RCA-led consortium awarded a £5.4m EPSRC grant to establish the Textiles Circularity Centre

RCA (Royal College of Art)-led consortium has been awarded a £5.4m EPSRC grant to establish the Textiles Circularity Centre to enable the transition to a more ‘circular’ economy.

The collaboration includes scientists and researchers from UCL (University College London), University of Cambridge, University of Leeds, University of Manchester and University of York, Cranfield University, and RCA.

Our team at UCL will work with colleagues across UCL focused on the Consumer Experience Research stand of the grant. This new EPSRC Textiles Circularity Centre will support us to improve inclusion across populations in textile consumer experience throughout co-design of interactive and accessible consumer interfaces.

Innovation changes lives – by further understanding behaviour, cultural, technical, environmental and the economics behind textiles – we create opportunities for human-centred design, human-computer interaction, cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology among many others. The potential for disability innovation is significant.

UCL is co-leading the Consumer Experience Research Strand

The Consumer Experience Research Strand will establish a coupling between the resource flow and human wellbeing by building a Product Cultures Lab and a Circular CX Framework with which to design CXs that engage people in interactive, meaningful, co-creative and sustainable cultures around products, transforming their role from ‘consumers’ to ‘active co-creators’ in a sustainable product cycle.

“This new EPSRC Textiles Circularity Centre will support us to improve inclusion across populations in textile consumer experience throughout co-design of interactive and accessible consumer interfaces.”, said Dr Youngun Cho (UCL CS /UCLIC/GDI)