Regenerative Colour Network Symposium 2027:
Alternative Textile Colour Systems
Date: Wednesday 24 February 2027 at UWE Bristol.
The Regenerative Colour Network Symposium will bring together researchers, designers, growers, makers, manufacturers and industry working across emerging and established approaches to textile colour.
As interest in regenerative colour- including natural, plant-based, algal, microbial and waste-derived dyes and pigments- grows, the questions are increasingly about systems as well as materials: how different colour technologies interact with fibres, manufacturing processes, standards, supply chains, regional resources and routes to scale.
Alternative Colour Systems will create a forum for sharing research, practice and applied examples across these areas, and for examining the opportunities, constraints and connections shaping how regenerative approaches to textile colour might develop.
We invite contributions from across research, industry, production and professional practice, with the aim of bringing scientific, design and technical perspectives into dialogue with land-based, material, craft and industrial knowledge.
Call for Symposium Contributions
We invite contributions exploring alternative approaches to colour in textiles, from emerging materials and technologies to new models for production, manufacture and supply.
We welcome research, practice and industry perspectives relating to:
- Alternative colour, print and design systems for textiles
- Bio-based colour research and innovation
- Advances in natural dyeing and plant-, algae- and microbial-derived colour
- New processes and technologies for textile colouration
- Waste-stream, recovered and recycled colour
- Regenerative and regional business models, supply chains and approaches to scale
- Alternative approaches to textile colour and surface effects beyond dyeing
- Applications, adoption and examples of alternative colour in textile products and manufacture
Ways to contribute:
We are inviting proposals for 15-20 minute presentations and for an exhibition showcase. You are welcome to submit a proposal for a presentation, the showcase, or both.
Presentation proposals:
The submission form will ask for:
- A presentation title
- A 350-word abstract
- A short speaker biography
Alternative Colour in Practice Showcase:
The showcase is an opportunity to share physical examples of work and allow attendees to see and engage with materials, samples, artefacts and processes.
The submission form will ask for:
- A title
- A 200-word proposal describing the materials, samples, artefacts or processes you would like to showcase
- Where possible, please upload or link to relevant images of the materials, samples or artefacts you propose to showcase
Other ways to take part:
The symposium will also include an industry panel, and we are open to other forms of contribution and participation.
If your work feels relevant to the symposium but does not quite fit the presentation or showcase formats, please get in touch to discuss other ways of being involved.
Timeline
| Date | |
| Call opens | Wed 7 Oct 2026 |
| Submission deadline | Fri 6 Nov 2026 |
| Applicants notified | Fri 11 Dec 2026 |
| Registration opens | Date TBC Nov/Dec 2026 |
| Symposium | Wed 24 Feb 2027 |
The Regenerative colour Network and Symposium are funded as part of the AHRC Design Generators Award, Recolouring the System: Design-led interventions for Regenerative Textile Colour. Find out more about the project or to join the Network.
