North Carolina Textile Innovation and Sustainability Engine (North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia), led by The Industrial Commons, aims to advance the nation's capacity for environmentally sustainable textiles by advancing smart textiles and wearable technology, reducing carbon outputs and the number of textiles in landfills, and nurturing the development of new product lines that use circular methods.
Region of service: Western North Carolina with parts of South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia .
Competitive advantage: Centered in the "textile belt" of North Carolina, this NSF Engine aims to disrupt and revolutionize the $96 billion textile industry. While other regions of the U.S. have lost textile jobs, this region's textile industry has stabilized. The region boasts the largest concentration of textile workers in the U.S., with over 27,000 workers and an additional 30,000 in adjacent industries, such as waste streams and furniture workers, spanning almost 2,000 companies. This NSF Engine is led by The Industrial Commons, a nonprofit with a strong reputation within the textile sector and other fields for being a hub of regional, rural innovation with deep local, national and sectoral knowledge and relationships.
NSF award: NSF-2315305
| Critical and emerging technology areas |
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| Advanced materials, advanced energy and industrial efficiency technologies, biotechnology, robotics and advanced manufacturing. |