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Overhead presentation. The European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing is a stakeholder forum that brings together the European textile and clothing industry, its research and education community, representatives of related industrial sectors and scientific disciplines as well as public authorities. The aim of the platform is to develop and implement long-term industry visions and a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) to improve innovation, competitiveness and growth potential for this key industrial sector in Europe. The Technology Platform has been launched in 2004 and currently brings together more than 400 individual experts across a number of research-specific as well as horizontal working groups. The European Textile and Clothing Industry employs more than 2.3 million people in the EU in some 170,000 companies generating an annual turnover of close to 200 billion Euro. The European Union is the world's biggest exporter of textiles and the third biggest exporter of clothing. The future of Europe's textile and clothing industry will be built on its existing strengths (1) creativity in design and product development, (2) innovation in materials and processes, (3) flexibility in production and supply chain manage-ment and (4) quality of products and services. The Technology Platform will be based on three pillars, which at the same time represent the three crucial elements of a long-term VISION which will exploit these strengths while at the same time benefiting from general societal and economical trends. 1. A move from commodities towards specialty products from high-tech pro-cesses; fibres, filaments, fabrics and final products with highly functional, purpose-targeted properties based on nano- micro- & biotechnologies, new coatings and laminations, digital processes etc. 2. The establishment and expansion of textiles as material of choice in many sectors and application fields (transport systems, construction, medical applications, consumer electronics). 3. The end of the era of mass manufacture of textile products and a move towards a new industrial era characterised by customisation, personalisation, as well as flexible, on-demand production coupled with intelligent logistics, distribution and services.