The elderly have specific needs for clothing and other textile products, for personal hygiene or medical reasons. Improvements in these products will significantly increase their quality of life and improve the effectiveness of medical and social care services. The optimum way to achieve significant advances is through a concerted and coordinated effort by innovators, manufacturers and end-users to address the multiple concerns related to product and/or process development, including: translation of often subjective assessments into quantitative measures of quality, availability of new technologies, and the feasibility of incorporating new technologies in the manufacturing chain.The aim of the “TAGS” consortium is to bring together the elderly, social and medical care institutions, research institutions, technology transfer institutions and manufacturers to identify: specific requirements of the elderly and care institutions; latest developments in materials science and technology that will help meet these requirements; and strategies to incorporate developments in the manufacturing chain. The goal is to improve or innovate products and/or processes to meet the specific clothing and textile needs of a growing sector of the European population.