About

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’.

The conference will take place over three half-day sessions and host around 20-25 talks.

KEY THEMES

The following key themes will be explored during the sessions:

• Understanding structure-property-function relations in plant fibre composites: Functions and Functionality; Ageing; Structural property
• Specificities of designing biocomposites for transportation applications:
• End-of-life scenarios of biocomposites: Recycling, Life Cycle Analysis, Biodegradation
• Industrial development of biocomposite products: Technology transfer