TCBL Foundation Summary

SUMMARY PURPOSE AND ACTIVITIES The TCBL Foundation is being established with the main purpose of carrying forward the activities (of a non-profit nature) carried out in the H2020 TCBL “Textile and Clothing Business Labs” Project.

This four-year initiative has built a value-based business innovation ecosystem bringing together over 50 Business Labs (exploring new technologies and methods for a sustainable industry) as well as over 200 Associates (businesses directly involved in the textile and clothing sector) involved in over 15 concrete innovation projects.

The main activities of the Foundation are to: • •

• • •

Represent and promote a sustainable transformation of the textile and clothing industry in Europe and beyond.

Manage the accreditation protocol for the TCBL label, which guarantees adherence of TCBL Labs and Associates to seven TCBL principles of: curiosity, viability, durability, multiplicity, openness, respect and responsibility.

Manage the TCBL website, publications and social media, promoting communication and knowledge exchange, including organisation of the yearly #TCBL conference event.

Through a for-profit licensee, manage access to TCBL related web services at favourable conditions.

Collaborate with donors, sponsors and agencies (including the European Commission) to cobrand and manage funding initiatives developing and testing innovative solutions.

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE The Foundation will be constituted under Italian law as a “Fondazione di partecipazione”, a type of Foundation that includes both public and private entities. The Foundation will have its seat at the Municipality of Prato (IT).

The Members of the TCBL Foundation include: • • •

First Founding Members: those creating the Endowment Fund and establishing the Foundation on its constitution.

Founding Members: those contributing to the Endowment Fund and entering the Foundation at a later date.

Participants: those sharing and working towards the Foundation’s aims and contributing to the Foundation’s operations with an annual fee. Participants currently envisaged include: o Labs (as defined in the TCBL project and appearing in the TCBL Directory) o Associates (as above) o Supporters (individual subscriptions)

The governing bodies of the TCBL Foundation include:

•

•

• • •

Steering Committee: including one representative of each First Founding and Founding Member, as well as one representative of each Lab and Associate in an auditor role (nonvoting). The Steering Committee meets at least twice a year to approve strategy and budget proposed by the Board.

Board: seven members, including three elected and two selected by drawing lots from among the representatives of the First Founding and Founding Members plus two (nonvoting) members appointed by majority vote among Participants (Labs and Associates).

President: elected by the Steering Committee, acting as the legal representative and leading the Foundation’s activities with the support of the Board, including a Vice President.

Advisory Board: six members of recognised status with a consultative role, elected by the Steering Committee.

Board of Auditors: three permanent members and two substitutes appointed by the Steering Committee from among the list of registered Legal Auditors in Italy.

All offices last for a period of three years.

THE TCBL LAUNCH COMMITTEE The TCBL Launch Committee manages the activities foreseen for the TCBL Foundation in the interval from the end of the TCBL Project (30 June 2019) until the act of constitution of the Foundation. In addition to carrying out the basic operational activities ensuring continuity of action for TCBL, the Launch Committee is also entrusted with preparing the Statute and the 3-year Business Plan and negotiating them with the authorities responsible for approval and registration, receiving the contributions towards the Endowment Fund, and organising the procedures for the act of constitution.

Those participating in the Launch Committee have expressed interest in becoming First Founding Members and/or contributing to the activities of the Launch Committee towards the successful constitution of the TCBL Foundation. Membership of the Launch Committee is open to all organisations playing the role of Partner or Subcontractor in the TCBL Project, as well as other interested organisations approved by a majority of existing Launch Committee members, until the date of constitution of the Foundation.

FIRST FOUNDING MEMBERS First Founding Members are those organisations who: • •

•

Are members of the TCBL Launch Committee.

Prior to the act of constitution, deposit the non-refundable sum of € 5.000 into the Endowment Fund account set up by the Launch Committee under the aegis of the Court of Milan.

Authorise a representative to be physically present for signature at the act of constitution, either by sending an authorised person or delivering formal proxy.

Benefits of becoming a First Founding Member are as follows: •

•

Ability to participate in the Steering Committee and Board, thus having a direct voice in the governance and strategic direction of the Foundation as well as the Foundation’s communication actions.

Ability to play a direct part in accrediting third parties (Labs and Associates) with the TCBL label.

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• •

Being part of the Foundation’s “inner circle” and thus a privileged “natural candidate” for consortia of new EU funding proposals and/or partnership agreements with donors, sponsors and funding agencies.

Being a leading player in an accessible network giving visibility to expertise, products and services in order to form new collaborations.

Contributing to an environment adding value through knowledge creation on key issues, sharing information and demonstrating best practices through TCBL communications channels and the annual conference.

Founding Members are free to withdraw from the Foundation at any time, although the initial contribution to the Endowment Fund is non-refundable. In the event the Foundation is dissolved, remaining assets will be devolved to other bodies that pursue similar purposes or for purposes of public benefit.

DOCUMENT INFORMATION This document is Annex I to TCBL Deliverable 6.13, “Value Exchange and Governance Framework – Version 4”.

Jesse Marsh, City of Prato; Paolo Bergmann, Studio Bergmann / eZavod; Thanos Contargyris, MIRTEC.

REVISION HISTORY REVISION

V0.1 V0.2

DATE

AUTHOR

04/07/2019 14/07/2019

Jesse Marsh Jesse Marsh

ORGANISATION

DESCRIPTION

City of Prato City of Prato

First draft Final version incorporating comments.

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This deliverable contains original unpublished work except where clearly indicated otherwise.

Acknowledgement of previously published material and of the work of others has been made through appropriate citation, quotation or both.

COPYRIGHT This work is licensed by the TCBL Consortium under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, 2015-2016. For details, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ The TCBL Consortium, consisting of: Municipality of Prato (PRATO) Italy; German Institutes for Textile and Fiber Research - Center for Management Research (DITF) Germany; LINKS Foundation (LINKS) Italy; Skillaware (SKILL) Italy; Oxford Brookes University (OBU) UK; IMEC (IMEC) Belgium; Tavistock Institute (TAVI) UK; Materials Industrial Research & Technology Center S.A. (MIRTEC) Greece; Waag Society (WAAG) Netherlands; Huddersfield & District Textile Training Company Ltd (TCOE) UK; eZavod (eZAVOD) Slovenia; Consorzio Arca (ARCA) Italy; Unioncamere del Veneto (UCV) Italy; Hellenic Clothing Industry Association (HCIA) Greece; Sanjotec - Centro Empresarial e Tecnológico (SANJO) Portugal; Reginnova NE (Reginnova) Romania, Centexbel (CTB) Belgium, Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) France, IAAC (FabTextiles) Spain, Cleviria (Cleviria) Italy, and Sqetch (Sqetch) Netherlands.

DISCLAIMER All information included in this document is subject to change without notice. The Members of the TCBL Consortium make no warranty of any kind with regard to this document, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The Members of the TCBL Consortium shall not be held liable for errors contained herein or direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The TCBL project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme for research, technology development, and innovation under Grant Agreement n. 646133.