University of Helsinki gets EU funding for research on biobased colorants and dyeing

In Finland, the University of Helsinki reported that the Faculty of Educational Sciences has received a significant EU consortium grant under the Horizon Europe framework program for Colour4CRAFTS, a multidisciplinary project that combines the cultural tradition of dyes and textile dyeing with the development of novel dyeing techniques and biobased dyes. “Today’s consumers rarely give any thought to the origin of the colors in the products. Colors are taken for granted. And yet, we know that the production of dyes and pigments as well as dyeing are associated with considerable environmental problems,” said Professor of Craft Science and Craft Pedagogy, Riikka Räisänen. “In this multidisciplinary project, history is our starting point. We want to see what we can learn from the past, while at the same time we aim to innovate new, increasingly green ways of producing dyes and using them in ways that do not pollute and consume resources as little as possible,” Räisänen said. “Our particular focus is on modifying the structures of color compounds used in history and extracted from plant sources and, consequently, their properties by means of synthetic chemistry. In this too, we are exploring the unknown and finding out what chemistry, synthetic chemistry in particular, has to offer in a multidisciplinary environment,” said University lecturer Petri Heinonen.

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