The winning projects will be presented at the ITMF & IAF Conference 2026, taking place from October 14–15 in Fortaleza, Brazil. The conference is co-hosted by the Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association (ABIT).

Collaboration as a driver for scaling innovation

HeiQ and Archroma were selected for their project “Alone we Innovate. Together we Scale.” The collaboration brings together HeiQ's textile technology and innovation capabilities with Archroma's expertise in specialty chemicals and solutions for the textile industry.

The second award goes to Lenzing and fashion company Armedangels for “The Power of Collaboration: Driving Innovation for a More Sustainable Textile Industry.” Their project focuses on cooperation between a fiber producer and a fashion brand as a means of advancing innovation and sustainability along the textile value chain.

Both projects illustrate an increasingly important aspect of the industry's transformation: many sustainability and innovation challenges cannot be addressed effectively by individual companies alone, but require cooperation between technology providers, material producers, manufacturers, brands and other partners.

Awards linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

The ITMF International Collaboration Awards recognize achievements in international cooperation within the textile industry. According to ITMF, the awards are aligned with the values of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

By recognizing joint projects rather than individual companies or technologies, the award program places particular emphasis on collaboration across companies, countries and different stages of the textile value chain.

The two winning teams will provide further insights into their projects during the ITMF & IAF Conference in Fortaleza. The annual event brings together representatives from textile manufacturing, apparel, fibers, machinery and other parts of the international textile industry.