Biobased Composites for Mobility and Transportation : Moving towards Sustainability

The European project FLOWER (co-funded by the Interreg France (Channel) England program) commenced in February 2018, with the aim to develop optimised, low-cost flax fiber reinforcements for a more circular composites industry with well-considered end-of-life scenarios for a diverse range of low-, mid- and high-performance applications such as point-of-sale advertising displays, automotive interior components, and elements of hydrofoil sailboats. Previous FLOWER conferences at INRAe, Nantes (April 2019), the University of Portsmouth (April 2020), and the University of South Brittany (April 2021) have served to share progress of the FLOWER project, as well as bring together academics and industry experts across the biocomposites supply chain to discuss scientific and technological developments relating to extending the uptake of biocomposites. The fourth and final FLOWER conference will take place on 15-16 December 2021 at the University of Cambridge. The central focus of this conference will be ‘Biobased Composites for Mobility and Transportation: Moving towards Sustainability’. Some of the key themes to be explored include understanding structure-property-function relations in plant fibre composites, the specificities of designing biocomposites for transportation applications, the end-of-life scenarios of biocomposites, and industrial development of biocomposite products. The conference will take place over four half-day sessions and host around 30 talks. Registration for the conference is free and mandatory, and while the event is open to everyone, due to restrictions in venue capacity, number of attendees will be restricted. The event may become hybrid or full on-line, as the COVID situation develops.