COSME

«Accelerate and scale up innovation applications for a sustainable and circular fashion industry»

About COSME

COSME is the program for the Competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises of the Executive Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises (EASME) of the European Commission.

Through this program, assistance is offered to SMEs to develop their business models, access financing, and internationalize. Likewise, support is offered to public administrations to improve the business environment and facilitate economic growth in the European Union. During the 2014-2020 funding period, this program allocated 2.3 billion euros to support SMEs.

About the COS-CIRCFASH-2019-3-02, GRO/SME/19/C/08 CALL

Fashion is the second most polluting industry. The linear economic system is complete obsolete and unsustainable in all terms, environmentally and socially. The European Union is strongly committed to achieving climate neutrality to help reverse the frenetic pace of pollution.

To this end, the role of SMEs, startups and entrepreneurs, which in Europe employ 85% of the working population, is key. The European Commission, thanks to programs such as COSME, promotes the work of these SMEs for the transformation of various industries, promoting and financing technologies and new business models.

Other European Commission initiatives in favor of the sustainable transformation of the textile industry:

Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF) for leather, footwear and t-shirts and retail sector.
EU Ecolabel scheme for textiles products and footwear.
The Eco-management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) for Retail trade.
Environmental Technology Verification (ETV)
Green Public Procurement (GPP) for the textile sector.
European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform

About COSME

Enhance the competitiveness and improve the environmental performance of European fashion industry by building capacity and supporting small businesses (SMEs, designers and start-ups) in the sector, to become more sustainable and turn their business model into a more circular one.

Specific objectives:

Facilitate cross-border/transnational cooperation to support the transfer of knowledge and best practice on sustainable/circular fashion.
Organise capacity building and support activities for SMEs, designers and start-ups in the fashion industry willing to become more sustainable and turn their business model into a circular one.
Provide technical and financial support SMEs, designers and start-ups to enable the scaling-up of innovative applications, products, processes or ideas for sustainable and circular fashion.

If you want to know more about this call: