The objectives of this call for sub-grant proposals are:

-    To form competitive transnational partnerships, representatives of traditional sectors dealing with the fashion/lifestyle consumer goods sector to develop innovative & creative business models with added value and high market potential fostering the Mediterranean industry. 
-    To catalyze entrepreneurial development processes through Labs and Pilots for new products and services in the Textile, fashion, footwear and leather (TCFL) traditional sectors. Specifically, six co-creation spaces will provide different fields of expert technology access and co-creation facilitation services as well as network and knowledge access for accelerating the selected projects from our call and helping projects grow.
-    To create and empower cross-border traditional sectors networks through awareness-raising, the transfer of best practices and lessons learned, and by stakeholders’ engagement in a user-driven, open innovation community.

Artists, designers, technological and/or TCFL MSMEs are invited to submit a project proposal to the following supporting labs (known as L@b), where they will have access to a pool of cutting-edge technologies and mentoring service to develop an outstanding and innovative concept idea:

-    Design-L@B (Ramallah,Palestine)                                    
-    Techno-L@B (Monastir, Tunisia)
-    Net-L@B (Alexandria, Egypt)   
-    Eco-L@B (Alicante, Spain)
-    Heri-L@B (Prato, Italy)
-    Make-L@B (Sicily, Italy)

To be eligible to apply for the present call for sub-grants, the Applicant/Co-applicant: 
-    Shall be an MSMEs (under the EU definition), a start-up, self-employed or professional freelancers 
-    Shall be legally established as a business under the national law with a registration number or equivalent  
-    Shall be based in Core and Adjoining regions of CRE@CTIVE Project: 
-    Shall be a CCI (Cultural, creative industry), a TBC (technological based company), or TCFL (Textile, Clothing, Footwear, and Leather) MSMEs.

-    Shall not be in any insolvency situation and shall be compliant with local labor codes and social security rules.
-    Shall have proper communication skills in English.
-    For applicants from Spain and Italy, not be recipient of State Aid through other grants or financing support from Italy in excess of 200.000 euro over a period of three years. In this regard, a De minimis declaration is to be signed and submitted by applicants from these two countries.
 

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for sub-grant proposals is EUR 192.000€.
The project reserves the right not to award all available funds.

Number of sub-grants: the project will finance 16 projects (between 2-3 projects will be awarded by each L@B: Palestine, Tunisia, Egypt, Italy and Spain)
Size of sub-grants: Any grant requested under this call for proposals cannot exceed the maximum amount of EUR 12.000€ (100% of funding from the total budget justified) and additionally benefit from facilitation services, mentorship as well as other supporting services offered by the CRE@CTIVE project L@BS. 
Selected projects will be required to sign a Grant Agreement with binding details on the project time plan and goals and budget plan and a confirmation that all money received must be taxed by themselves. The sub-grant shall take the form of reimbursement of costs.  
The grant will be paid out in 3 tranches:
•    At the onboarding of the sub-grantee: 30% is paid out after signing of the grant agreement 
•    After the mid-evaluation: 40% is paid out after successful attainment of mid-goals, required reports and project documentation (according to grant agreement) 
•    After project finalization: 30% is paid out after successful finishing of the project, required reports and project documentation, cost justification.

Sectors: Cultural Creative Industries (CCIs), Technological based companies (TBC), and Textile, Clothing, Footwear, and Leather (TCFL) traditional MSMEs.
Types of activities that can be sub-granted: All the actions and activities that will be helpful to boost the TCFL traditional MSMEs through a new business model will be considered as eligible. For example: 
•    Technical coordination
•    Financial/administrative follow-up
•    Reporting, project justification
•    Communication with the sub-granters and CRE@CTIVE partnership. 
•    Accountability
•    Creation of an innovative product and/or service
•    Set-up/test a new production process. Technical tests and prototypes.
•    Improve the image of your entity through a marketing campaign
•    Improve the actual portfolio
•    Application of new technologies (in terms of sustainability/ boost the creativity)
•    Reduce waste, energy/water consumption during the production process through the application of sustainable technologies and/or develop specialized studies.
•    Application new designs in the actual products of your entity
•    Specialized studies for commercial improvements (enter in new markets, enter in new countries)
•    Business Models studies 
•    Digitalization of samples, models, collections
•    Dissemination activities as assistance to fairs, congresses, dissemination in entity website, participation in CRE@CTIVE social networks, etc. 
•    Networking activities
Duration
The duration of the project time is 7 months co-working (remotely work preferred).  So, the initial planned duration of an action may not exceed these 7 months (timeframe established from June 2021 to December 2021).

Standard proposals are submitted in one stage. 
The selection process is performed in three different steps. 

CRE@CTIVE call for developing innovative business models in the textile and leather sectors. Deadline to submit applications: 15 March 2022. More info here. 

Miriam Martínez-Carbonell (AITEX, Project Manager, +34 965542200, miriam.martinez@aitex.es)
Maria del Mar Blanes-Martínez (AITEX, Project Manager, +34 965542200, mmblanes@aitex.es)