The chain link

Attending IFAI Expo, as well as serving as a moderator in the Advanced Textiles Program, Cheryl Gomes, project manager for the Core Research Facility at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, is working on a consortium under the label Fibers and Textiles Revolution. The goal is to create a sustainable supply chain in the textile industry for Department of Defense needs. The first wave of members includes about 40 companies, more than 20 universities and about 10 state and local governments.

“We have put in a proposal,” she says. “Funding is supposed to be awarded in December.” The consortium is not the same thing as IFAI’s Military Uniform System Technology database project, she points out. Gomes suggests that anyone interested in the new consortium can send an inquiry to FTR@SCRA.org.