The hiWOOL project – Network for heritage and innovation for the future of WOOL – is an initiative of the “Save the Portuguese Wool” Association, created in 2015 with the aims of promoting the sustainability of the wool cycle and safeguarding of the culture and heritage traditions in Portugal.
Funded by the Bilateral Relations Fund, hiWOOL aims to share knowledge between Portugal and Norway concerning the sustainability of the wool cycle and the exploitation of wool products for small producers of autochthonous sheep breeds, based on the study of similarities and differences between the two countries.
On 12th may, 2021, the project started with the first meeting gathering all partners. In addition to a brief presentation of the activities to be developed, made by the proposing team, a discussion on the parameters that should be selected for the characterization of wool fibers was conducted.
The start of the project was also celebrated with the Shearing Day, at Quinta da Fonte Santa, in Caneças-Portugal, on which 150 sheep of the Bordaleira Serra da Estrela breed, belonging to shepherd Virgílio Ricardo were shorn.
During this initiative, field work will be carried out in both countries, including workshops on the development of wool products and investigation on the wool tradition in museums and archives. The main achievements and results will be presented on the partners' web pages and social networks, during the project timeline, and a final seminar, in November 2022, will be prepared for the dissemination of results.
The hiWOOL project has the collaboration of the Selbu Spinneri AS (Norway) and Multilãs, Unipessoal, Lda (Portugal) companies, the research centers SIFO, OsloMet from the Oslo Metropolitan University and the D_TEX Lab - Textile Development Laboratory of the Architecture school from the Lisbon University and the local support of the Wool Museum in Covilhã and the Folk Museum in Oslo.
Both teams are now analyzing and characterizing the national wools, and results from that work will be shared on the partners web pages and social networks.