animal leather as preferred material. In MY-FI new biofabrication protocols will be optimized and upscaled together with wet processing and material finishing to provide a set of innovative solutions to help the textile industry in facing the challenges posed by the complex megatrends that are quickly chagning markets and customers' lifestyles globally. The mission of MY-FI is to develop a biobased textile, with advanced functionalities, sustainability and performance, achieving four high level goals: 1. empowering the textile industry to successfully face the challenges posed by the emerging global trends; 2. meet the consumer demand for new functional and sustainable textile products; 3. relief the environmental pressure related to the textile industry, developing a circular and biobased textile that does not generate microplastics. 4. engage the textile stakeholders and provide guidance to policymakers Mycelium fabrics indeed are fully biobased and sustainable, obtained from circular value chains, widely customizable, highly performing, and can be produced using advanced manufacturing process. Thanks to these properties they have the potential to meet the market demands for sustainable and performing materials, allowing designers and brands to create more functional products.

The Textile, Clothing, Leather, and Footwear (TCLF) industries in Europe with an annual turnover of €195 billion in 2019, employs 2 million workers in 220.600 companies, 99% SMEs concentrated in Italy, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Germany and Spain, more precisely in a few regions. TCLF has now to tackle with the challenges presented by the new digital era at a higher level, within a framework of transition to a greener, circular economy increasing the resilience of the organizations involved. The new METASKILLS4TCLF proposal, allying 30 partners, is robust and ambitious, responding to all objectives of the Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (implementing the “Blueprint”), crosses the PACT4SKILLS TCLF pillars, and, with the compromise of consolidating and updating part of the former Skills4Smart TCLF Industries 2030 project outcomes, namely skills strategy, curricula and contents, results in a stronger and a wider scope cooperation, anticipating and responding to new skills gaps with innovative educational multilevel resources and delivering methodologies, involving new actors in the educational scene of TCLF across Europe, raising attractiveness and inclusion, preventing that “no talent is wasted”, together with a strong dissemination campaign and sustainability plan.The new outcomes will be:-Strong skills partnership with relevant stakeholders-Skills Intelligence for Forecasting and Monitoring TCLF Emerging Skills Needs-New modular training curricula/training modules “Inside Fashion” (both for initial education & training and upskilling-reskilling of the workforce), all tested in due piloting opportunities-Innovative modular contents, VR training and learning tools and update the ones developed in the former blueprint -A European Virtual Reality Campus-A train the trainers and teacher package to strengthening skills supply to demand -An awareness raising campaign on attractiveness and inclusion in the TCLF industries and correspondent tools.