EDANA has announced that the deadline for the call for papers and student grant proposals for the Nonwovens Research Academy (NRA) has been extended to January 20, 2012 to accommodate the holiday period, and allow as many industry experts to submit their papers for consideration for presentation at the conference, and for students to submit their proposals for grant funding.

The Nonwovens Research Academy aims to promote fundamental understanding and knowledge of the science and technology of nonwoven fabrics, its products and processes as well as related disciplines. The Academy will bring together an interdisciplinary group of academics, students, researchers, scientists and engineers to present and disseminate pre-competitive and post-competitive research studies relevant to the nonwoven industry.

The program will feature a mix of technical and market-related papers on nonwovens in all type of applications.

The requirements to submit papers for the conference

Abstracts should focus on academic topics including:

* Sustainability (concepts, measurements, environmental evaluations including LCAs)
* Biomaterials
* Nonwoven & polymer fiber technology developments
* Modeling & testing
* Nanotechnology
* Advances in absorption technologies

Abstracts must be in English and should be a maximum of 250 words. The abstract must include:

* Full paper title
* The name and affiliation of all authors together with their full contact details and email addresses
* The abstract must provide sufficiently detailed information to effectively communicate the significance and technical content of the paper.

In order to ensure the expected standards of the Academy, authors of the selected abstracts will be asked for their full presentation text and full paper by March 16, 2012.

All presentations and papers must cover pre-competitive or post-competitive research work only. No commercial, competitive or marketing presentations are permitted. Presentations are limited to a maximum of 20 minutes in length with an additional 5 minutes allocated for questions from the audience. Submission of abstracts must be sent by the January 20, 2012 to [email protected].

Requirements to submit proposals for the EDANA Grant

Applicants are eligible to apply for the NRA student grant if they are:

* An undergraduate student in at least the second year of study planning to undertake a dissertation in a nonwoven or related field; or
* A postgraduate student planning or undertaking a dissertation or a research degree in nonwovens or a related field.

Students should include the following information in their application and send before the January 20, 2012 to [email protected]:

* Motivation letter
* Recommendation from one of their professors

For more information about the Nonwovens Research Academy 2012, visit the “Events” section of www.edana.org.