Innovation strategies for a successful future

The Hohenstein Institute have always played an active role in shaping the future of the textile industry with their systematic development of innovative products. To achieve this, their new research projects and areas of service provision are researched in detail, well structured and strategically formulated, and appropriate measures are taken to implement them. The new areas of application which have been created in this way, such as hygiene, textile leasing, medical textiles and "smart" clothes, are of benefit not only to the research partners of the Hohenstein Institutes but also to many other customers from all kinds of sectors of industry.

Effective research partnerships are an important factor for success in opening up new areas of activity.In their interdisciplinary projects, the Hohenstein scientists work with numerous national and international research organisations as well as with manufacturers and service providers from many different fields.

In future, too, the focus of Hohenstein’s research work will continue to be on systematically generating innovation strategies for the whole textile industry both nationally and internationally. Examples of current top priorities include the following areas:

• intelligent textiles
• wearable computing
• communicative biomedical clothes
• dermatological issues
• assessment of toxicity and mutagenesis
• virtual technologies

Existing international scientific networks and centres of expertise on subjects such as "Skin and Textiles", "Leasing Textiles", "Medical Textiles" or "Applied Biomedical Research" are being systematically supplemented by new areas of work such as "Vertical Production for Competitive Niche Markets" or "Nanotechnology".