Research by two Victoria University PhD graduates has advanced cutting edge technology that combines wool with gold and silver to create a new range of multi functional textiles.

Dr Fern Kelly and Dr Kerstin Burridge have completed parallel research projects that have pioneered a way of embedding tiny nanoparticles of gold and silver in New Zealand wool, resulting in colourful textiles that have functional and aesthetic benefits. Dr Kelly has worked with silver and Dr Burridge with gold.

Consumer concern over environmental destruction has turned organic cotton into a hot commodity for top textile brands from Nike to Levi Strauss.”There’s a paradigm shift in the textile sector,” said John Mowbray, editor of the magazine Ecotextile.

“Three years ago sustainability was not on the agenda,” Mowbray said. “Now a lot of retailers and brands want to move regardless of what their suppliers think. They think consumers want transparency. Brands are driving change.”

This public consultation is about a possible successor to the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). The CIP consists of three operational programmes: the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, the ICT – Policy Support Programme and the Intelligent Energy Europe programme. The consultation is being undertaken in order to provide the Commission with public views on what the future priority areas for an EU intervention in these areas should be, and what instruments should be used.

Tempus is the European Union’s programme which supports the modernisation of higher education in the Partner Countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Western Balkans and the Mediterranean region, mainly through university cooperation projects. Partner countries include: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, as well as Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

Croatia, the FYR of Macedonia, Turkey, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland can participate in Tempus project but only on a self-financing basis. Tempus IV is open to higher education institutions and to other organisations active in the field of higher education, provided they are established in the EU Member States or in the Partner Countries.