Helsinki University receives EU funding for bio-based dyes project

The University of Helsinki has been awarded European Union (EU) grants worth nearly €1.7 million (US$1.8m) under the Horizon Europe framework programme for Colour for Combining Re-engineering, Applying, Futuring, Transforming, Stretching! (Colour4Crafts), a multidisciplinary project that combines the cultural tradition of dyes and textile dyeing with the development of novel dyeing techniques and bio-based dyes.

According to the University of Helsinki’s website, research teams from many fields are collaborating on the Colour4Crafts project to provide fresh data on the use of dyes and pigments in the past as well as brand-new high-tech uses for bio-based dyes.

Riikka Raisanen, professor of craft science and craft pedagogy and head of Colour4Crafts, said that with this multidisciplinary project, history is their starting point. While simultaneously attempting to develop novel, increasingly environmentally friendly techniques for creating colors and utilizing them in ways that do not pollute and use as few resources as possible, we want to discover what they can learn from the past. The phrases “futuring” and “stretching” were also used in the project title since it is necessary to dream while also expanding our perception of the world.

In addition, Raisanen oversaw the BioColour project, which she believes has already had an impact on the availability of bio-based dyes and pigments in the product lines of Finnish textile companies. The project was funded for a six-year period by the Strategic Research Council (at the Academy of Finland).

The science faculty is another participant in the Colour4Crafts project, in addition to a number of other foreign operators and affiliate institutions. Two faculties of the University of Helsinki each received a portion of the €4 million project money totaling €1,675,090. The educational sciences faculty’s portion is €1,160,090, and the science faculty’s share is €515,000.