CFPR Researcher awarded AHRC Design Generators funding to explore regenerative textile colour
A new research project led by CFPR will investigate how regenerative approaches to colour could work within existing textile manufacturing systems, bringing together researchers, designers and industry.
Dr Laura Morgan, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Print Research, has been awarded funding through the AHRC Design Generators programme for the project Recolouring the System: Design-Led Interventions for Regenerative Textile Colour.
The project is co-led by Juliet Bailey from Bristol-based Dash & Miller and supported by industry and network partners including the Society of Dyers and Colourists, South West England Fibreshed, Bristol Weaving Mill and Stephen Walters & Sons.
Running from September 2026 to August 2027, the project will explore how textile colour systems might operate within ecological limits, and what happens when emerging regenerative colour practices meet existing production infrastructure, supply chains and manufacturing processes.
Textile colour is currently heavily dependent on petrochemical-derived dyes and globally distributed supply chains. Regenerative approaches to colour offer an opportunity to broaden the range of colour sources available to designers and manufacturers, reduce reliance on fossil-derived chemistry, and explore more localised and regionally rooted systems of production.
The project will combine design research, participatory workshops and industrial trials. Working with textile manufacturers and sector partners, it will test how different regenerative colour approaches perform within existing production environments, identify barriers to adoption, and explore what technical, organisational and supply-chain changes may be needed to support wider uptake.
Laura says: “There is a growing interest in alternative colour systems, but these require different ways of thinking about consistency, performance and value. This project is about meeting those materials where they are and establishing where they can meaningfully sit within UK textile production.”
A key part of the project will be the development of the Regenerative Colour Network, a new cross-sector research and practice network connecting people working across colour, materials, design, manufacturing and ecological innovation. The network will create opportunities to exchange knowledge across disciplines and sectors, share emerging research and practice, and develop new collaborations around regenerative approaches to colour.
As part of this, the project will host a Regenerative Colour Symposium in Bristol in February 2027, alongside research workshops and opportunities for designers, researchers, manufacturers, colourant developers and other practitioners to contribute to the programme.
