On the occasion of Techtextil 2009, Messe Frankfurt is organising the Techtextil Innovation Award for the tenth time and the Avantex Innovation Award for the fifth time.

To be held as part of the International Trade Fair for Technical Textiles and Nonwovens, the competitions are open to companies, institutes, universities, polytechnics and individuals from all over the world and entries must have been received by 20 March 2009. Thus, the search is now on for innovative solutions in the fields of research, materials and product development and new technologies that had been completed since 1 January 2008 and have not been awarded any other prize.

The aim of the Innovation Awards is to promote unconventional thinking and to intensify the dialogue between research, manufacturers and users. Additionally, the award-winning developments will be presented to international trade visitors and exhibitors in a special exhibition at Techtextil in Frankfurt am Main from 16 to 18 June 2009.

Fields covered by the 10th Techtextil Innovation Award

The Techtextil Innovation Award is open for entries from the research field. Additionally, the Award will be given for new materials, products, production facilities, manufacturing and finishing technologies for use in the twelve Techtextil areas of applications, i.e., Agrotech, Build-tech, Clothtech, Geotech, Hometech, Indutech, Medtech, Mobiltech, Oekotech, Packtech, Protech and Sporttech. In line with the Interna-tional Natural Fibres Congress, which is being organised by Messe Frankfurt parallel to Techtextil, the Award will also be presented for new materials and products for technical applications based on or combined with natural fibres. The developments must be connected with the production or use of technical textiles, nonwovens or textile-reinforced materials.

Fields covered by the 5th Avantex Innovation Award

The Avantex Innovation Award will be presented for, inter alia, new developments in connection with materials, technology, the processing and finishing of, for example, new fibres and yarns, new equipment, nano-technology and electronics in garments. Fashion aspects combined with new technologies and new materials, design concepts and aesthetic considerations play an important part in the competition. The fields are also implicit: medical applications using textiles and garments, combinations of comfort and functionality in sports-wear and active wear, as well as innovations for safety and protection at work. It is important that the developments be related to the value-added chain of the garment-manufacturing industry.

If appropriate, more than one award will be given per field in the case of both the Techtextil and Avantex Innovation Awards. The Award winners will be selected by a jury of 13 international experts.