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Nonwovens/​Converting

NIA rounds off 2013 at CETI

The Nonwovens Innovation Academy organised by EDANA, the international association serving the nonwovens and related industries, has ‘closed the loop’ of a seven-years cycle around European Centres of Excellence for nonwovens. This 2013 edition of the NIA, formerly named NRA, was hosted by CETI (Centre Européen des Textiles Innovants).

5th December 2013

Innovation in Textiles
 |  Brussels

Medical/Hygiene, Sustainable, Industrial

The Nonwovens Innovation Academy organised by EDANA, the international association serving the nonwovens and related industries, has ‘closed the loop’ of a seven-years cycle around European Centres of Excellence for nonwovens.

This 2013 edition of the NIA, formerly named NRA, was hosted by CETI (Centre Européen des Textiles Innovants).

Research and innovation

Since 2006, and the kick-off edition in Roubaix, France, the Nonwovens Academy has brought together around 500 delegates from a large number of academic, research and testing institutes from continents as well as industrial companies.

The Academy has been so far rotating between French, German, Swedish and UK centres, who had the opportunity of simultaneously hosting the conference and showing their capabilities and offer for the benefits of nonwovens research and innovation.

The next edition of the NIA will be hosted in the autumn 2015 by Leeds University and its Nonwovens Research Group.

Addressing challenges

“We are delighted of the success of the Nonwovens Innovation Academy, which corresponds to one of the main aspects of EDANA’s mission to support the nonwovens and related industries, especially in the light of our Nonwovens Vision 2020, which has identified innovation as one of the key responses to challenges raised by sustainability requirements and globalisation,” commented Enno Henze (SVP & GM Engineered Products Europe and Asia, Johns Manville), chair of EDANA’s Board Working Group on Innovation and Education.

The next edition of the NIA will be hosted in the autumn 2015 by Leeds University and its Nonwovens Research Group. © EDANA

“The biennial NIA is part of an on-going process,” said Pierre Wiertz, General Manager. “We are soon to announce a brand new series of innovative features for supporting events at INDEX 14, which will include several ways to prolong this forum for the exchange of ideas and research results, and to promote fundamental understanding and knowledge of science and technologies contributing to nonwovens developments.”

Recognising research

Supporting students, who are choosing to focus on research in nonwoven-related areas, and recognising excellence in those fields, is one of the NIA’s key targets. As a result, 12 students and researchers from Europe and Asia benefited from grants to attend the Academy, and eight of them participated in a contest for the best Research & Innovation Posters.

The three winners were:

  • Hamidreza Arouni, PhD Postgraduate Researcher at the University of Leeds. (Enhanced Filter Media for Diesel Engines).
  • Birthe Lang, PhD student at the University of Leeds, Nonwovens Research Group. (Nanofibrous Affinity Membranes for Blood Purification Containing Novel, Non-Antibody Binding Proteins).
  • Özkan Yapar, MSc Student at the Tampere University of Technology Institute of Material Sciences. (Developing of Novel Silica-Fibre Textile and Composite Structures for Hard Tissue Engineering Applications).

www.edana.org

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