STEP 1. Take the first step to...

Textiles New Zealand is currently requesting proposals and registrations of interest from industry, technology providers and research institutes for a ‘New Product Development’ initiative called ‘Transform’. The Transform initiative will provide up to a 75% contribution to selected product development projects.

Projects that meet a simple set of broad criteria can be easily and confidentially submitted to Textiles New Zealand for consideration using the simple application form attached in the centre of this document.

The ‘Transform’ initiative has been established to support New Zealand companies to develop innovative export oriented products. The initiative is designed to encourage the interaction between industry and technology providers to enable new products and services to be delivered to the world stage. Textiles New Zealand aims to perform a central role in the selection and establishment of the projects and supporting them by providing a robust framework.

This document broadly outlines the initiative and provides a general guide to how the simple four stage process will work. All proposal concepts will be handled with the strictest confidentiality and will remain the property of the company or organisation that proposes it.

Request for Proposals

New Technology New Products

Requirements

Solutions

Textiles New Zealand is an industry organisation set up in 2003 to assist with developing the four contributing industry sectors that make up the combined New Zealand textiles industry. The four areas which comprise the industry as a whole are Textiles, Carpet, Footwear, and Apparel.

Textiles New Zealand’s goal is to transform the New Zealand textiles industry into a growing, profitable and sustainable industry, successfully competing in the international marketplace. Ultimately achieving export earnings of $1 billion by 2010.

To assist in achieving this goal Textiles New Zealand has launched the ‘Transform’ initiative. It provides an effective developmental framework and the financial assistance for individual companies and industry partners to co-operate, and create innovative export oriented products.

An Industry Organisation

ApparelTextiles FootwearCarpet

www.transform.org.nz

Textiles New Zealand has been allocated funding from the Foundation of Research Science and Technology (FRST) to invest in product development projects. FRST is the primary government research and development organisation and invests approximately $450 million of public money per annum through a number of funds and schemes.

Textiles New Zealand will administer and manage the development fund in liaison with FRST and provide up to a 75% contribution toward developmental costs. The funding does not cover capital items, commercialisation or marketing costs.

In order for companies to be eligible for this they will need to submit a proposal outline or register their interest in taking part in the Transform initiative. There are some basic criteria for the funding:

• The resultant product or technology can deliver export sales within a 12-24 month period

• The product or technology should deliver a point of difference in the market place

• Projects should deliver benefit for New Zealand

Projects can be proposed by any of the following:

• Private companies

• Publicly listed companies

• Research institutes or organisations

• Tertiary Institutes/research providers

• Technology providers

The Funding & Requirements

www.transform.org.nz

Textiles New Zealand is calling for proposal outlines and registrations of interest from companies across the textiles industry that:

• Wish to engage in new product development, and or introduce new technology into their products;

• Are developing a new product and are looking for new technology

to give their product an edge;

• Are developing a new technology and are looking for opportunities to commercialise it into new product applications;

• Have identified a new market opportunity but don’t currently have the ability or structure to capture it;

• Have a particular product, technology, or customer requirement, which needs to be fulfilled, but which you have no apparent solution;

• Are looking to co-operate with other leading companies to compete in international markets.

The Transform initiative has been established to directly assist in industry development. The request for proposals is deliberately light to ensure that you can easily and quickly put forward a proposal outline.

4-Step ProcessThe proposals selected will go through a transparent and simple 4-step process designed to effectively evaluate the projects from a range of perspectives. This phased approach is intended to identify and validate the most appropriate projects that can deliver results in the time frame.

Proposals and registrations of interest would be investigated and evaluated by Textiles New Zealand and an External Advisory Panel (EAP). Projects would be assessed against a range of criteria and would also take into account the ability of each project to successfully deliver export growth.

Textiles NZ

FRST

Your Company

SELECTION

100%

FUN

DIN

G

The first phase is focused on identifying potential projects, companies, and technologies that should be involved in the project. Industry partners are being encouraged to contact Textiles New Zealand and submit a proposal or register their interest using the application form provided.

Textiles New Zealand is actively seeking a wide range of projects and may directly contact some companies to ensure the full breadth of the industry is being represented.

STEP 2: Selection

IDENTIFICATION

100%

STEP 1: Identification

TEXTILES NZ WILL FUND THIS STEP

TEXTILES NZ WILL FUND THIS STEP

The Process

Projects that are approved to proceed would then move into the action phase. Projects would be regularly reviewed to track progress against performance and planning targets.

The validation phase is an initial 2-3month research phase which will investigate the product and the market context, along with developing a ‘Product Development Specification’ (PDS) for the selected projects. The PDS will define the framework and development strategy for each individual project, along with the key market, design, production, business, and budget requirements, to ensure that the risks are clearly outlined and understood.

Projects would be assessed by the organisations involved along with Textiles New Zealand prior to proceeding to development.

PDS RESEARCH

100%

STEP 3: Validation

STEP 4: Action

R&D PROJECT

75%

25%

YOUR COMPANY WILL FUND THIS STEP

FRST WILL CONTRIBUTE UP TO 75% FOR THIS STEP

www.transform.org.nz