The U.S. Congress has announced US$13 million to support the National Textile Center (NTC) last week. The funding is for research designed to make the U.S. textile industry more competitive globally and is included in the Fiscal Year 2006 Science, State, Justice, and Commerce Appropriations Act. This is the highest level of funding the NTC has ever received, and it represents a 30% increase over Fiscal Year 2005.
Senator Richard Shelby noted that Congress considers increased funding for textile research a
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| priority. The NTC is a research consortium of eight U.S. universities and its research programs support the entire fiber-textile sector, from fibers through retailing.
Since its inception in 1990, the NTC has produced more than US$300 million in new economic development, six start-up companies, 11 industry-funded technology transfer programs, and over 70 patents and applications, copyrights and notices of invention. It has completed over 150 research projects, educated more than 1600 students, and generated in excess of 2,000 publications and presentations. 
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