Spinnova receives Business Finland NextGenerationEU grant for fibre development work

Spinnova Plc has received a grant of a maximum of 1.6 million euros for its research and development work from Business Finland for the time period 1 October 2022 – 31 December 2024. The grant amount represents 50% of the project’s total cost estimate of 3.2 million euros.

The development project focuses on the follow-up research of Spinnova technology and fibre, targeting fibre utilization in new application areas and product segments such as composites and nonwovens. For example, the project includes continuous natural filament development, which allows SPINNOVA® to be used in new types of textile products and to explore the composite segment. In addition, the project includes development of scalable environmentally friendly dope-dye technology where the raw material of SPINNOVA® fibre is dyed already before yarn production. Compared to conventional dyeing, the dope-dye method significantly reduces the use of water, energy and chemicals. The utilization of non-toxic natural dyes in textile dyeing is also being explored in the project.

The grant is part of the European Union’s NextGenerationEU financing and Finland’s Bio & Circular Finland sustainable growth program. The project must during its whole lifecycle meet the DNSH (Do No Significant Harm) requirements and environmental and digital criteria presented in the funding application. Business Finland’s financing speeds up and expands the project by improving its business potential and allows more risk taking in the content of the project.

”With the Business Finland grant we can continue our extensive development work of Spinnova’s unique technology and fibre. It’s great to see that Spinnova’s potential in the global fibre markets has been recognized and top-level Finnish research and development work is being supported financially”, comments Spinnova’s CEO Kim Poulsen.

“Spinnova is a great example of how a company’s continuous development is important - they never settle for the existing but always develop something new. The sustainable competitive advantage Spinnova has gotten from their technological development has been the driving force for them”, Business Finland’s Funding Manager Veli-Pekka Ihanus comments.

The grant contributes to Spinnova’s growth plan. Established in 2015, Spinnova is ramping up its global commercialisation phase. The first commercial-scale factory of Spinnova’s joint venture company Woodspin is expected to be completed in Finland at the end of this year. Spinnova aims to scale the production of sustainable SPINNOVA® fibre to one million tonnes by 2031-2033.